Making Images

Venice Beach, December, 2009I'm not much of a street image maker. It's not my forte and I usually find these images lacking interest.  I'm much more interested in the people included in the images and the story behind them. For me, the image with words is much more compelling, but the image has to stop me first. Once it does I want to know the story. And to do that the photographer must be engaged in some way.  

It's difficult for me to engage and that usually shows in images where I attempt any type of street shooting. This was an image made after I had stopped and spoken with this gentleman. He had two dogs with him but I had only noticed the one he had on a leash. I had missed this dog, tucked into his shirt to keep warm, until we started talking to one another.

What drew me to the guy was his dog who would stop when approached, roll over on his back, and start wagging his tail with such energy his entire body moved sideways over the ground. He was known as "The Love Dog" and this was this guys shtick. Quiet funny actually.

But as we talked I noticed the other dog and wanted to get an image of the obvious connection. Just as I was framing it up, the cop car pulled in behind him.  I thought it would ruin the image but I made it anyway as more people were approaching "The Love Dog" and my time was rapidly closing with the two of them. 

I like this image because of what I did and how I got out of my comfort zone. The conversation with this gentleman was fun as well and provides the story, at least for me, behind the image. Wether its' good or not I'll leave up to others to decide.  But I do think it will prompt me to try this more often.  I need something close to home to document. Who knows, maybe I can turn something like this into a body of work over a period of time.  We'll see, but the journey will be much more enjoyable now that the hardest first step is out of the way.