A week ago I walked into town for the annual Doylestown Memorial Day Parade. First, I always photograph the festivities. Then, when the parade is over I walk over to the cemetery for the memorial service. As the parade was about to begin a teenager that looked vaguely familiar came up to me proudly holding his Canon AE-1 camera and zoom lens. He said that he saw me at last year’s parade and it had inspired him to start making pictures with film!  Damn! It turns out he lives around the corner from me! I told him give me a call and I’d give him a darkroom tour. We’re going to get together after school is done for the year. Maybe I can help him a little bit.

If you can, I think it’s a noble idea to pay it forward. I’m trying to do it with the high schoolers I’ve been working with and maybe I can do it here. I’m also talking to an art center about working with their teenage program and hope to be starting that in the fall. And why not? Kids are great and a lot of fun to be around!

I wish I had someone to show me a thing or two when I was young. Things worked out fine, but it might have been a little less painful if I had someone to give me a few pointers like “your meter only sees the world in middle grey”.  It took me awhile to realize what was going on. Books helped, though trying to fully understand Ansel Adams’ explanation of the Zone System was challenging. Thankfully I stumbled across Fred Picker’s little book The Zone VI Workshop and everything finally made sense!

As always the parade was fun and the memorial service was special. I’m grateful to all those that served and especially to those that made the ultimate sacrifice so I could enjoy all the fun that Memorial Day is.

I think I made a few good pictures and ended up with my own opportunity to pay it forward.

Stay well,

Michael