So there are two photo approaches taking place on this trip. When I’m at someone’s house, I use this opportunity to make a portrait of them and have a fun experience in the process, giving them a special thanks back for their kindness.
I’m also making constructed photographs in each city. So while I’m making these images on the trip, there can be anywhere from 1-3 scenes shot in a day. 200+ takes from each one. Then quickly pack up and either jump on the next local location, or hit the road to a new city. I get a chance to look over the various takes from each photo and make some initial selections of what might work out best, but I can’t seriously work on them until I’m in Maine and have some time to sit down and only focus on editing these images.
But aside from the portraits, I do want to show what all is happening in the other, primary part of the trip. So here is a potential edit from the scene in Fort Washington. I can’t say for certain if the various takes will make it in the final version, or if the color or contrast will be the same, but it’s a starting point to see!
(I also don’t want lots of early version images to pop up on Google image searches, hence the text to at least clarify what you are seeing in the image)
So Tuesday, June 1 started off with four hours of sleep. I finally went to sleep in Columbus between 8-9 AM. I had to be in Maryland in the evening, so my alarm was set for noon. By 1 PM, I said my goodbyes to the gang and was off on the road again. I’d say for the first hour, I was still going on adrenaline. By the second hour, somewhere around the West Virginia to Pennsylvania border, exhaustion started creeping up. Best way to solve that? Stop off in Wendy’s for a sitdown cheeseburger.
While I sat there eating, a teenage boy was being interviewed for a job there. Nothing abnormal, but the scene reminded me of the time I was interviewed to work at Chic-Fi-Lay during my first quarter at Louisiana Tech (and to this day, the only job I was ever fired from, but I suppose that’s a different tale). The seriousness the manager portrayed while conducting the interview, but his casualness to quickly strike up conversations with customers in line while this kid sat, stoically in his seat never flinching, just felt like entry-level employment.
Here’s a visual of my breakfast/lunch/energizer people watching…
So the meal done the trick. I was back on the road with a refreshed feeling. It was a total of 8-9 hours traveling. The drive went from Ohio, into West Virginia, into Pennsylvania, then West Virginia again… after driving easy flat, straight stretches of highway through Iowa, the Appalachian mountains were a sudden jolt. I think I reached an elevation of 2,300 feet, although typically hovered in the low to mid 1,000 range. Big difference between going up and down in the midwest and over here, is when you’re coming down there, the roads stay straight. Here, you get to swing some mild curves while picking up speed on the descent with 18-wheelers around you.
In Maryland, I stopped off for gas. Met a guy named Cory (a fellow redhead, I might add) who is a businessman in the area. He commented on my Louisiana plates and inquired about what brought me to Maryland, and I told him about the trip. Struck up a conversation, eventually even traded business cards. Who knows what it might lead to, but it’s always fun meeting random people while on the road.
So around 10 PM, I finally arrived in Fort Washington, Maryland, about 30 minutes south of Baltimore, to shoot with Jamar and his wife, Shaka. I’ve actually known Jamar for about 12 years now, dating back to time we spent in online wrestling-themed writing organizations. He’s building up his photography skills right now, too, so it felt like a good time to both catch up on life and maybe offer some advice while creating some imagery. His parents let us use their basement, so I set up a portrait session first and photographed the both of them. If you’ve been photographed in a portrait on this trip, you have an idea of some of the questions. Their answers were “milk,” too.
Then came time to set up a story scene. The original plan was to photograph the chachacha image, but his larger family was already in bed by the time of my arrival, and that image needs a decent-sized group of people. Soo… I decided to build a story around the elements of the living space. We incorporated the stairs leading down to the basement to make an evacuation scene. Took about three hours, from setup to breakdown, because the concept was being finessed as lights and angles were adjusted.
Around this time, I learned that my place to crash at in Baltimore fell through. After shooting, decided I’d have to get a hotel room. Jamar looked up some local Marriott rooms available using his employee discount and found one in Arlington, Virginia.
At this point, it’s past 4 AM, maybe even close to 5 AM. It’s been a long night of shooting and I’m still running on that little sleep I had back in Ohio. We packed up the vehicle and Jamar and Shaka led me through DC and into Virginia where the hotel was. I should add this was my first time in DC, so it was a treat to see the Capital, Monument, and Lincoln Memorial while cruising down the interstate with commuters getting a head-start on their workday.
We arrive in Arlington and find the Marriott. Here’s where it gets interesting. They head back to Maryland and I go inside. I tell them my name and say that Jamar will be back tomorrow with the paperwork they need before I check out, so I get the friends and family discount. Even though this was standard procedure with him in past dealings, this particular hotel needs the paperwork before I check in. So I quickly call Jamar and tell him this. It’s almost 5:30 AM, but they turn around and come back to the hotel. We figure it’d be an easy 3 minute printout of the form in their business lobby, then everyone can go to bed.
Except when Jamar gets to the computer, logs in, and pulls up the paperwork, their printer won’t print. We tried on every computer available in this area, and not a single one would print the form. So I go to the front desk and inform the worker that their printer isn’t working properly. He sends a guy over to see the situation. By see, I mean just literally see. The man, in so many words, goes “Well that’s weird that it isn’t printing. Hmm… well, we need that form to get the discount.”
So Jamar goes, “Well, here it is in your computer. And I am hitting print to print a copy on your printer. And, it isn’t working.”
“Well, we need that form to process it.”
“Your printer is not working. What are you expecting me to do?”
“Print that form.”
“It’s right here on this screen. I see it. You see it. Your hotel’s printer doesn’t.”
So the guy at the desk then says if Jamar has his employee ID, we’ll use that. Jamar goes, “I’ve been out all night and don’t typically carry that on me. The procedure I’m telling you has been standard in every other instance.”
“We need that form.”
Fine. At this point it’s around 6:30 AM. So we leave the hotel and decide to go to another hotel and use their business lobby computer and printer to print the form. After asking the front desk where it was, we informed that it only for guests. Well, yes.
We walk back out and at this point, due to the time in the morning, some space has freed up at his place so I can just crash there. So I cancel my hotel reservation (twice in two nights) and proceed to drive back into DC and through to Maryland. In a nice touch, where I’m staying is just off I-95, which is what I get on to head to North East, Maryland, later today.
As I write this, it’s almost 9 AM. I’m still running on the 4 hours of Ohio sleep and have driven 9 hours in-between, shots portraits and a nighttime exterior scene, been in and out and back in to a multitude of states and/or a district. But really, in the end, it’s all part of a journey that really shines when the plan changes a bit and the travel must adapt.
(and now, as I write this, it’s 1 AM on June 3… enjoy some production photos from the setup last night, courtesy of Jamar and Shaka Short!)
And the cast photo!
And here is video from a delirious 6 AM drive through DC. You can see the Washington Monument in the background at one point, but really what you don’t see is all of the typical traffic! Note to those reading this on facebook, the video won’t show up unless you view the original post by clicking the link at the bottom.
