One of my guilty pleasures is people watching and taking photos of other people in public spaces. I call them “Innocent Bystanders.” I’ve been at it a long time but since Covid that hasn’t happened too much since I am doing my best to stay from people. I don’t take photos of my people that might embarrass them or show them in a unflattering light. I put a lot of them on instagram and more than once I get a comment like, “Hey that’s my girlfriend!” And I respond with something like “Well you are a lucky dude is what I think.”
The photo above is from the late 1980’s when Heather and I went on a cruise. They had a midnight buffet one night with all these ice sculptures. Heather had me take photos of all the sculptures but truth be told I don’t care about sculptures. I loved the people watching. This couple were kind of like the rest of us, all dressed up and don’t know what to do next.
The photo was taken in dim light with a film camera so it is quite grainy.
I have no idea what happened to the couple. The ship were on was Royal Caribbean’s “Song of America.” It has been sold and renamed several times and served various duties including a stint as a hotel ship during the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia. It is now known as the MS Celestyal Olympia owned by Louis Cruise Lines. It has been inactive the past year due to the pandemic.
I’ve been a people watcher for about 45 years but never took any photos 🙁
My 11 yr. old son went on a cruise with his family 3 years ago and that started his obsession with the Royal Caribbean cruise ships. He know when each ship was built, the date it first day it set sail, when they were taken out of service and everything else about them. He’s a walking Royal Caribbean cruise Ship encyclopedia! He wants to be a cruise ship captain when he grows up.
I’m not a fan of cruising. When they had the formal night, we went to a different restaurant on the ship. I dislike dress shoes and pantyhose!
Unfortunately all the restaurants had food brought up from the same kitchen so there was no variety to be found.
I have only been on a cruise once. It was not a big ship but it was fun and memorable. I too love to watch people but I am careful that I do not stare or make the people feel uncomfortable. Enjoy your weekend.
A great people photo from your cruise. I also enjoy people watching but haven’t done that in a long time as like you I avoid them as much as I can. Keep happy and healthy.
Wow … this ship has quite a history. Faces are so intriguing and expressions even more so. For privacy reasons, I tend to take the back of heads much as I would like to do otherwise. However, the couple you photographed are particular interesting. I wonder what they were thinking at that moment in time. It would be fascinating to follow their lives whether together or apart. They could have great stories to tell. Haha .. perhaps even more interesting than the book (above) that you reviewed. 🙂
I do love to people watch but avoid taking people pictures. Candid is best.
We call them people watchers here and I guess I do it too, today we were out and I took photos of people in different ways of life, interesting sometimes…