Street Photography

There are days you just get lucky.  No other way to explain one of my mentoring sessions with a very talented photographer who wants to get into street photography.  As a photojournalist, I often have to capture the moment in a split second, assessing light, composition, emotion and technicalities all in a shutter click.  My genuine interest for people's stories often leave me wondering what each person I photograph under those rushed circumstances is going through, feeling, thinking.  When I can, I ask. 

I first noticed her standing by a door, looking at her phone, then at the "For Rent" sign, then back to her phone.  I approached her with a big smile, and explained I was giving a photography lesson.  She smiled back, "my father was a photographer".  I instantly liked her, as she sat on the steps, waiting for the landlord of the apartment for rent to come by and show her the place she hoped to call home.  He was late, and she didn't have reception in that part of town, so I offered my help and my phone.  And just like that, she opened up her whole life story, her reasons for moving to a new city so evident to me by the mark of the wedding ring she obviously wore for a long time, and no longer there.  Fresh start.  She showed me pictures of her children, laughed recounting some silly memory of them, and there was hope and sadness in her eyes.  In that moment, I asked if I could take some pictures.  And she agreed.

 

When we left, I thanked her and wished her the best of luck.  She smiled and told me she already liked Denver.