I’ve been shooting in and around my own ‘hood. My ‘hood is racially diverse, but has some trouble with gangs. My ‘hood has horses and tons of rancheros. My ‘hood has the best tacos on the planet. There is one street that has the most amazing street art. As I was doing errands, I decided to detour down this street. Immediately, I saw a tamale cart. I made an illegal U-turn and proceeded to buy the most delicious green chile tamale. This is so LA! 

I kept driving down the street and this awesome dude caught my eye. Well, to be honest, his rad, extended beach cruiser caught my eye. He had pulled over for a smoke. I made another illegal U-turn (don’t tell the Bean) and hopped out to ask him if I could take his photo. I explained the project and told him he caught my eye because he looked so cool. I totally embarrassed him! We had a great little chat and he told me his name was Fernando. He had found the bike half-buried in his boss’ backyard. Fernando restored it and it’s beautiful. I told him I would text him the photo so he gave me his digits. What he said next just blessed me. “Hey, I can let you know if I see any weird shit around for you to come photograph!” I almost died with delight. 

Here’s the sad part of the story. When I got home, I saw that my camera settings were way off and the photos I took of Fernando were blown out. I was devastated. And now I have to text him and tell him I ruined the photo. But then I thought, I will see him again and I bet if I asked him, I could try and photograph him again. After all, this is our ‘hood. 

Lesson learned. Don’t rush when photographing a newly made friend.