Paul Lester Photo

I don’t know if you are a Jim Carrey fan or not, but there was one movie that he did I really liked. At the time, I thought that it was just pure fun; however, later, as in this morning, it took on greater meaning as I thought about this post. The name of the movie is The Mask. In it, Jim Carrey plays a character named Stanley Ipkiss: Here is a brief synopsis:

Stanley Ipkiss is a bank clerk that is an incredibly nice man. Unfortunately, he is too nice for his own good and is a pushover when it comes to confrontations. After one of the worst days of his life, he finds a mask that depicts Loki, the Norse night god of mischief. Now, when he puts it on, he becomes his inner self: a cartoony romantic wild man.

This movie probably would have be more appropriately named: The unmasking.
I really like Jungian psychology. I find it interesting and it rings true to my heart. He talks lots about shadows and about personae. That is, we all have multiple masks that we wear. Often times we become confused when we believe the mask to be who we are, instead of a roll that we play. I wear a number of masks: Software Developer, father, husband, friend, photographer, etc.

Carl Jung said:

The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.

Believe it or not, I’m not, in my opinion, an outgoing person(ality). I have no problem with lots of alone time. However, it is rather odd that when I pick up a camera, I become this more outgoing, chatty, open person. It just seems to happen. It happened again this evening. I’ve found that my cure for the blues is to grab the camera, go to downtown Charleston and walk around shooting photos. So, I went today.

My first stop was East Bay Coffee. This was where the poetry reading was held last week. I stopped in for one of their delicious scones and a glass of iced tea. While in there, I was chatting with the the lovely lady pictured here who works there. She commented on my cool, old-looking camera. I was touting the Olympus 35 LC today. Yes, it is old. It was made in 1965! After a trip to camerarepair.com, it’s in tip-top shape and working well. Anyway, I struck up a conversation with her and she told me about her having been in a commercial back in Philadelphia. At that time, she had been working in tourism and she wondered how many photos of her existed in complete strangers’ photo albums. She said that she’d been photographed hundreds of times. So, since she was so used to it, I continued to snap away!

While sitting at the table enjoying my iced tea, I happened to look out of the window and see Justin riding down the street. Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch up to him. Just was was the guy that I talked about in this post. Not to fear though, I did catch up with him later on another street! After I finished my tea, I said goodbye and headed on down Bay street looking for some shots.

I ran into a cute, vivacious, 20-something young lady named Coco. She was working for Blue Green Resorts. Her job was to stand in the doorway and offer to set people up for tours, etc. We chatted for about 30 or 40 minutes and she told me how rude people could be and that they often ignored her or were downright rude. She said that she didn’t care, though. She’d developed a think skin. She said that it was made worthwhile by meeting cool people like me. Awww shucks!!!

Off I went on another adventure. I set off to find Justin. I knew that he usually parked his bicycle rickshaw on Bay Street, near the market. He wasn’t there. I kept heading down Bay St. and within 2 blocks, I found him. He recognized me immediately, came over to shake my hand, asked about my wife and two sons and if Pedro had found a job, etc. Of course, I asked about him and his jobs and found that he had taken on yet another job! 3 jobs, now. However, the newest job is teaching creative writing at a high school for 3 hours per week! After I chatted with him for about 20 minutes, I headed on home.

Although I truly had a great time, now it’s time for some ‘me’ time. Time to recharge. That took a lot out of me, but not in a negative way because I got so much from it. Oddly, Charleston feels like home. I’m becoming a fixture. People are starting to know me and I them. Had you told me that more than a year ago, I certainly would not have believed you! Now, when people ask me where I’m from, I simply say Summerville, SC. I don’t go on with the Charlotte/Charleston explanation. I feel like I really do live here.

Here’s another shot from the poetry reading. This time, the person is, shall we say, less than enthusiastic. Actually, I believe that this was the reader’s daughter, so she’d probably heard a number of these poems before. Either that, it just didn’t thrill her. At least she didn’t have her iPod turned on, though it is sitting close by.

As I mentioned in my lessons learned post, it would have been nice to have some 400 speed film; however, my not having it was not for lack of trying. I looked online for camera stores in the Charleston, SC area. I found only a couple. One store didn’t carry B&W film, the other, a rather large national chain, Wolf Camera, had only two rolls available. One roll of Tri-X, 24 exposures, the other of some type that needs to be developed in C-41 chemistry. Mind you I didn’t say only two ‘types’, I said only two rolls! That’s it. The clerk said that they don’t carry much B&W film (that’s an understatement) and when they do, the only people who are interested in it are photography students, so the few rolls that they do get go quickly.

I remember when there was a camera store on most every corner, expired film was cheap and easy to get, and the variety was great. However, things change and it’s hard for a brick & mortar to compete with the likes of B&H. Well, I made it through with the FP4. The festival is finished now, but I still want to do more indoor type shooting. I have 5 rolls of Ilford HP-5 on the way from B&H. There are some historic churches that I’d like to visit in downtown.