The Perils of Blogging (2)

On the morning of 3 Feb 06 which was the very next day, I was back at Mohamad Ali Lane again. I remembered that there was this barber who operated in the backlane there. In my haste to get away from that mad man, I had forgotten to snap a photo of this vanishing scene. This barber could have been the same one who shaved Chris' hair when he was a kid. How could I pass up a precious opportunity to capture the memory for Chris? I love challenges, especially in difficult circumstances.

After thinking hard for a solution to the problem for one whole day, I was also back again to try out my new stealth technique of photo-taking. I had set the camera's flash and electronic shutter sound off. I had brought along a mini tripod and was ready to use full telephoto zoom if necessary, i.e. 2.8 x optical coupled with 4 x digital zoom, making a total of 11.2 x zoom. So after I parked my car in the open air car park at Club Street, I proceeded to the battle zone. I found the man lying down at the same spot, clearly exhausted from the previous day's tormenting from me. I also noticed that his set of clothes was the same set as that of the previous day. Maybe he had several sets of the same clothes.

I proceeded to try out my new technique from a distance of about 50 feet. Voila, he didn't stir one bit:

Now I have 2 photos of the likely suspect should you suddenly find me dead in the vicinity of Club Street some time soon after. Please lodge a police report for me and show them the 2 photos. Catching the suspect is going to be easy, never mind that the man's face cannot be seen clearly – just look for a man wearing that set of clothes.

I saw another old man who was sitting nearby. He saw me taking the photo of the mad man and asked me how the photo turned out. I said, 'Good' and showed the photo to him. I then related the previous day's incident to him. This man was very affable, a stark contrast to the mad man. He said, 'He shouldn't be angry. It's free advertisement for him mah.' Despite the man's friendliness, I didn't venture to take any photo of him because I already got my man.

I then sat down at a table at the nearby coffeeshop and ordered a cup of tea. But before the tea could be served, I noticed the mad man staring at me from about 20 feet away. He clearly recognized me and was obviously still angry over the previous day's incident. I got up immediately and headed in the opposite direction. I even crossed South Bridge Road and went into Mosque Street - to hide and yes, to pray. After about 15 minutes when the coast was clear. I headed back to my car. Alamak! I had forgotten to display a carpark coupon and there was a love note to say so:

Nevertheless, I considered that a $30 fine was a small price to pay for my safety. Imagine what could have happened if I had stayed on to watch my car and drink that leisurely cup of tea. The next day's newspaper might just have an article with this catchy title: 'Man Clubbed to Death in Club Street'.

In summary, taking a photo without being detected is the difficult part. Later I can modify it any which way I want, using a digital imaging software like Photoshop. If only the mad man was a little nicer to me, I would have protected his identity by modifying his photo in one of the ways shown below. After editing the photo, I assure you that you won't be able to recognize the subject. To illustrate, I have used a smiling face which I obtained from an image search on the Internet:

I have originally intended to use the smiling Buddha's image from my previous post. However Chris warned me against it. Besides being at the likely wrath of the higher forces, I might be guilty of blasphemy or worse, cause a riot that might kill scores of people just like what is happening now elsewhere in the world. I always heed Chris' advice, except the one about not taking people's photo without their permission.