dream

This is a dream I had the night before last.

I was in a city with a male friend. I have no idea who he was, I only knew he was a friend. It was day time and the city was busy and colourful - shop signs, lights, people and traffic. If it resembled anything it was a bit like the centre of Liverpool, with bits from photos I've seen on Shanghai thrown in. I had my digital camera with me because I wanted to take photographs, but also a small collapsible pocket telescope. It was a bit of an antique, made from wood and brass, but in good condition and with perfect optics, though it's magnification was probably about 8x at most.

Unusually for me the photos were going to be centred on human activity. Across the road from the corner my friend and I were stood on were a young man and woman stood in a doorway talking. They were animated and there was a bag or package on the ground between them. The road was more or less T shaped, we were stood on the left of the downstroke where it joins the crosspiece looking at the couple on the far side of the crosspiece, if that makes things any clearer. Somehow I knew that they were being more intimate than they should, and seemed to know them. I looked at them through the telescope, which I was using to scout for potential shots.

An interesting aspect of the city and everything I could see was the clarity. Everything was really sharp, and it reminded me of film I've seen of certain clear waters, where you can't even see the water. I mentioned this to my friend, it was worth commenting on because it was a quality of light I wanted to capture in the photos.

The couple across the road were a great composition so I put the telescope away and got my camera ready. But once I had in my viewfinder exactly what I'd seen through the telescope and tried to take a picture the camera wouldn't work. I tried a couple more times until my friend pointed out that it was getting toward evening and the light wasn't so good anymore. He was right. I had to abandon the photo because even if I adjusted the camera settings the quality of light would be lost.

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