My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
In the coming year we will face many doors of opportunities. Some will have door knobs to grab and some will not? We have the keys now we must find the doors with knobs. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
Many people start their days with routines. Some have set patterns that must be done before leaving in the morning. Some will continue their patterns after leaving, such as stopping by a favorite coffee shop. The morning cup of coffee can be found all over the world as one of those morning traditions, their day would be incomplete. That’s where I was when I took this image of a man enjoying, relaxing while sipping on a coffee, munching on a bagel and reading the newspaper. A ritual. A tradition. What are yours?
I enjoy a slower pace when walking the streets because you just never know what you’re going to find. If that street is in a tourist area then those interesting sights will increase. This small shop had several of these watering pots along the steps leading into the store and along the sidewalk. There were frogs, cats, dogs, squirrels beckoning people to stop look and maybe walk inside. Great marketing scheme. I like this image the best as it shows the roosters and chickens standing guard at the door. I struggledwith the lighting as the front chicken had more light and is not as colorful as it really was. Hope you have a wonderful day.
I don’t know all of his story but he did tell me he had just been “kicked out.” I asked no more personal questions but continued small talk about the area. He was in good spirits and showed no stress considering his situation. He mentioned about moving to California and looking for work. In this economic environment it is not the best of times to be homeless and looking for work. At one point during our conversation he stared off into space, lost in his thoughts. I felt his pose at that moment would make a good image so I asked if I could take his photograph. He agreed and the only pose I asked him to do was the one where he looked off in space. He will face a lot in the coming days. We do have more homeless than we think.
Walking the streets of Westerville you will find red brick walls, antiques in windows and an empty bench. The only thing missing in this image is someone on the bench.
Sometimes I find it easy to approach people on the street and other times I find it uncomfortable. A fellow blogger, Earl Moore, wrote a short blog on this issue and how we can approach photographing people. His blog has been triggered by Bruce Percy who talks about his approach to travel portraits. I tap into both of these two photographers. Because of this young lady’s inviting smile my gut told me to ask her if I could take her photo. Thankfully, yes was her answer. However, if it had been no, I would have honored that and moved on.