A day or so ago, I was sitting in the coffee shop reading a book, when I noticed an older man sitting outside smoking a pipe and talking with some neighbours. (We are all neighbours, after all.) He wasn’t doing anything else that I could see, just sitting there, puffing away, seemingly very content. I kept leaning over to get a look at him from around the wall that stood between the two window panes, and telling myself that I ought to go ask if I could take his photograph. Then just as I was getting all of my things together to go outside and talk to him, I noticed him and the little crowd out there on the patio walk into the brewery that sits next door to the coffee shop, and I chided myself slightly for my hesitance and shyness.
Still, I was done with my business, so I gathered my things, pulled on my gloves, and walked outside. Then, as I was putting my bag in the backseat of my car, I saw him walk back outside, holding a few unopened bottles and a glass of dark liquid. He sat down, and resumed his smoking. Walking up from behind him I said that he appeared to be having a nice time, and then asked if I could take his photo. He asked what for, and I said that it was for fun. (Which is true.) I sat down, and we fell to talking. He said my camera reminded him of an old film camera he’d had years ago when he was in the military, and recounted a brief tale of dropping it down a mountain in Europe, and finding it perfectly intact after he had descended and picked it back up. We talked a bit about the brewery and the bottles he’d got. I commented on how good his tobacco smelled (it was a delicious scent), and he told me about a place nearby that I should check out if I wanted to start out pipe-smoking.
After this brief exchange, I wished him well, and went on my way. He stayed and continued sitting and smoking. And I recount all of this to encourage you to talk to more strangers. You never know how pleasant (or informative) such an interaction might be, until you’ve had it.
with love,
— Joel
Geeky Things
Camera: Fuji X-Pro2
Lens: Fuji 35mm f/2
Location: Pour Jons, Siloam Springs, AR
Notes: Normally I process all of my images using one of Fuji’s colour profiles that Lightroom pulls up in the Camera Calibration drop-down menu, but I’m experimenting with moving away from that method, and for the most part just make simple adjustments to exposure and tone curve to get the result I want. This is the first little set of images that I’ve used this process on (that I’ve shared anyway). Although, with these photos I did actually use a number of radial and graduated filters to get the exposure the way I wanted, and even used a healing tool to remove a distracting light pole that was in the background of one of the shots. Lightroom Classic doesn’t seem to have an adequate tool for such a job, so I used PhotoScape X at first, then cleaned the image up a bit in Lightroom. That’s the first time I’ve ever done such a thing, to my memory, and I’m pretty pleased with the result.