I spent the day yesterday at a fantastic lighting workshop in LA taught by Joe McNally. If you haven’t heard of him you definitely need to go check out his site. I will post tomorrow about how great it was to just sit and learn from one of the greats, but the highlight of my day came after the workshop. A bunch of us decided to go to Philippes for french dip and wait out the traffic.
As we were sitting there eating a woman walked past headed to the restroom. She had on this wonderful hat and had such a great face. I thought about asking her for a photograph, but then told myself how dumb I would sound. I mean, what an embarrassing thing to do, asking a complete stranger to take their picture. I sat there for a couple of minutes debating and then, without thinking too much more about it, jumped up, camera in hand, and went into the bathroom.
She was just washing her hands. I told her how beautiful I thought her hat was. She said, “Thank you so much! I’ve been out celebrating a special occasion today and decided to get dressed up. It’s my birthday.” I wished her a happy birthday and told her she looked so pretty. As she had her hand on the doorknob ready to walk out I said, “Would you mind if I took your picture?” She didn’t even hesitate. “Really? Of course!”
I had her stand against the wall in the restroom and fired off a couple of shots. She had the best smile on her face. She asked if I would send her a copy and gave me her address. I thanked her and she said, “No, thank you! You made my day!” She definitely made mine. Taking someone’s photo really does make a difference. It’s all about noticing people and just making them feel beautiful even if it’s just for a few minutes. It was a personal mini Help-Portrait project. I cannot wait for December 12 for the real thing.
I realize today is Halloween and I should be posting pictures along that theme, however, it is still early and neither of my kids will have costumes on until later. I probably won’t be able to put them up here until tomorrow. Although, even then I’m not sure about putting up a picture of my son’s costume. I may have to censor it (and if you could see it you would understand). Instead, today, I will be posting a couple of shots from last weeks photo walk in Griffith Park. We went to a sidecar rally and then to the abandoned zoo. Definitely an interesting day. I do have to say that the fish tacos at the end were the best part though!
I like the old bikes the best…
And here is my token Halloween shot…









