Hellfish

So I went out this afternoon with my camera, hoping to notice something peculiar or magical on the street for the noticing game.  A quirky sight or two caught my attention, but, in each case, either it wasn't interesting enough or I found myself too embarrassed to get my camera out.  Then it got dark, so I gave up, and just plodded off towards City Uni for my evening class.

And then ... I saw this:

I leaned over a railing and there it was, propped outside someone's front door as if waiting for garbage day.  There was a brick post to my right, so I couldn't get further over to get the whole word in the picture, even if I'd wanted to. And I wonder - these creatures must be what before consumption?  Cleaned?  Killed?  Registered?  Reported to the police? Sauteed in garlic?

What an exciting start. I'm addicted!

The Game of Noticings

A wonderful idea!  It's called "The Game of Noticings". 

In the Game of Noticings, you walk around places, you notice things, you take photos of them, and you upload them on to flickr.  It's a game, so it's competitive, but in a strange and random way.  You get points for noticing something in a place where no one has noticed anything before, noticing something in a place near where someone else has noticed something, noticing something red, or noticing things every day for a week.

In essence, it's a fancy name for taking photos of quirky things and uploading them.  But what makes it brilliant is the name, which acts as a reminder of what photography is really all about.  Writing, too, is about being struck by things instead of glossing over them.  Someone once called the New York journalist and short story writer Joseph Mitchell a "virtuoso noticer" of everyday life, and that sums it up.

As it happens, I'm famous in some quarters for failing to be struck by anything at all.  I didn't notice for months on end that my house was covered in scaffolding.  You even had to bend your head to get in through the door, but it didn't register with me.  But never mind that. I still believe in noticing as an ideal .. perhaps all the more so because I forget to do it.

So - I'm off to flickr to register myself (and my trusty little camera) as a competitive noticer. Let's see how I do..