steve . 54 years old / denver . colorado
it was a beautiful day today, on the cold side, but the sun was shining brightly, making for a quintessential fall day. i decided to hop on my bicycle and pedal over to "snooze", a breakfast place on 7th and colorado, to have a small bite to eat. a dear friend works over there and i really felt like getting outside for a bit. it is not a long ride there, but it is long enough to know you have a heart and a pair of lungs, so i bundled up to prepare for it.
when i arrived, they told me it would be about a 30-minute wait. i contemplated looking for the day's stranger then, but decided to wait until later. i made a few phone calls and ended up sitting down before the half hour anyway. i took my time eating and enjoyed some coffee and then set out again. the 7th avenue parkway is a beautiful stretch of road, especially at this time of year. it is lined with beautiful old homes and brightly colored trees. the leaves have been falling by the thousands, creating a technicolored street. as i rode my bike through the piles, they crunched and tore, and i lost myself in the ride and was enjoying myself very much.
i thought about riding all the way down to clarkson and then taking that home, but thought again and decided to take humboldt across. humboldt is prettier and quieter than clarkson and it also sits higher, so i would eliminate a hill by taking it. i pedaled by it, but turned around and then started making my way north. 10 seconds (about half a block) in, i spotted a lone gentleman walking down the sidewalk under the cover of beautiful trees. i pulled over and excused myself and began telling him what i was up to.
steve agreed to be today's stranger right away. he asked me if it was going to end up in vanity fair. i told him it sure would because i have a deal worked out with them - they publish everything i shoot (that is not true). we got along quite well from the first few words. steve was very nice and he was willing to chat for some time. he was on his way to whole foods to pick up some groceries. i asked him what he did for work and he told me that he is partially retired now, but is still importing wine. he's been doing that for about 25 years and has seen the good and the bad with the rise and fall of the dollar and the grand entrance of the euro. he said times are a little tough at the moment, but there was a day when it was very fun. steve was "born and bred" right here in colorado. i told him i had been running into a few natives lately. he remarked that there are still a few around, but there are more and more "immigrants". he joked that i spoke the language pretty well for being one of them. i appreciated his sense of humor.
we chatted about film vs. digital photography and then he had a few questions about where i went to school and what i did for work. after telling him about kentucky, and massachusetts, and denmark, and that i inspected photography for a stock agency in norway, he dove into a deeper conversation. it turns out that steve has a daughter who is a senior in high school and she wants to be a photographer. she wants to attend a school in washington to get her BFA. steve said that she spends her summers in norway (and speaks norwegian) with some of their family. he was impressed by the coincidence or serendipity of our meeting and the similarities between my story to his daughter's. steve has been trying to dissuade his daughter from going to photography school because "you can't make money from photography". i told him that i, too, had been prodded to get a degree to "fall back on" and that basically just put me in quite a bit of debt. i explained to him that while i am not the best example, it is quite possible to make money from photography.
steve and i had a wonderful little chat on the sidewalk. this was definitely one of those days where i find myself smiling when i consider all the steps that went into meeting the stranger. a stop sign here, a missed turn there, being seated at this particular time, saying no to more coffee, leaving when i did, taking a few extra seconds to put on my mittens... it's all so charming. steve and i parted ways and i took a seat on some nearby steps to take some notes. as i was writing, i noticed that a toyota 4-runner drove by and then started backing up. i looked up to see the driver leaning over and looking at me. i anticipated defending my position on the steps, but it turned out to be a friend of mine who i run into in times like this. he lives at the corner...
it was a beautiful day today, on the cold side, but the sun was shining brightly, making for a quintessential fall day. i decided to hop on my bicycle and pedal over to "snooze", a breakfast place on 7th and colorado, to have a small bite to eat. a dear friend works over there and i really felt like getting outside for a bit. it is not a long ride there, but it is long enough to know you have a heart and a pair of lungs, so i bundled up to prepare for it.
when i arrived, they told me it would be about a 30-minute wait. i contemplated looking for the day's stranger then, but decided to wait until later. i made a few phone calls and ended up sitting down before the half hour anyway. i took my time eating and enjoyed some coffee and then set out again. the 7th avenue parkway is a beautiful stretch of road, especially at this time of year. it is lined with beautiful old homes and brightly colored trees. the leaves have been falling by the thousands, creating a technicolored street. as i rode my bike through the piles, they crunched and tore, and i lost myself in the ride and was enjoying myself very much.
i thought about riding all the way down to clarkson and then taking that home, but thought again and decided to take humboldt across. humboldt is prettier and quieter than clarkson and it also sits higher, so i would eliminate a hill by taking it. i pedaled by it, but turned around and then started making my way north. 10 seconds (about half a block) in, i spotted a lone gentleman walking down the sidewalk under the cover of beautiful trees. i pulled over and excused myself and began telling him what i was up to.
steve agreed to be today's stranger right away. he asked me if it was going to end up in vanity fair. i told him it sure would because i have a deal worked out with them - they publish everything i shoot (that is not true). we got along quite well from the first few words. steve was very nice and he was willing to chat for some time. he was on his way to whole foods to pick up some groceries. i asked him what he did for work and he told me that he is partially retired now, but is still importing wine. he's been doing that for about 25 years and has seen the good and the bad with the rise and fall of the dollar and the grand entrance of the euro. he said times are a little tough at the moment, but there was a day when it was very fun. steve was "born and bred" right here in colorado. i told him i had been running into a few natives lately. he remarked that there are still a few around, but there are more and more "immigrants". he joked that i spoke the language pretty well for being one of them. i appreciated his sense of humor.
we chatted about film vs. digital photography and then he had a few questions about where i went to school and what i did for work. after telling him about kentucky, and massachusetts, and denmark, and that i inspected photography for a stock agency in norway, he dove into a deeper conversation. it turns out that steve has a daughter who is a senior in high school and she wants to be a photographer. she wants to attend a school in washington to get her BFA. steve said that she spends her summers in norway (and speaks norwegian) with some of their family. he was impressed by the coincidence or serendipity of our meeting and the similarities between my story to his daughter's. steve has been trying to dissuade his daughter from going to photography school because "you can't make money from photography". i told him that i, too, had been prodded to get a degree to "fall back on" and that basically just put me in quite a bit of debt. i explained to him that while i am not the best example, it is quite possible to make money from photography.
steve and i had a wonderful little chat on the sidewalk. this was definitely one of those days where i find myself smiling when i consider all the steps that went into meeting the stranger. a stop sign here, a missed turn there, being seated at this particular time, saying no to more coffee, leaving when i did, taking a few extra seconds to put on my mittens... it's all so charming. steve and i parted ways and i took a seat on some nearby steps to take some notes. as i was writing, i noticed that a toyota 4-runner drove by and then started backing up. i looked up to see the driver leaning over and looking at me. i anticipated defending my position on the steps, but it turned out to be a friend of mine who i run into in times like this. he lives at the corner...
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