17/365: At the flea market

17/365: At the flea market, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 17th

My German friend asked me to come to the flea market with him to help him haggle (though I am not very good at it, knowing the language is a huge advantage). I brought my camera, but this was the only shot I took. It was so awfully cold that even the sellers packed up after a couple of hours and went home. A good ten hours later I still feel a chill in my bones.

The flea market is actually a used car market, but business follows buyers. Clever salesmen figured out that driving out every Sunday to where the people gather is probably more profitable than paying for the overhead of a salon no one has time to visit. So they set up right next to the pack rats and drunks- you can buy someone's old wicker chair or broken lamp for pennies, or order a brand new kitchen remodel straight from a company truck.

Last time we went there, my flatmate bought something very strange indeed.

I generally try to get a shot right straight out of the camera but this one was underexposed, so I brightened it a bit in Bridge. I'm trying to overcome my dislike for cleaning up shots in the computer without giving up the desire to learn how to get a good picture right in the field. Shooting in RAW is the first step. I'm happy that even with freezing fingers I got the composition exactly how I wanted it, even if the exposure wasn't good.