It is festival season in our town and the weather has been perfect for getting out to some of those.  We enjoy browsing rows of beautiful artwork while eating something totally indulgent,  like funnel cake.  Festivals also present a lot of opportunities for taking photographs of people.  Street photography is an art form that I know little about, but I do recognize a good opportunity when I see one, so I couldn’t resist asking the young woman below to allow a photo.

What caught my eye was of course, the bright colors.  I loved that her hair, makeup and clothing match the colors of the umbrella.  Framing the photo in a way that both she and the umbrella compel equal attention combines two focal points that tell a happy story.

Photographs, at least thoughtful ones, should tell a story.   I have to admit that both Malcolm and I are fairly single-minded when it comes to our favorite theme.  We take pictures of what makes us smile.  Likely,  it will create that reaction within a few others as well, which makes the effort to get a good photo even more worthwhile.  We take a lot of bad photos, in an effort to get “the one,” but we share only our best shots on this blog and Instagram account.  The immediate gratification of a good image is addictive and social media promotes an  on-going satisfaction through the clicks, likes and comments that follow a post. Why post a so-so image that doesn’t say anything?

The photographs we share on our Instagram page at picture_retirement tell a story also. Each photo represents a special moment or event, but the collective gallery tells the story of this stage of our lives.  Grouping the photos by theme and color keeps the story short, to the point and easy on the eye.  If I were to classify our retirement story as a genre, I’d have to go with “beach read” at this point in time.  Nice story, predictable plot…Enjoy life.