Hi!
This week, we meet two different Rons and a Dallas!
Ron - 37
Ron - 37/111
Q: What’s something that brings you delight?
A: “People and their happiness!”
Q: What’s something great about yourself? (a trait or accomplishment)
A: “Being wise.”
Q: Is there a problem for which you have a solution?
A: For the problem of racism, Ron said, “the solution is not being a vicim of it. Don’t do to others what they do to us, meaning, I will be better than my adversaries.”
Q: What’s your life’s dream/goal, and how are you working towards it?
A: “My goal has been to be a wildland firefighter. I’ve already done two years, and looking forward to more.”
Q: How would you like to be remembered? (personal legacy statement)
A: “I want to be remembered as a person that overcame anything that I faced. Period.” Ron gave the examples of racism and growing up hard in LA as challenges that he’s overcome.
Thank you, Ron!
Ron - 38
Ron - 38/111
Q: What’s something that brings you delight?
A: “Playing music.”
Q: What’s something great about yourself? (a trait or accomplishment)
A: “I’m patient.”
Q: Is there a problem for which you have a solution?
A: Ron identified a problem that there’s not enough respect for musicians. The solution, Ron said, “is for people to recognize what we’re doing and realize that not everyone can do it.”
I have eternal gratitude for musicians, and I’m in a constant state of awe for the creation of music.
Q: What’s your life’s dream/goal, and how are you working towards it?
A: “My thing has always been to play music and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do it full time for the last 25-30 years.”
Q: How would you like to be remembered? (personal legacy statement)
A: “I just want to be remembered as a good musician…that’s all.”
I got to see Ron perform and I will, indeed, remember him as a good musician! This was my first time getting to see live music since COVID and it was the best day I’ve had in a year! Ron and my friend Jen played at Lake of the Woods Resort and it was excellent! Looking forward to going again this summer! It’s been years since I’d been to Lake of the Woods and it’s definitely going to become a favorite destination.
Thank you, Ron!
Dallas - 39
Q: What’s something that brings you delight?
A: “Snowmobiling.”
If you couldn’t tell, I met Dallas when he was taking a break from snowmobiling.
Q: What’s something great about yourself? (a trait or accomplishment)
A: “Snowmobiling.”
Q: Is there a problem for which you have a solution?
A: Dallas joked that my questions were way too deep and passed on this one.
Q: What’s your life’s dream/goal, and how are you working towards it?
A: “Snowmobiling full time.”
Q: How would you like to be remembered? (personal legacy statement)
A: “I think I’ll be remembered for being like how my friends describe me - as being a ‘really nice asshole.’”
“I could see that,” I replied, when Dallas answered the question. OUCH!!!! I didn’t mean it the way that came out!!! Luckily, Dallas IS a really nice…guy, and totally forgave me.
Thank you, Dallas!
I’ve not been pleased with the quality of my images since starting this project. I cut myself some slack because it’s been winter and I often seem to find myself photographing on gray days. But there’s been a little more too it. I wondered if I was so out of practice that I lost my “eye” entirely, or maybe COVID and this time we’re living in has just been so intense that it’s impacted me more than I had realized. Yes, it’s true - I’m both out of practice, and I’ve definitely been affected like everyone else. I’ve reached the conclusion, however, that I’m looking at things “differently” in this project, compared to my previous street portraiture project(s). I’m using a different lens in order to keep a little more social distance between me and the subject.
My go-to lens for street photography, and the lens I used to teach myself photography, is a 50mm. I’ve been shooting this project with a 24-70mm zoom lens because it enables me to stand more than 6 feet away from the subject in order to keep us both safe. It’s a great lens…an excellent lens! I’ve owned cars that cost less than this 24-70mm lens, so please don’t think I’m saying there’s anything wrong with the glass. When it comes to street portraiture, I just know how a 50mm lens behaves. I can intuit how an image will look because I know the lens well. Of course I still made, and continue to make, unsatisfactory images with a 50mm, but for the most part, I can see an image in my mind and know what I need to do to capture it. And most importantly, the 50mm is a much more intimate lens. It’s a prime lens, meaning, it’s always at 50mm. You must actively work to make or create an image when using a prime lens. If you want to change the composition of a photo, you have to do so by moving your feet, changing your position, changing your point of view, getting higher or getting lower…you have to “work the scene” (a saying by one of my favorite current street photographers, Eric Kim) in order to capture the image you’re striving for. So my realization is that using the 24-70mm zoom lens for this project has accidentally made me…lazy! Photographers always warn you not to get “lazy” when you go from shooting on a prime lens to a zoom lens. I know this!!! Even though the lens zooms, it only zooms in or out…you still need to “work the scene,” change your point of view, and change your positioning in order to capture the image you desire.
I’ve recently experienced some things in life that I had been unable to work through. At one point, during an internal dialogue I was having in attempt to sort out a problem, I actually said out loud to myself, “work the scene.” I was viewing my problems through a zoom lens, instead of actively engaging and “working the scene” like with a prime lens. Yes, I was trying my best to work through those things, to examine the issues by zooming in and zooming out, but I had gotten a bit lazy, thinking that “zooming out” by just allowing the passage of time to put distance between the problem and myself would change my perspective and right the situation. Yes, zooming out and just allowing time to pass, does often lessen the sting in a lot of situations, but sometimes being lazy, zooming out and letting time take care of things, doesn’t result in the best possible outcome. Sometimes, just “zooming out” actually makes the problem worse! To capture the image or the outcomes we desire, we have to work the scene. If we continue to look at a problem or situation from the same point of view, with the same mindset, we’ll be unable to see the true nature of the problem or issue. We’re able to see the true origin of the problem, we can’t see the solutions, and we’re unable to alter our mental or emotional response to the problem. The outcome will be undesirable or less than ideal. In photography, we put the subject in good lighting. In life, we put the problem in good lighting. In photography and life, we have to view the subject or the problem from all possible angles, and all points of view, and all positions, until we can see it for what it truly is. In photography - the result is going to be a beautiful image. In life - the result is often going to be a beautiful lesson. (And even painful lessons can be beautiful ones, depending on your point of view…)
Thank you for following along so far.
And thank you to everyone who’s allowed me to photograph them for this project.
Hope you have a fabulous week!