OK, since we seem to be opening ourselves up for deeply humiliating feedback and advice....something interesting* happened yesterday.
Completely gorgeous spring day yesterday - sunny, temps in the high 50s or low 60s, nice cooling but not chilly breeze. Everything's budding or flowering or sprouting. So I take my camera to a local metropark, intent on seeing what's worth snapping** a few photos of. I go alone, purely with the intent and hopes of taking a handful of decent photos. The trail includes a bridge over a mostly-dry creekbed, with stairs going down to the creek. So I'm there, loking for good angles and interesting textures....and a very attractive woman (guessing 30-35) with her son (probably around age 8 or 9) come by. He sees me off-trail, lets out a whoop, and heads right for the creek bed. I catch the woman's eyes, and get a really great smile from her. The son scampers up the creek bed, and she goes to follow on the parallel trail. With the view now clear, I continue to eye the scene and snap some photos. About the time I'm done, they come back around. I had told myself I had a perfect opportunity to introduce myself - ask if she wants a picture, then give her my email address to ping if she wants me to send them to her. But I demur; not only am I recently out of a pretty wearying relationship, I don't want to force things, and I sorta told myself I'd take some time off. Regardless, there is more direct eye contact, another big smile from her, and a comment on the day's niceness. I, in my usual silver-tongued way, barely gabble out an agreement, and head off down the trail. There are a few mutual head turns back, and more smiles.
After a couple of hundred yards down the trail, it curves back the way I came and I decide to go back toward the park's cultivated area - ponds, grass fields, flower gardens. Who do I run into backtracking? Yep, the woman and her son. Again, I think about making the offer, but I'm too nervous and unsure, so I pussy out.
I make it back to the park's main area - tons of people, sunshine, turtles and fish in the ponds. At this point, I'll admit I was sorta hanging around to see if they were there, but then I got caught up in snapping more photos and stopped thinking about it.
Which of course is when they showed up. The son heads right for me, having recognized me from the creekbed, holds out a mollusk shell (very tiny) and asks what it is. I tell, then look at the mom, who's smiling pretty big now, and ask if they're from around here. She says yes, but he amends they're originally from out of state. So at this point, I muster up the courage, ask about the photo, and she quickly agrees. We introduce ourselves, then I take a few photos of them on my camera, and hers. I give her my business card, which has my email and cell on it, and tell her to contact me if she would like the photos I took. Another big smile, a very nice handshake, and I decided to high tail it out of there before I firmly jammed both feet in my mouth.
So...here's the question: should I have asked her for contact information? Was it too passive to give her the ball for the next step? Thoughts?
*Are you paying attention, Art?
**Also interestingly, and ironically, some monstrously huge snapping turtles.
