Me, A Friend, and the Other

For the picture of myself, I actually spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I wanted the shot set up. I've never seen myself as photogenic, and I REALLY don't like the look of my goofy smile. At first I wanted to do something that represented me and my interests. I thought about doing something with me in front of my computer, or with my game systems. Everything turned out really posed, and I couldn't accept them.

Later one particular evening it happened to be raining really hard, and having just been through some very personal challenges, I was feeling very blue and lonely. I laid on my bed just thinking about my life really. Before I knew it I realized I had been sitting there for two hours just looking out at the rain, actually feeling very peaceful. My camera happened to be nearby, and without disturbing my expression or pose I snapped off a couple pictures. I really thought it might be took dark of a pic, and maybe it is. But to me it feels like a captured moment when my life kinda made sense for two hours.

My friend Chris is very similar to me in a lot of ways; many of our interests are similar, and we both HATE getting our picture taken. Hence, maybe it was just my perverse sense of humor that drove me to taking HIS picture amongst the lot of my friends. When I came to his house, we kept arguing back and forth about where the picture would be taken. I had ideas, but since he was begrudgingly letting me take the picture I couldn't push him out the door.

One of his favorite things he owns is his fish tank, and I can always count on him calling me and telling me all about whatever new additions he has made to it. Additionally, one of my favorite memories of our friendship is when he helped me set up my own tank, and we both sat in front of it for about an hour, in the dark, eating Taco Bell, and watching the brightly colored fish. To mimic that moment, as well as a way to get him to let me take his picture, I tried my best to capture a moment between him and his prized fish.

For starters, I am NOT a person who approaches strangers easily. This assignment burst my hermit bubble--very unhappily I might add. In order to find someone doing something interesting, I actually ended up walking through a couple of parks. I came across a couple who were playing in the leaves. The guys, oblivious to the strange looks he was getting from his girlfriend, was going CRAZY playing with leaves. I shyly introduced myself, and suprisingly they were very open to me picturing them. All my pictures of the girlfriend ended up looking very posed! If she wasn't sticking out her chest, she had a sort of crazy/fake grin on her face. The boyfriend, however, seemed to get a genuine enjoyment from those leaves. Although I never asked what, I really got the impression from this guy that the fall leaves were attached to some sort of happy memory. I chose this picture because in contrast to my own picture for this project, which I decided on days before, this guy seemed so full up life. Either that, or I missed some sort of drug deal moments prior.