Mental snapshot

One side-effect of constantly being on a hunt for interesting, people-centered, non-tourist photo ops here is that I inevitably am without my camera when I see the best ones. When am I going to learn that yes, I should bring my camera to the grocery store, even if it's just down the street to buy what ended up being SEVEN (small) ARTICHOKES for just over ONE euro! (That's all I'm going to eat from now on--well, in addition to crusty bread, cheese, pastries, and hot chocolate, and gelato. Sure glad I'm still nursing.)

Anyway, when this happens, I try to compose the moment in my head and transform it into a visual memory. And the nice thing is that the end result is, I'm willing to bet, always better than the photo would have been. It looks like I want it to look.

So, imagine this:
A colorful background of green and yellow. A girl of about seven in a black-and-white checkered school uniform, complete with knee socks, is slightly out of focus in the background. She's posed in mid-fidgety dance. In front of her at the checkout stand is her graying father eminating the utmost of seriousness from his severe glasses, shortly cropped hair, and crisp gray and black clothing. He's bent over, concentrating intently on the check he's writing. Meanwhile, the focus is on the large, bright red, yellow, and blue-clad plastic Snow White doll bursting forth from his back pocket.

It was lovely.