Joanne

I'm afraid I was totally oblivious to the 'Scotland The World Over' event in the town centre today. Instead, my wife gave me the choice of swimming with the kids, or a walk along the Water of Leith. I was never that keen on the former and in this day and age photographic opportunities at a public pool are, to a first order approximation, zero. So I chose a nice walk instead.

As well as the occassional use of my legs, I also had fun taking some plant pictures along the way. We then stopped at a coffee shop before turning back. I saw this lady having quite an involved conversation with her friend, and when I approached to take her portrait I asked her to reproduce one of the poses she had used. I told her I liked the way she was holding her head so close to the distinctive marble wall. Fortunately she seemed to know what I was talking about.

An interesting aside. The manager of the coffee shop accosted me afterwards and questioned my photography. I told her about my interest in consensual street portraits, and she was fine with that. Instead, her concern was that I didn't include any recognisable logos that indicated the identity of the establishment. I guess she would have objected if I had photographed someone crying into his coffee directly above one of their logos... But since I'm not terribly interested in photographing their logos/trademarks either, there was no danger of treading on each other's toes and hence the conversation was always cordial.