Close call............

Seeing the N.O. images of the last entry reminded me of an occasion when I was street shooting in Springfield, my college town. I was about 8 to 10 blocks west of the square and as I remember there was an old shoe store, a thrift cowboy western shop with clothes and boots and the area was generally run down. All of the other buildings were empty and dark. I was shooting a shot or two here and there ad noticed a rather interesting guy walking toward me down the sidewalk. Interesting face, walked assertively, a bit bowlegged, and had on a cowboy hat. About ten feet before he got to me I tripped the shutter on my camera that was hanging about waist level. Guessed the focus, knew the exposure, figured I was discrete enough to be in the CIA.  He stopped dead in his tracks, looked at me and asked " Ya just take my picture..." "Yeah" I answered.....( A great NO BRAINER moment, one of many that have followed me through life. ) "I don't like having my picture taken" he replied. "Watcha gonna do with it ? " soon followed. NO BRAINER # 2 " Don't know" looking at my life flying before my eyes. " I want the film", he said. #3 "Can't have it ...got other stuff on the roll I need". By this time I was trying to get real invisible.... There was a long silence....and he reached toward his back pocket.
OH JESUS !!! HE' GOING FOR THE KNIFE.....life passed faster in front of my eyes...it was going to be short by that time.....I knew I was going to die. He pulled out his billfold instead and gave me a five spot..."Don't make that picture kid". He turned around and walked away.

I got back to Ellis Hall and immediately developed and printed the picture......I've got it somewhere.
I'll show it to you if you don't tell him you've seen it.

Street shots...

While looking for some old images I came across two from my student days at SMS....as it will always be.....another story. I had gone to New Orleans over Easter Break and photographed the city.

I believe it was the Easter of "70"and it was a good time and my first encounter with the city. As always in a new location my photographic senses were on high alert and at that time primarily attuned to the decisive moment. I just walked around and shot when I thought I saw something worth noting.  Reflections on these images 43 years later seem to give them a more substantial boost than they had at the time. It really makes me consider photographing Tulsa now for the future...but someone else will have to make the comment on the Tulsa shots...43 more years is asking a lot.

Completing a challenge...

Adding and eliminating visual references to imagery is part of the job as a photographer.
I took this image of a power generating facility and decided to see what I could do with it.
It was looking pretty shop worn so I decided to shine it up so to speak. I really like the results.