“The Hamburglar”

I made this image a few weeks back on the Venice beach boardwalk.  Anna Maria and I were walking with the dogs, so I had a leash in one hand and my Mamiya 6MF in the other.  The end game was to make it to the skate park, shoot until sunset and then walk back to the car in Santa Monica at magic hour.  There’s always pictures in Venice, but so often to me they feel forced and obvious.  People getting high and heading to the drum circle.  Tourists taking in the freak show, which I realized is actually gone now (so no more pictures of the bearded lady and the completely tattooed freaky clown guy).  Just as I moping a bit because there was nothing on the boardwalk that felt good, the hamburger guy stepped right in front of me with his sign, like a lightning bolt from the heavens.  I stopped dead in my tracks, put the camera to my face and click.  

But nothing happened.  At some point a few months back the Mamiya started becoming all kind of persnickity about the frame advance, and more often than not I don’t advance the whole way.  Full disclosure, I think it happened when I dropped it getting out of the car.  So down comes the camera, and as I go to advance with camera in both hands, Avril (our half rabbit hal sheep half dog thing) sees a skater and jerks on the leash.  Well I almost drop the camera but as it’s flying out of my hands my thumb manages to catch AND cock the frame advance the rest of the way while I somehow manage to wrap my other fingers around the grip and hold tight. 

Again the camera goes to my eye and this image was the result.  Everything happened in 5 seconds maybe, but it felt like an eternity and the Hamburglar almost got away.  Shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed a stop on a (slightly damaged) Mamiya 6MF at 50mm.