Intensely

chaotic. Stressful. Tired. Whatever.

That past few days have been so intense. I arrived Sunday afternoon in St. James, Missouri for the 60th Missouri Photo Workshop. The workshop premise is that participants converge on one small town in Missouri, this year it's St. James, to rake through the town, find a photo story to pursue, and then make it happen. All in about four days, if you're lucky.

I was lucky and my editors Rita Reed and Danny Wilcox Frazier accepted my proposal and my first couple days of shooting went well. But last night I ran into some problems when my subject got spooked by having me around so much. But after hours of talking and thinking, being consulted by my mentors, I met back up with my subject, Angie, and her husband, Eugene, spoke with them honestly about why I want to be in their lives and why it's important. I also brought them a couple prints to help show what I'm actually doing.

Final day of shooting is Friday morning and cards are due by noon. Then the workshop is capped off by a gallery of all 40 photographers stories on display at a school in town, and I'm guessing there might be a party afterwards... just maybe.

I'll post the story when it's finished. But until then here are some singles from the first morning of beating around town looking for something intriguing.