Walking along the University Avenue bridge that crosses highway 163 in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood, I passed two remnants of a torn up dollar bill. The shredding surprised because many homeless folks frequent the area and would regard a buck as precious commodity. So what’s the backstory? Did someone panhandle the wrong person, who responded by taking out a dollar and ripping it to pieces? I’ll never know.
I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture the Featured Image, feeling rushed but nevertheless taking too long. The bridge is a busy thoroughfare, and I knelt down blocking the way to get the shot. The camera balked about ambient light, which was odd. But being harried and not thinking clearly enough, I chose the smallest aperture opening as quick remedy. Using exposure compensation would have nicked the problem—or my actually paying attention to the settings. I had moved the shutter speed from auto the night before and neglected to switch back the dial.
Vitals, then, both manually picked: f/16, ISO 200, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 1:40 p.m. PST, Valentine’s Day 2022.
Update, Feb. 22, 2022: My wife made me feel rather stupid, and not intentionally. She likened the scrap to rising inflation and the shrinking value of the dollar. Well, hell, that’s brilliant and would have made a much better topic for this post.