Billy, the Carpenter

Just Another Day On the Job. Boulder, Colorado, 2015

…at least that is what it said on his construction helmet.

I posted this image a couple of weeks ago in a blog post about street photography (Street Portrait Teamwork, February 10, 2015), but I am posting it again for a couple of reasons.

First, I have reworked it a bit and I think it came out a bit better this time.

And, second, to tell you…the rest o’ the story (“Paul Harvey…Good Day!”)…

After I re-tweaked this file with Nik/Google and Photoshop, I printed two copies on 8 1/2 x 11 Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper, let them dry for a day, signed them, coated them with Premier Art Print Shield, placed them inside plastic photo sleeves with a business card, and headed out to Billy’s work site on Pearl Street–“The Hole”, where the Boulder Daily Camera used to have its headquarters. (As an aside, yesterday, a couple of fun-loving local skydivers tried a little BASE jumping action from the 200′ crane on the site. Pretty dern low fer that kinda nonsense if’n ya ask me.)

I didn’t find Billy–he had just finished his shift for the day–but I did find a couple of guys who knew him. I handed over the photos in a large vanilla envelope (that’s what we called these envelopes as kids). They promised to hang the photos in the work shack so everyone could throw darts at Billy. Thus assured that Billy would eventually get his photographs from his buddies, I headed home with a smile upon my countenance. Gotta love those guys!

The lesson here is this…After you capture an image of someone on the street, or in public, try to go back, find them, and give them a copy of the print. Who knows where it might lead. At the very least you make their day, make friends, and foment good karma. And, “what goes around comes around“, as my old bus driver Mr. Reynolds used to say. (He would also usually add, “And I ain’t justa whistlin’ Dixie, neither!”)