my mom has told me to stop taking pictures of the neighbor's, to put it ever so mildly, 'antics.'
no, i don't set foot on the neighbor's property to take pictures. i take pics of things within our property and in public spaces i have no choice but to pass whenever i leave the house. (our houses are in a dead-end, one-lane street with a narrower dead-end alley perpendicular to the end of the street.)
surely, it is not as if i started taking pictures because of the neighbor. i have been taking pictures for 38 years now. for almost three fourths of my life i've been clicking away at anything and everything and anyone and everyone. (i do ask permission for close shots of strangers not in a public gathering.)
i started when the medium was still film. i switched to digital in 2003. no, i don't have formal photography training. the only photography lessons i had was in second year high school when we had a photography elective. all i remember of that time was that we took silhouettes and head shots and developed the film ourselves. i take more of snapshots really. nothing magazine-worthy.
i have maybe two terabytes of pictures now.
the neighbor's comprise not even 1%.
- cotton buds, caps and tissues on our roof
- dog lying in front of our gate (we have recessed gates so the dog is actually within our property.)
- litter in our alley
- pile of garbage occupying three-fourths of the width of our alley
- gate wide open, morning, noon and nighttime, blocking 40 inches of the 70-inch wide alley
- trash and leftovers in our drainage
- vehicles blocking our garage
- garbage piled in a public spot right under a sign that says, "PLS. DO NOT THROW YOUR GARBAGE HERE."
- vehicle parked in a public spot in front of our garage right beside a sign on the gate that says, "PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK THE DRIVEWAY."
- vehicle parked right on top of garbage
it would actually be surprising if i didn't have a picture of these things. we've been putting up with them for years. others have screamed at the neighbor. still others just quietly suffer them. me, i take pics and blog. (i have been blogging for ten years now. and no, i also did not start blogging because of the neighbor.)
percentage-wise, i have not really posted about the neighbor that much. i post about them only whenever i get fed up. in which case i'd blog or upload one pic or several from different times. it's not as if i take a shot now then upload right away.
talking about pictures in general, to me the posting is optional. i don't feel a need to post but i do feel an urge to take a shot.
i'm sorry but i won't be indulging my mom on her request. i like to say, 'trace to source.' there won't be these pictures to take if they did not exist in the first place. why restrict on my end? i don't even post all of them. i just have them on file. and i'm not occupying, blocking nor defiling anything.
remember the mountaineer's creed? take nothing but pictures...
you have control only over your own actions. the other person's reaction is up to them.
that is how they act. this is how i react.
you don't want to be punched, don't mess with a boxer.
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