It could be a matter of convenience. Fairly short and easy to maintain. I wonder about the bicycle. It is a Next woman's Power Climber model and doesn't seem to be locked. This is one of those slice of life images that provoke all sorts of questions. What's the deal with the bike? Is the woman on the right the artist? What are they talking about? Excellent crop.

interesting capture Tara. I do see the similarities with the hair

I see the lock on the frame and real wheel and while it is sturdy, it does nothing to prevent a thief from just picking it up and walking away Great capture

yes that hairstyle is a lot around here

I love punctuation. A simple comma can change everything. For example, "Let's eat, Grandpa." can become "Let's eat Grandpa". I don't want to eat gramps. lol. Great shot, Tara.

Yes indeed! Punctuations saves lives! :)

A super mono and your title reminds me about the story of the dumb chap who went into a cycle shop and picked up a wheel and spoke !

lovely candid

Well seen and captured !

This played with my mind for a bit. I saw a little bike in front of the women, and it took me half a minute to reverse it!

Superb capture Tara. I wonder if that bicycle is listening to the conversation as well. God bless.

I'm going to be bluntly honest about this, Tara, because you know how much I admire your photography & also because I know you well enough to know that you're not going to be hurt by constructive criticism. I find this composition visually unsettling for two reasons. The first is the downward tilt to the right. The top of the fence is the first & most obvious place I noticed this, but of course everything (except, oddly, the bicycle) tilts downwards to the right. I can imagine a ball rolling down from left to right & I think it's a distraction. I tend to be more sensitive to that kind of thing than most people & I understand that it can be used intentionally to add drama or tension to a photo, but I don't see it's purpose here. The second thing is the bicycle & I think this is related to Andrea's comment. It seems to be sort of floating in some sort of visual limbo that's neither foreground nor background, almost as if it was composited into this image from another photo. I think part of that is because the wheels line up perfectly parallel with the bottom edge of the photo, whereas everything else slants downward & also because the front tire seems to share an edge with the bottom of the bag on the woman's shoulder - if there was an overlap, it would give me a visual cue that one was in front of the other. If I'm being overly nitpicky, I apologize for that, but it was my honest reaction to your photo. I realize that the focus of this is people watching, but your images are usually so meticulously & beautifully composed that this one stood out to me as not being up to your usual standard...

If you were going for the Dutch angle, try at 45 degrees sweetie! Can work well. Matching hairdos, not surprising to me, as I mentioned before, more women are looking like men, and more men are looking like women these days. And the strangest thing about that is they think it's normal?

BTW forgot to mention monochrome was a great choice here, I see far to many over saturated images here at rendo ;}

I had to do a double-take for a moment - until I looked at it more closely, I was trying to figure out why the bike was up so high.. Then I realized it was on the other side of the ladies.... I have brain damage today - had to do my yearly inventory for work. It usually takes a couple days to recover.. LOL!

So much to see; and there they stand discussing art, not even aware that they ARE the art! Well done!

Astute observation above, they are the art.

Excellent work. Mick

Very fantastic shot !

Well seen and so curiously interesting.

Very interesting shot. Well done!

And no lock.. Leave that here, it would be stolen in less than two minutes! Great candid and neat title Rob

Excllent composition with that bike.

I appreciate Claude's comment, and we corresponded about such issues recently. But for me the tilt and the framing of the bike make this almost a "miniature"---not in size, but in feel. I don't have the right word, but "miniature" implies an image (or object) beautifully contained and framed as an intimate glimpse. The way 'miniatures' feel, if you know what I mean. That's what I mean by "miniature": Like a complete, framed glimpse into reality. The play of perspective makes the bike look very small, even though it's not (that helps the 'miniature' part of it, too); and it feels like it's in FRONT of the pic---even though it's not. It doesn't feel like a gimmick, the way you do it, but like you're giving equal voice to the bike right alongside the women. Flattening space, bringing it forward...The matching hairstyles help bring out the contrast between the two women (light/dark)---and that contrast is reflected in the light/dark contrasts of their clothes. And you caught white art-frames between them (ie, on the artwork in the background): Really nice specific, Tara. And the tilt, along with the open space on the left, makes this feel as if someone picked up the scene and tilted it, making a bunch of things slide down to the other side of the image. The vertical paintings on the left are perfect "punctuations", and the open space on the left is fine contrast with the crowdedness on the right. And if all this seems like middling detail, it's just my way of saying that, even in your spontaneous street shots, you still get the music and poetry that dominates a lot of your other shots. And you know what? Iit gives a real 'portrait' element to this wholly street-shot pic. (Again, that's too strong a word; but there is a feeling of a beautifully timed capture that one finds more in portraits than in street shots; that "miniature" element, a feeling of ensemble.) And the stark white in the bike's center is a perfect contrast to the black of the woman on the right. A real piece of music. If you'd used color, it would be much harder to feel all this music. Fine shooting, both street and not. I love it.