Monday, June 12, 2006

Swordfish - $15.95/lb. at Kings Short Hills

I was in the King’s supermarket in Short Hills Saturday afternoon doing a little grocery shopping when I saw a young girl, looked about 12 years old, taking a snapshot of the fish monger and a whole swordfish with her cell phone. I thought my son Alex would like that so I asked if I could shoot a couple of frames myself.

I shop in Kings often and I know Yves Edmond, the Seafood Department Mgr. (pictured), pretty well and we were joking around...

JP: How much for the fish?

YE: Let’s see, $15.95 times 90 pounds, about $1400, something like that.

JP: Okay, I’ll take two.

YE: Sorry, I only have one.

JP: Ahhh, forget it!

We both laughed.

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A few minutes later I was in the bakery department tasting samples of pita chips, trying to decide if I liked the sea salt or maple cinnamon variety best (sea salt wins, hands down!) when I hear a man ask, “Do you carry that camera everywhere you go?”

Looking up I see it’s Ron Brown, a photographer I recognize from our ASMP-NJ Salon program (Ron’s one of our regular attendees). “Yes, as a matter of fact I do carry it everywhere,” I replied.

It’s true. Like many photographers I carry a camera almost everywhere I go. I never know what I’m going to see and I don’t want to miss anything that might be worthy... like a whole ninety pound swordfish.

Naturally we had a discussion about photographing in supermarkets, in fact many retail stores, and how that’s generally frowned upon. The organization of a store is usually a top-secret matter. Many supermarkets make more money on placement fees for the goods than they do selling you the groceries, but I digress.



I’ve done some retail work. I recall a shoot I did for Donna Karan International. The marketing guys were trying to convince her to invest in upgrading the design of her “store-within-a-store” boutiques. I got to spend time in Macy’s, Bloomingdales, etc... all in the middle of the night. That’s a totally strange experience.






We also spent a few minutes on darkroom work. It relaxes Ron, I can’t be bothered. And then it was time to head home to catch some of the World Cup on television if I can get away with postponing mowing the lawn.

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