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Feeding the dog


Image by Ed Yourdon
I took this photo on Broadway and 89th Street, where this elderly woman was sitting on one of the "Broadway Malls" benches between the uptown and downtown sides of Broadway.

The basic scene doesn’t require any explanation, though I was happy to see that the dog was providing such pleasure to an elderly woman. But what struck me most was her clothing: perhaps her scarf was mundane, and maybe her shoes, too, but look at the rest of her attire: her dark-blue pants-suit was clean and pressed, and I doubt that even Hillary Clinton would have looked so good in such an outfit.

Notice also the small portion of a cane on the lower-left portion of the picture. I didn’t hang around long enough to tell, but it looks to me like the cane of a blind person. I could be wrong, of course, but I wonder if part of this dog’s job was to help guide woman to and from her home, here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan…

Note: this photo was published in a Dec 16, 2008 blog entitled "Give A Lending Hand & Help The Seniors Feed Their Pets.." It was also published in an Aug 25, 2009 blog titled "Increased Marketability through Caring for Pets." And it was published in a Dec 14, 2009 blog titled "Pet food drive for the holidays." dogactually.nifty.com/blog/2010/07/post-8f8d.html

Moving into 2010, the photo was published in the website of an organization called The Kitchen and Bath People. And it was published in an Apr 23, 2010 blog titled "Grantee Story: Keeping Fido and Grandma Together." It was also published in a Jul 3, 2010 blog titled "???????????? ???????????? (2)l."

Moving into 2011, the photo was published in an undated (late Nov 2011) Squidoo blog titled "Old Age Problems."

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in a Feb 18, 2012 blog titled "Animal Therapy." And it was published in a Mar 3, 2012 blog titled "Tips and hints on Discovering an Apartment and Relocating," as well as a Mar 3, 2012 blog titled "Guide to Getting Anti-Aging Cream." And it was published in a Mar 20, 2012 blog titled "Lecture on pet therapy in elderly care, as well as a Mar 23, 2012 blog titled "L’ospedalizzazione degli anziani e le funzioni cognitive," and a May 21, 2012 blog titled "Urban Design for the Elderly." It was also published in a Jun 12, 2012 blog titled "iTherapy Pets in Nursing Homes – A Growing Trend?." And it was published in a Jul 21, 2012 blog titled "Anti-Aging Cream." It was also published in an undated (early Dec 2012) Squidoo blog titled "Old Age Problems." And it was published in a Dec 31, 2012 blog titled " ?????????????????????????."

Moving into 2013, the photo was published in an undated (early Mar 2013) Squidoo blog titled "Old Age Problems."

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This is part of an evolving photo-project, which will probably continue throughout the summer of 2008, and perhaps beyond: a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan — between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.

I don’t like to intrude on people’s privacy, so I normally use a telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they’re still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what’s right in front of me.

I’ve also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting — literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I’ve learned to keep the camera switched on (which contradicts my traditional urge to conserve battery power), and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture … after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it’s pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject.

For the most part, I’ve deliberately avoided photographing bums, drunks, drunks, and crazy people. There are a few of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don’t want to be photographed, and I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of them. I’m still looking for opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. We’ll see how it goes …

The only other thing I’ve noticed, thus far, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, *far* more people who are *not* so interesting. They’re probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I’ve photographed … but there was just nothing memorable about them.

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