The picture I could not take…

… is by definition not this featured image.

Most markets and fruit and vegetable stalls here in Baku have now the modern scales, that tell you digitally with the precision of one gram, how much tomatoes or grapes you will buy. And they spit out also the price you have to pay. Occasionally you can still see the good old pair of balances with their family of different weights. They have so much more soul – it is probably my physicist’s mind that admires them.

I was on my way in fall, foliage already falling down and adorning not only the pavement, but also this scale. Look at the ornamental detail of the little dragon heads that tell the balance. What does this love for detail say about life at the time they were manufactured? It was not only about purpose, it was also about decor, making bleak life a little bit more beautiful. How old is this tool now and yet it catches the mind and touches the heart for a few moments.

I hope you enjoy all the different views.

Let me come back to the title of the post. You may see that I took various perspectives, focal lengths and immersed in the object of interest. This is the joy of an SLR – as photographer we can get lost in the moment with our object. So, when I “woke up” from my excursion into old times, I saw a few older and younger men standing around, wondering what I am doing. While I had immersed myself in my object of the balances, I myself became an object of curiosity. I was in a neighborhood, where normally not many foreigners walk around. I guess I confirmed that we are foreign – strange indeed – people.

My “maraqlıdır” – it is interesting – explained my behavior and pleased the by-standers.

A golden smile at a golden October day.