I’m probably not the only blogger who keeps a pad on my desk where I jot down blog ideas. Sometimes the idea is complete in my mind and I just need to take a few pictures and sometimes I need to chew on it for a bit to decide how I want to present my ideas.

One idea that I’ve been chewing on for quite a while has to do with taking pictures.

Whenever I see a picture of a beautiful person in traditional costume or engaged in a religious rite or the riding a donkey like the boy in the picture above I often think about how they feel about having their picture taken. To all the “real” photographers out there – do you ask? If you do, does it spoil the moment? What about if you aren’t fluent in Spanish?

The picture below is the original picture (with permission from Lee in Mazatlan) and I love seeing that her late husband was talking to the young boy on the donkey. Makes me feel a lot different than the first photo did.

Back at Christmas-time there was a small procession from one of the smaller churches to the cathedral. A priest, a couple of altar boys with banners and about a dozen parishoners were walking along a side street and we happened to see them while we were out walking the dogs. I actually felt like I shouldn’t even look since it was a private thing for them…..and then I saw a tourist clicking his camera – and for some reason it made me mad.

When I was composing my post about our car wash friend Cuauhtémoc – I really wanted a picture of him not posing for a picture but I just couldn’t bring myself to go into stealth mode. And of course once I asked him if I could take his picture he had to put down his rags and wave at me.

And then came my post on the visible underwear. I honestly saw so many women with horrible underwear that would have been fun to go along with that post, but I just couldn’t grab the camera and click.

Today I read Jillian’s post at Dropped In about the Handsome Senora – and at the end she says she is still too shy to ask to take her picture. I can totally understand. But Jillian painted a picture for me so I truly can see her in my mind.

I would love to hear how you feel about taking pictures, especially of people wearing traditional dress or participating in religious ceremonies.