In his book, A Touch of Wonder, The chapter called, The Gift of Bright Encounters---Unlikely Friendships has long been memorable to me. Over the past two weeks, I have had two of those encounters. Normally, I might have one or two a year, let alone one a week back to back. Over the course of time since, a lot of thought has been given to those two encounters. One was sparked by the laid back, easy going young man who encountered me with a question: "What are you taking pictures of?" My reply was "chimneys". He went into the store where I was sitting on a bench outside. Quickly, he came back out and in a super-laid back way said, "I forgot my wallet" as he strolled down the sidewalk and disappeared around the corner of the building. Shortly, he returned, "You got me thinking about chimneys. I've seen three around the corner." That was the day that I got up from the bench and was about to go around the opposite corner of the building to New York Sub, where the bench had given me a break to just think about architecture and the chimneys that I had been focusing on, when I looked up and saw the 6 contrails of high altitude commercial jets on vectors going east as the sun gleamed off the planes showing that they were traveling at about 5-mile separations, a standard for the FFA Traffic Centers. Also, unusual to see them at all in that formation. Generally, you see one here or one there or two crossing in an 'X' but never 6 side by side.
The second encounter happened this past Wednesday on my way to my ill fated doctors appointment that was scheduled by me a day before my doctor's office called me from last years notes the doctor had put into the system to schedule. My appointment was not until 3:15 had it gone as planned. I had planned to do some fall shooting before taking the bus from the train station that would take me to in front of the doctors office. The park was busy and filled with people being served a holiday meal near the train car of historic times. Others were looking at the City of Plano's Christmas Tree which was already up for the holidays below the gazebo and in front of the lake and fountains. I walked over the bridge to the other side of the lake and from the walk that winds it way through the park saw a young man in a black cowboy hat at a picnic table playing his guitar, singing. When I had entered the park from the train platform's access, I had heard music coming through the breezes, carried by a moderate, but pleasant autumn wind more like summer than fall with temps in the low 80s.
I walked over to him and ask if he would mind if I took a couple of pictures of him and his guitar and case on the picnic table as he kept doing what he had been doing. He said to me that he didn't mind and I walked around the edge of the lake and then walked up by the side from a distance and got a couple of angle shots that I felt fit the mood of the music that I was hearing. It was one of those encounters where I had explained to him that I have long ago started shooting images of musical instruments and artist out in the open rather than a concert. The exception was stage shots of artist at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival.
Both of these encounters I have written about in past daily post from those days but as a background to the story, Gordon, wrote that, "afterwards you know that you have learned something valuable---something that can't always be described exactly, or measured of explained,but something. When on of those luminous encounters take place, most people feel an impulse to preserve it, somehow".
In these two encounters, something valuable was this: Encounter #1, the young man was very much like me in that he didn't get excited not having his wallet. He simply carried on to solve the problem and with the return letting me know that he had also learned something---chimneys were on the mind. He was even counting them. Encounter #2, the young man had written original music and published on You Tube. Its what I once called Space Music. It is soothing. Great to fall asleep to and relax. We later, through e-mail, talked about his music and how I have long considered music and photography to be the 'twins of creativity'. We now follow each other on social media. His being my blog and me being his You Tube channel: etherealfrequency.
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