What am I missing?

Schmap contacted me back in the middle of March to announce that a number "of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition" of the Schamp Washington and Orlando Guide. They couldn't pay anything but they would include attribution and a link back to the original Flickr photos. I agreed and then waited for the guides to be published.

Sure enough, just as they'd promised, the guides were published (online) and my photos were included. It's just how they were used that surprises me. All three photos are part of my Economy set on Flickr. That's the set where I document the closed businesses I've been coming across due to the "recession" we've been living through. Schmap used one from Tysons Corner Galleria in McLean, Virginia, and they used two others from here in Orlando; an out-of-business boarded-up Sonny's near the intersection of West Colonial and Kirkman, and a closed-and-empty Belk's department store at West Oaks Mall in Ocoee.

I've included screen shots of each image in Schmap, with a link to each original photo and the comments I placed under each on Flickr.









Here's what Schmap has to say about the closed Sonny's above:

Some restaurants just look like fun, and this is one of them. Management serves up slow-cooked beef in a dining area festooned with tiny white Christmas lights. Part of a beat-up camper is mounted over the bar itself, and scenes depicting the life of Elvis Presley have been carved into the bathroom walls. While you're enjoying the kitsch, dine on a Pork Platter, a jambalaya special and add a side order of collard greens.

I've been to Sonny's for decades going back to when I lived in Atlanta, and I've never seen a bar in any Sonny's. I have to wonder what Bar-B-Q place they're really talking about.





As I asked earlier, what am I missing? Tyson's is in deep economic distress while the other two are flat out closed. The West Oaks Mall, where the empty Belk's is located, has anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 of all its stores closed. The management has been opening some of them up to non-store tenants, I suppose in an effort to give the illusion of business as usual. But make no mistake, many of the mall stores are closed, and it's spread to a number of the outer stores that ring the mall.