September 05th, 2024

Sometimes it is slightly unplanned adventures with friends in familiar territory. It’s bad jokes, commentary on human existence, seeing things thru other’s creative eye that makes a place you thought you knew so well completely new and worthy of shooting too many images! It’s a lack of pressure to create something new and just have fun being yourself and wandering along the sidewalks and hidden corridors.

I love shooting in GR. Taking my own adventures into the dark alleys and making my own photo walk adventure. It’s bright, and dirty, and artsy, and urban. I can get in my truck, drive 20 minutes and suddenly be surrounded by concrete and plate glass and people and murals rather than the open blue sky and agricultural fields that surround my peaceful home. And when I’ve had enough of the city, I can speed down the highway with music blasting back out into the countryside and enjoy the quiet of home.

Odd? Probably. But that’s me. And when I can share those urban adventures with photo friends- it’s even better. They see things and shoot things that maybe I haven’t. Or know places I never knew about. Even if it was 92 degrees with little to no wind on street level. Even if one of us had to have a glass cut tended to on a corner sidewalk after crawling hands and knees in a parking lot to "get the shot"... Even if we were severely underdressed for places we ended up wandering. 

It was amazing. It was fun. It was just what I needed to break a mental health funk- even if for just a little bit.