Homeless in Vancouver: A (parking) lot of conflict for a dull photo

Winding my way westward from the bottle depot at Ontario Street, I stopped in a parking lot that I use as a shortcut between a street and an alley.

I got it into my head to try and catch the multitude of specular highlights the setting sun was bouncing off the parked cars.

I was aiming the camera at the cars like you’d aim a rock you wanted to skip across the surface of a lake.

I got one shot off before I heard: “What the @%#☄ are you doing?”

The interrogative was much louder than that and came from behind me; a gentleman was inquiring about my occupation.

I answered with a question of my own: what did he think it looked like I was doing?

Then I showed him by a sweep of my hand what I was photographing, and I urged him to come see for himself.

“What? The sun on the cars? Doesn’t look that interesting!”

He’d obviously never seen my blog—I offered to write down the URL for him, but he wasn’t interested.

Turned out he was interested in car thieves.

He took a good look at my bike and trailer and then at me and declared he didn’t want people casing the cars in his parking lot.

I explained that I thought his head was in a difficult position to allow him to see things clearly. And then I reminded him of his right and obligation as a citizen to call the police if he suspected criminality.

Then we critiqued each others’ attitude.

He got into his car. I took two more photos and got on my bike.

We were both exiting the parking lot via the alley but I was in the lead.

I slowed down to make extra sure I didn’t rush into the lane and into the path of a delivery truck, then I made room to let him by. We waved goodbye at each other.

Photos taken in anger are rarely much good.