Not everyone loves to see a roaming photographer heading their way, but some people actually do. In fact, I’ve had a few people make the effort to call me over to take their picture. One was an older Eastern European couple, and another was a young family (actually the father) from somewhere I couldn’t quite determine, who wanted me to take a few pictures of his two young kids, whom he encouraged to get up off the bench and perform for me. In both those cases, I politely accepted their invitation, and they were incredibly grateful, thanking me over and over. I wondered, what do these nice people think I’m going to do with their images? Why would they want a complete stranger to have photographs of them or their kids? – and then be so grateful when it happens!  It’s not as if I’m going to send them a print or file, or that I told them to look for the picture in tomorrow’s newspaper. Then, there was the woman who waved me down, even though I had noise cancelling headphones on and was trying not to make eye contact. I was pretty sure she was going to give me an earful about taking pictures of people without their permission or even knowledge, but instead she was eager to ask about my photography interests and to share her own. She was from Jamaica and told me her uncle photographed Bob Marley for one of his album covers; she felt she had the makings of a serious photographer in her blood. She shared this idea she had of documenting various everyday people - street workers, cops, store owners - on their lunch break, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. I hope she does it.