My husband and I moved to our new city in November. For months venturing outside required 20 minutes of layering and once there, not a whole lot of exploring. We got to know bits of downtown but our attempts consisted mainly of quick walks from the car to a museum or restaurant and the thought of taking off gloves for camera manipulation was short-lived.
Thankfully this week’s challenge arrived simultaneously with warming rays of sunshine, kinder winds, and the desire to be outside walking.
Which brings me to the O! Guy, also known as Relaxed Dude. He stands at the corner of 13th and Howard in Omaha, across from the Chamber of Commerce and he’s all about being a welcoming figure to the city. His head even turns towards you when you approach him.
To read more about the O! Guy click here.
I don’t often photograph people. My husband will tell you that I will talk to anyone and everyone about anything and everything but I’m a bit shy about intruding into someone’s life with a camera. Somehow there’s a boundary there that I’m reluctant to cross and I’ve struggled with including people in my photos for decades. As a result I take you first to the actual streets themselves, the lines and the shadows, the alleyways, the things I find interesting about cities, the things you don’t find in the suburbs.
And finally I get to the life. I tiptoe there because again, I don’t want to intrude, but I do manage to get a few shots of what this city is about to become as it awakens from a very cold winter and it’s citizens begin to live a life outside instead of hunkering down, away from the below zero wind chills.
Before next week’s challenge distracts me perhaps I should go downtown and really stretch myself by finding people to photograph that I actually manage to talk to. Stay tuned for a Part Two for this particular challenge…..maybe…..
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