The challenge of my 52 week project is to keep shooting every week and for Week 3 I was a day late in taking the picture. You might ask well if you were a day late why are you not posting the picture until Friday – almost a week later? The photograph below I was really on the fence on in terms of posting it because it has an obvious flaw – the handle of Robert’s cart going through the frame into his neck. After thinking about it for a week I decided to post it – the goal is not to post 52 perfect pictures, its to meet the objective of shooting more, photographing people and getting me out of my comfort zone.

I met Robert on Mill Avenue and when I asked to take his picture he was really interested in what I was going to do with it. I told it I would post it on my blog as part of an assignment and he seemed very skeptical. I talked with him for a while about what he was doing on Mill and he mentioned that he likes to practice on Mill and is hopeful that someone will like his music enough to leave a tip. He also talked quite a bit about how people like to give him a hard time for playing a non traditional instrument and how people can be very rude with comments, etc which is very unfortunate. After talking with him during this time Robert warmed up a bit and agreed to allow me to take some pictures. I have a ton of pictures where Robert refused to look at the camera, as if he was afraid the camera would take something from him. On a couple occasions he looked up and as I moved around him I was able to take the picture below.

Hi expression and the fact that even while looking at the camera he was still partially hidden beneath his hat struck a chord with me based on my experience with Robert. I showed him the picture above on the camera’s LCD screen and while he seemed pleased he still seemed afraid that I was going to modify the picture or do something to him before posting it here – I assured him that would not be the case (outside converting the photo to B&W). Robert, I kept true to my word – you allowed me to take your picture for my project and here it is, flaw and all. While I didn’t meet my deadline I think I have a photograph that captured the essence of my time with Robert. My week 4 deadline is approaching tomorrow, I still have time to make it!