Spare change

[Michaelaw]

Today was the most discouraging day I've ever had as a photographer. spent all afternoon shooting, some in the rain and this was as close as I got to a good shot. Even then I messed up the focus and cut off the feet. I thought I'd go out and shoot only at f8. Trying to get some candid street shots...Well not at 300mm on a cloudy day you don't





Shame of it was I had a real good study going with this guy. I knew him years ago in the early eighties and have watched him over the years turn into this. But you see, this is a total scam, an act. He spent a lot of this begging time putting weight on the wrong foot...The one in the cast. He made almost twenty dollars that I counted in the space of an hour and that was just the bills I managed to see through the telephoto. When he left, I followed him. I had a really hard time keeping up. About three blocks away from his office (the place he was panhandling) he started to carry the crutch, a short time later he was jumping in and out of dumpsters. About six blocks from his office he went into a seedy east side bar, maybe to spend his loot who knows? I left him there and went off to shoot more fuzzy photos. The last time I saw him before this was about nine years ago when he opened the door for a group I was with as we entered a downtown club. As he opened the door he held out a plastic coffee cup for change. Looking back to the eighties, I'm not too surprised at his lot in life today.


Mom sends junior back with a fiver




Umm Dude...That's the wrong foot!




Hot to trot





A speedy recovery





Still one has to applaud him for the act