Pardon the Pun

I momentarily debated whether to post this image I took today in Cannobio on Italy’s Lago Maggiore. But Street Photography may be controversial, as is the life it depicts. And it may be funny, as is the life it depicts. It invites the photographer to roam the streets and watch life as it happens, to find an interesting scene, a story happening on the stage that is our world. Were all the humans are merely players.

Walking on the lake shore of Lago Maggiore and looking up to the street one level higher, I noticed a lady standing by a railing across a shop that has its owners name “Poretti” printed on the sunshade on the store front. And how it goes, she covered parts of the name. To the left, there was the letters “Po” visible. And there was the photographic pun. “Po” means in German the same as “butt” means in English. And I thought this was too funny not to capture it. So I moved in a way I captured the letters PO together with the dictionary-like visual explanation. It’s a pun that obviously works only in German.

But the real fun started when I downloaded the image into Lightroom for monochrome conversion. I noticed the last letter “I” was also visible just to the right. And this made the pun work also in English….”POI”…get it? Now as this might be even more controversial, I will not spell it out 😉 But I will say a deeply felt “pardon the pun”…

Image taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1X and the mZuiko 12-100mm f/4 zoom. Image specs 1/400 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO at 100mm focal length (equals 200mm in full frame equivalent)

If you want to get more into the fascinating world of street photography, head over to my free Learning Center for many tips and inspirations.

Have a splendid Sunday.

Marcus

Related Posts:

Street Photography Quick Tip 1 – A way to shoot inconspicuously

Street Photography Quick Tip 14 – Shoot upwards and tilted for more dynamic street portraits

Instant Inspiration (4) – Juxtaposition

Instant Inspiration (12) – Playfulness