Shudder Bug

I have never fancied myself a photographer. A writer, sure, but a mediocre one at best.

And my approach to photography has long been one that would make the professionals shudder:

I believe in quantity in the hopes of a mere sliver of quality.

That is to say: I take a camera with me just about wherever I go, and take pictures (sometimes several) of things that strike me as... odd. Or beautiful. Or even better yet: anything that qualifies as both.

From neon signs


(Some with bulbs out, leaving an unintended message in its wake)



And ironic church marquees


To shots full of empty things...



(The meaning derived from what's missing.)


...and city streets in medias res.


But this is all out of habit — and perhaps a hobby — but I've never intended for it to go anywhere.

Even as I searched for my name on the scroll — that list of photographers selected for an exhibit at a local gallery — I had no expectation of finding my name among the rest.

And yet, still,

There it was.

Dangling at the bottom (an alphabetical consequence) as though the faintest breathe might forever shake it from the page.