Are You Engaged?

I'm not sure what it is, but the last two times I've been out shooting, I've had people come up to me and want to talk. Now, I'm not opposed to that - not exactly used to it in Geneva (though there were a lot of people who wanted to know more about what I was doing in Stockholm), but it's kind of fun.

I'm starting to think that it could be a good way to make new friends, should I ever find myself in short supply. There have been a couple of guys who have come up, despite my headphones being in and game face on, and talked for a while and then offered to get me a drink at a cafe if I was up for it. In both cases I wasn't - I had some specific shooting I wanted to do with limited time - but it was pretty friendly, I thought.

Now before someone makes a reference to my fellow concert-goers for the Kylie show, let me just say that I'm pretty sure these guys were not Kylie fans. They were in different cities, but both said more or less the same thing - that they really liked meeting new people from different places, and made a habit of just going out to see who they could find, having a drink with them, and just making new friends.

It occurred to me that it's not that different from what I do with my pictures, in some ways. And there are probably some people (like me) who wouldn't feel strange about taking pictures of total strangers, but would be a bit freaked out by just going and starting conversations with random interesting-looking people in the street. There are others who would probably feel the opposite.

Curious.

Anyways, I guess I'm happy to be counted among those who look interesting enough for people to stop and talk to in a language that's not their own. I always feel like I should give them candy or something after, but I'm not sure that's a healthy instinct.

Anyways, what I was shooting for in Geneva (and where I got the title for this post... for those following along at home, I am not, in fact, that kind of engaged) is a local community outreach program called engaGE (since, "GE" is the abbreviation for the canton of Geneva). It encourages people to get involved in helping the homeless, the lonely, and others who need a hand in their city. You can keep an eye on their site, and eventually you may see a few of my shots popping up.