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Sometimes I believe (I can believe things and then dis-believe them, it's easy for me) that I take pictures in order to think about many things in the streets which in the end have nothing to do with the pictures I take. This then allows me to focus my attention on details that other people may not see. It's like (and this is where I start to sound like a strange guy) if "another me" is out there taking pictures while my "conscious me" is busy thinking about more transcendental things...

📷 01-"Decline declaration"

📷 02-"Like a broken Jupiter"

To the effect of most people around me, I am let's say "literally crazy". This is something I fully understand, for it is easy to suppose that in a town like this, where 99% of the people spend their days trying to do what is necessary to keep from starving, getting ahead, having good businesses, taking care of their families, others even focusing on deep practices of rational and correct behaviour to please God, trying to be prominent political and social figures and a "bunch of related and generally logical things", then I am wandering the streets, taking pictures of just about anything... I've been seen talking to dogs, to cats, to windows and even to "cracks in the walls"... So it's to be expected that they think I'm quite mad, I suppose!... Fortunately, most people have known me for a long time and in most cases act in a way that makes me understand that I seem to them to be something of a "nice character"... But this is not always the case... There are some exceptions...

📷 03-"Where dogs scratch"

📷 04-"Hybrid"

📷 05-"Recent past"

A few days ago an old childhood friend of mine saw me wandering along a country road while he was driving his new truck... Then he stopped next to me and I went up to his window thinking he wanted to say hello, and he did, but in a rather particular way. For greeting he just shook his head and said to me: "How the hell is it possible that I, having worked all my life (he is a cattle farmer) never have a minute of free time and instead you spend your mornings wandering around the village taking photos?. For a moment I froze, I expected it to be a joke or something like those "crazy camera" TV shows. But no... He just stared at me with a really frustrated look in his eyes...

📷 06-"The old hot dog kiosk"

📷 07-"Reality"

For a moment I was about to give my friend an explanation. I thought about explaining to him how I got to where I am now, telling him about my years spent in an office, on a plane or in long sterile meetings with executives pretending to change the world in their favour... But something in me simply said "NO", so I proceeded to slowly raise my right arm and make a beautiful and eloquent sign with my raised middle finger towards my friend's face... :)) And that felt really good!... After sending him to hell like that, I went on my way without paying attention to some of the things he was saying while he started off in his car in the direction of the town. Since then I've seen him a couple of times and he just pretends not to notice me. But my "middle finger" is still there ready at all times, to explain again why I am "The crazy guy with the camera in his hand" :))

📷 08-"Confinement issue"

The case that I have told you is an exception and it is something that I perfectly understand happens to me in my town. My reaction to my friend is not something that makes me completely proud. But I tend to grant myself certain "existential licenses" because my way of being is something that I consider "my territory" and I try to do it without affecting the people around me. So when I perceive some invasion against me, then it is relatively logical (it seems to me) that I react in a let's say "picturesque" way... :))

Well, now that I have finished my text today (you know that I really like to write thousands of strange things along with my photos shared with you in #Hive) I invite you to see the black and white versions of these photos... That's it something that cannot be missed!...

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Black & white versions

^{(Please "CLICK" on the photo to enlarge)}

📷 01	📷 02

📷 03	📷 04

📷 05	📷 06
	2

📷 07	📷 08

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ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL NOTE: Photographs captured with my Nikon D7000 DSLR camera in RAW format, then processed in Adobe Camera RAW for adjustments regarding light, sharpening, contrast and depth... The shots are then exported to JGP format on which minor modifications such as straightening and adding watermarks were carried out using PhotoScape 3.6.3.

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Thank you very much for your visit and appreciation!

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Montalbán, Carabobo, Venezuela.