John

The Teddy Boy

One Street: Market Square, Shipley #28

Before anything else, I need to offer a huge thank you to everyone who responded to the questionnaire on yesterday's blip. I was overwhelmed not just by how game so many of you were, but also to see how many similarly introverted friends I have here. It may not have been very scientific but I think we can safely conclude that blipping attracts the heavily introverted personality. The funniest thing was to see the few more extrovert types almost apologising for scoring low! In a society where extroversion is increasingly seen to be the ideal to we should aspire, where introverted children are often seen as abnormal and in need of a cure, this result has been very refreshing. Let the quiet revolution begin, as was so well said yesterday by my kindred spirit who is covered in bees!

I was planning on discussing these results a bit further but just before I left to cycle home I saw a fresh and stimulating blip from Kendall, and her questions accompanied me on the bike. I've had some thoughts around those but that discussion is also best left for another day. What's in my head now is the notion that I've just cycled 12 miles in the rain and dark, along twisty, narrow, unlit country lanes and moorland roads and I scarcely have any memory of the journey at all - at least until I passed the Cow and Calf Hotel and started plummeting into Ilkley at 40 mph! At that point I had to switch my head back on. At night you get locked into the beam of your light, the world narrows to a dimension that can be handled on auto-pilot and the mind is free to explore the world of ideas. I love being in that zone.

I'd taken a few shots around Market Square at lunchtime and thought I had something which told a decent story, was just heading away to get my sandwich (and what a sandwich it proved to be - yet another subject to which I need to return!) when I caught sight of this guy with the wonderful quiff. Walking away, thinking that it would be really cool to photograph him, I was stopped in my tracks by the need to just go do it. I'm introverted, not shy! So I crossed back over the road and asked if I could take his picture. It was so easy and he was so cool. His name was John. I love this photograph. I'm definitely starting out on some kind of journey here.

I guess I'm relating this in order to try to inspire other people out there, those introverts who might think taking pictures of random strangers on the street is an extrovert activity. It isn't at all. Go for it. If I can do this then anybody can.