Sunday, April 17, 2011

James

We have two photography meet up groups in Houston that are run by people from Dallas. Both are very much into meetings that charge which I totally avoid. One of them, the Houston Photography Club of Texas scheduled a free photoshoot atop the parking garage at Hobby Center. It proved to be a pretty good spot but I would have given odds that we would be asked to leave well before the shoot was to be finished—we were. I had managed to take maybe a dozen shots of the almost full moon behind a couple of buildings—so so shots.

To begin with the “organizer” stated that he had checked the schedule for the Hobby Center and there were no scheduled performances tonight. Well, I’m not sure what he considered Cats to be. Debi and I arrived almost an hour early and the garage was almost full at that time. Additionally the $2 to $4 estimated parking fee was $7 because of the performance. Most of the group went to the Sabine Street Bridge. Debi and I decided to head for the Downtown Aquarium instead. Got a couple of photos there but still not spectacular.

However, I did get one photograph that I am very proud of. Debi Beauregard and I met up for dinner at Denny’s on I-10 at Washington prior to the shoot. We decided that we would park one car on the street since that would be free, put all the photo gear in the other and only pay garage parking on one car—good plan. We found a space for Debie’s car and I was able to pull in a little ways up the block to wait for her. She noticed that there was a “Commercial Vehicle Only tag on the meter so we were about to move to the other side of Main Street.


As I was about to get into my car I heard someone calling from back in Debie’s direction. It was James. He noticed that we were discussing the tag and had come over to tell Debie that it was okay to park there after hours. The tag only applied Monday thru Friday. I walked back and we decided to stay where we were. Then is when James asked if we could help him get four dollars for a meal.

I explained my $2 Portrait Project and he was more than willing to pose for a photograph. I went to the car to get my camera. It was already dark but we found an alcove inset with an overhead light which I thought would be adequate and I shot a couple of head shots. Then I noticed the reflections from the black shiny walls so I stepped back and shot a three-quarter shot which I like very much. As with all my $2 portraits I found that I only had a single dollar bill so like most, James got $5. That’s okay, Debie also took some photos and I believe she also gave him $2 so he made out like a bandit and we got probably the only descent photographs of the night.

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