I try to walk every day I can for four miles or so.  Probably the best thing I do as I think an awful lot during the hour I’m out there without the cell or other distractions. One of the things I thought about was an excursion to Riegelsville, one of the small towns in Bucks County along the Delaware River.  I hope to do a long-term project that looks at the towns that dot the shoreline of the Delaware River here in Bucks County and those across the many tiny bridges that cross over onto the New Jersey side.  While walking around town on a somewhat cold and increasingly dreary day this last fall, I a saw a sign for a guitar maker with an arrow pointing down the street. That’s like dangling a Bocce pizza from Buffalo (check it out … the best in the world in my humble opinion) under my nose!

Walked into the quaint shop and met the luthier who makes the beautiful stringed instruments. After chatting for a while about the electric and acoustic guitars he builds along with music, being an audiophile and the resurgence of vinyl I asked if I could make a few photographs of him. No problem, so I did!  All and all a pretty good time!  I’ve talked about this before, but one of the things I really enjoy about photography is the people you meet along the way and perhaps get to know.  I think its part of the journey and can be as rewarding as the pictures you create. Sometimes you come up dry, but when you have these experiences it’s time well spent.  That may turn out to be the case for that outing, as I’ve yet to make a print of a particular negative I am still ruminating over.

After I left the guitar shop I saw a woman standing on her front porch …  said hello and asked if I could make a photograph.  The response was “a picture of me smoking a cigarette … no thanks”. Some would have made the picture anyway. I didn’t and think that is the way it should be.

So one great encounter and one only so-so. That doesn’t discourage me at all. Because at least with one I had a wonderful time, learned something … and may end up yet having a photograph worth printing in the bargain.