Bob Wins the “Workers” Category (Again, Apparently Working Was Involved)

Saturday at St. Lawrence Market is not for the faint of heart.

It’s loud.

It’s busy.

It smells like smoked meat, fresh bread, oysters, salmon, and someone yelling “NEXT!”

And this past Saturday, it was also where Bob accidentally won the Workers category at the Bob Camera Club.

Bob didn’t go to the market looking to win anything. Bob went to the market because that’s where people are actually doing things. Not posing. Not performing for Instagram. Just… working.

Butchers sharpening knives like they’ve done it a thousand times.

Fishmongers tying salmon like it’s a gift for the ocean.

Oyster shuckers moving so fast you wonder if their hands are insured.

Deli counters glowing under heat lamps while ribs quietly accept their destiny.

Bob just stood there looking like a confused tourist with a camera, which is his proven strategy for not getting kicked out of places.

The Workers category is a serious one at the Bob Camera Club.

No fake grit.

No staged portraits.

No “Can you do that again but slower?”

These photos were taken in the middle of real Saturday chaos — knives in motion, hands at work, faces focused, backs bent over counters that have seen decades of Saturdays just like this one.

No one stopped working for Bob.

Which is how Bob knew he was doing it right.

The judges (also known as people scrolling Flickr with coffee) voted, and somehow Bob’s shots of market workers doing what they do every weekend came out on top.

Bob suspects this happened because:

Workers don’t need drama — they already have schedules.

Saturday at the market is basically a live documentary.

Everyone secretly respects people who actually know what they’re doing.

Winning the Workers category doesn’t mean Bob is better than anyone.

It just means Bob showed up, waited, didn’t get in the way, and pressed the shutter when the moment felt honest.

Which, coincidentally, is also how Bob survives most situations in life.

So here’s to the workers of St. Lawrence Market — the cutters, shuckers, slicers, wrappers, torches, scales, and steady hands that keep the place moving while the rest of us stand around deciding what to eat.

Bob just took the photos.

And apparently, that was enough to win.