Return to the produce aisle

It's been quite some time since I ventured into the supermarket, camera in hand, and grabbed some surreptitious shots of whatever was on the shelves.

Why I do this is simple: it's different. I learned from a young age that watching people as they go about their daily business can be a fascinating pursuit. My mother called it "people watching" and she introduced it to me while we would sit on a shopping mall bench waiting for my father to pick us up.

Over time, I noticed that most folks fall into fairly set patterns of behavior. People don't talk to each other. Their eyes are fixed forward, their smiles replaced by expressionless faces. They don't seem to enjoy - much less notice - what's going on around them.

So I figured carrying a camera into the produce aisle - or wherever else in this fluorescent-bathed pantheon of commercial activity - would shake people up a bit and force them to look at their own world a little differently. If I got some good pictures in the process, so much the better.

So I present the loveliest bunch of radishes I've seen in months. And I hope you find the time to do the same in a store near you. Your fellow shoppers might thank you.

One more thing: Click here to jump to another radish-themed post, published February 2007.