A Day in the Life…

One of the things I really love about photography is that it opens the door to meeting so many people and their stories. I met this gentleman at the CafÃ© Collage on Venice Beach and spent several minutes just chatting to him about his life and my life. I loved the way he looked, dressed as he was, pouring over the movie & entertainment section of a local paper and sipping his java. After photographing him with my iPhone, I processed this photo right away and showed it to him. He like it quite a bit so I e-mailed it to him on the spot. I love social interactions like this and look forward to more and more as I venture more into people and street photography.

Excellent image and story Jacques! These encounters are definitely something I’d like to experience more of! Thanks for the inspiration!

Hey, Jim! Happy New Year to ya! Re the personal encounters, I’d always been a shoot and scoot photographer, preferring not to engage the person I was photographing. My current approach of sharing a one-on-one encounter with others when photographing them is very new (last couple of months), but I’ve found it VERY rewarding! When I DO engage someone before making their photograph, I’ll chat with them briefly, ask them to go back to what they were doing (like this fellow here), then photograph them, and then have a nice conversation with them (however long they like).

Very good image and story Jacques. You definitely have quite a gift to create empathy for human interactions. Iâ€™m sure youâ€™ll have lots of success at street photography.

Thanks, LuÃs! Happy New Year to you, my friend!