Well, that was unexpected.

Day 1: A Worldwide Moment

Today is the start of my 365 project. It is also the day of the Worldwide Moment. I've spent the last week trying to think of what image to capture for this moment. Nothing came to mind as I sat at my desk day after day. My mind was devoid of inspiration. I decided to jump in the car and head towards an area of town where I had been meaning to go for some time now.

See, there has been this pair of shoes hanging on the power lines right in front of a Denny's restaurant. I thought maybe I could capture one of those iconic "shoes-hanging-from-a-line" shots.

As I stood against the wall of the drug-store, figuring out the best angle for the shot, a man walked by and he was visibly perplexed by my presence.

"Are you investigating someone for a workman's comp claim?"

"Nope."

"Are you trying to catch someone not working, when they should be?"

"No, I'm getting ready to take a picture in exactly 1 minute."

"Why?"

"Well, you see, there are about 2,000 photographers right now getting ready to do the exact same thing, all around the world."

"Wow, you guys have WAY too much time on your hands."

He walked away, seemingly annoyed with my explanation.

Part of my reluctance to shoot this photo as part of the Worldwide Moment, was because this picture had no story, and certainly no relevance to peace. After my conversation with the passerby, I realized my story didn't develop until I stood there holding my camera.

A perfect stranger is walking down the street when he notices a man, casually dressed with a baseball cap on backwards, holding a camera near a busy intersection. The stranger approaches the man, assuming he is trying to catch someone committing some type of wrong. When the man assures the stranger that he is simply taking a picture for the joy of it, the stranger dismisses him as an annoyance.

When did it become normal to assume the worst of people? Why did this stranger find it so odd that I was simply taking a picture for the sake of taking a picture? Perhaps he is still searching for his own inner-peace.

Manual: Page 72 - The AF-Assist Illuminator
How dumb do I feel? I had no idea I could turn this feature off. A few months ago I was trying to take some night shots on a city street, and I wanted to remain unnoticed as not to interfere with my subjects. Well, every damn time I depressed my shutter-release button, the light flashed and everyone looked at me. I guess this is why they give you a manual in the 1st place.


Images: Jeremy Cowart ran a test "live-critique" on-line this afternoon. It was great! There were about 200 people tuned in as he randomly chose pictures we were submitting. Some were amateurs, others were professionals. Jeremy prefaced the broadcast with the fact that he is NOT a pro at critiquing, he simply wanted to try an experiment. It was really interesting to not only look at other photographers' work, but here what a pro had to say about it.