This is in response to Rochelle’s Weekly Photo Prompt for Friday Fictioneers.
Word Count : 100
Digha was not rough. Nor peaceful.
My first sea side getaway. Fascinating!!
I kept clicking with my Hot Shot Beginner’s Camera.
The zeal rubbed on my uncle. He said,
“I will click now. Sit straight and smile”
Confident.
He backed a little, came forward, gestured for me to move sideways then backed again. This went on till he was completely satisfied.
Finally… Click!!
When the prints came…
… a photo in blue – the vast sea and the sky…. in one tiny corner a hazy outline of a human head !!
That was me…
Ishh!!
92 Words
***
You can read the other stories here.
Dear Geeta,
You made me laugh. Brings back memories of having to wait for film to be developed to see our photos that were often disappointing. Good one.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you very much Rochelle for that beautiful laughter and the serene prompt.
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This made me laugh! It also reminds me of the photos my late father would take. He didn’t want people to pose, he wanted to capture them off guard and they never turned out well. 🙂
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Even I am not a very good photographer but I am not that bad either.
I used to have great fun with my paternal uncle who was also my guardian after my father’s.
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So funny. Nostalgic. I had same thoughts as Rochelle.
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Hmm….those were the days. I still have those cameras.
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Oh, this is perfect. The slow-motion comedy of your uncle backing up, gesturing, repositioning, stepping back again, and AGAIN, all in service of capturing you against the vastness of Digha, is captured with such precise humor. The fact that he’s “completely satisfied” with his composition, only for the prints to reveal a “hazy outline of a human head” in one tiny corner is the exact punchline reality serves when we take ourselves seriously about photography.
There’s something so affectionate about this. He wasn’t trying to get it wrong. He was *trying*. And your “Ishh!!” at the end, that perfect exasperated sound, says everything about discovering that all that choreography resulted in you becoming an accidental dot in your own memory. This is exactly what Friday Fictioneers should be: specific, funny, deeply human, and wrapped up in 92 words without wasting a single one.
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Khadija,
I am glad you could visualise the scene because then the fiasco of the photographer hits you greater.
I am glad you enjoyed the post because this is one of my fondest memories of my uncle who was a father figure in my life.
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This is a beautiful, Geeta. Thank you for trusting us with that layer.
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Such a funny and memorable first seaside photo! 😄 I can imagine your uncle’s serious efforts—and then that tiny hazy head in the corner! 😂
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😂😂😂😂
Had a good laugh looking at that photo while uncle gave a sheepish grin.
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I thought maybe there was a fall into the water.
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That would have been disastrous because I don’t know how to swim.
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Aww… this made me smile! 🤭 Sometimes the funniest pictures hold the most beautiful memories. ❤️Aap Kolkata Wasi ho?
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Nahin Rajeshwari I am not in Kolkata. Thank you 🙏 for the nice comment 😊
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Fun flash fiction 😊
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I think he did on purpose 😂
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He was a beginner like me. 😊
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😛
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Oh dear!
All that expectation and framing for nothing.
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I laughed as I read this. Uncle was a bit of a rump and not a very good photographer. He should have let her enjoy her freedom!
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They were geniuses in their own way in bumbling 😂
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🙂
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hahaha! Not all have the photographer’s eye…
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Exactly Dale but the enthue is infectious
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That it is
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so funny Geeta loved it 😄
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Thank you Ange 🙂
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थोड़ा right थोड़ा left, गर्दन सीधे,मेरी तरफ देखो,आँखें खुली रखो,perfect,ready,
smile और फिर कई दिनों के इंतजार के बाद फोटोग्राफ में “a hazy outline of a human head”
इस सब को 92 शब्दों की एक मजेदार कहानी का रूप देना गीता दी का हुनर हे.
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😆😆😆😆
धन्यवाद नुसरत ।
वो थोड़ा दायें थोड़ा बाएं वाले दिन अब न रहे ।
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Hahaha. Back in the day when we used film, my little mother loved taking photos. When the photos were processed. No one had heads. She shot everyone’s belly.
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Haa Haa Haa…. I guess every family had a photographer like my uncle 😀😀
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We all used to blame the camera in those days.
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Yes ..yes….I remember we used to do that 😂
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Aha, such a good one… well, almost good.
Those old cameras, (smiling). I remember what happened with those!
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Thank you very much Chris. Those old cameras held such beautiful memories.
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This made me laugh. I’ve taken a photo like that a time or two. 🙂
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Thank you so much 🙏 Brenda
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Thank you very much 🙏 Brenda
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This is so relatable and reminded me of my mother trying to take decent photos, and failing miserably.
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Oh no! I was expecting him to fall over the edge. Nice job of not taking the easy route. That sounds like me. I try to line up pictures, but they scarcely come out right. At least, I can delete them, and no one has to know.
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That was not so in earlier times. If you did not click well the reel was wasted…and you came to know only after development…all the expenses!! Smile ☺️
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Oh those analog cameras where there was no way of knowing how the photo will turn out to be until the studio gives it you in those envelopes. But that excitement and thrill remains unmatched. 🙂
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Those cameras now make us realise how comfortable we are with photography
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