The spotlight of today's blog post is a photo that incapsulates a change in my life. This photo was the product of the power of suggestion and timing. The reason this photo means so much to me is because it serves as a tipping point in my life.
In 2021 my best friends had left on a long trip and shortly there after moved to completely different states. I was already in a low place in my life. Living at home, I couldn’t find a job, and worst of all I didn’t believe in myself. It’s hard to do that when you don’t take care of yourself.
The home I was living in needed work to be done and so there was always someone there to deal with and or distract me from any kind of positive work. So I started going to a coffee shop twice a week. This place was awesome! No one wanted to talk to me. No one made comments about the work I wasn’t doing. I was able to truly be myself.
I started going more often when the main barista moved back home. I was a little worried it might lose the luster it had before but I could still apply to jobs. So I kept going. One day after getting a new lens I went to the coffee shop. So excited about my new lens and the beautiful summer rains I sat outside taking photos of the world around me.
At one point I take my eye away from the view finder a there is the owner of the shop trying to be careful not to step in my frame. A few awkward comments later she asks “hey, maybe you could do some shots for the shop sometime.”
Knowing in my head the framework of this job; having heard that phrase enough times to hear the subtextual ending “for free of course.” I said yes anyway because you don’t know if she will pay or not. But even more so because I was creatively excited to see what was to come from my new lens.
A week later I am going around shooting in the coffee shop for her and I start talking to the new barista. By her choice not mine. In that I had a wonderful time and got one of my favorite photos. “Focus”
After this photo shoot I became good friends with the barista her husband and the owner. These people opened the doors for me to full be myself again in a town I thought I had outgrown. They gave me the ability to look at the area I went to high school in as a new place full of new people for me to explore! They helped me change my perspective and ultimately helped me be better.