You Stir Up Too Much Trouble
Oxford County Pleasantness
Well, I really screwed up. I joking let ChatbotAI white my newsletter last week but if ever there was a time to do it it would be now. I'm writing this on Wednesday morning after a trip to the optometrist so my eyes are dilated and I can't see what I'm writing.
It's been a wild week. I spent most of the weekend recovering from "White Mountain Fever," (i.e. food poisoning from a vegan restaurant in Conway, NH). I was in The White Mountains for a big shoot that was pretty weird and that I can't share any pictures from. Part of the assignment included photographing head shots of the large staff of a company, but no one told the staff members, mostly blue collar New England guys, that there would be a photographer there or why. Almost everyone I encountered assumed that I was from the local newspaper and many felt the need to let me know that they don't appreciate me, my newspaper, or the newspaper's politics. "You guys stir up too much trouble and you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!" Almost every person declined to be photographed. I was not hired by a newspaper, I was hired by a digital marketing company by way of the boss of the company. When I explained this they would apologize and say it was okay, but then when I explained that it would be for marketing, mostly for the company's website and Facebook page they declined again. "You ain't spreading my face on the internet!" said one guy. It was a tedious assignment. The food poisoning was just the icing on the cake.
The drive back home took me through Oxford County, Maine. A place I spent a lot of time in in the spring and summer of 2020. It was the height of the pandemic and I was working as a US Census Enumerator. I was hired to work in coastal York County, where I live, and it was a breeze. My job was to go around to all the residences that didn't fill out their census info. Since so much of the housing here is seasonal or rental beach houses almost all of the non-respondent addresses were empty vacation homes. It was great, I just walked around beach towns all day and knocked on doors knowing that no one would answer. I almost single-handedly completed my region and as a reward my bosses sent me out to tackle other, "difficult" regions. Regions like Oxford County, where the non-responding addresses belong to people intentionally not filing instead of seasonal residents too rich and busy to check one extra box on their full time residence census form. In Oxford County people were very wary of the government and really didn't appreciate me or my government-branded clipboard. While covering Oxford County more than one person threatened my life. One guy gave me a 10 second head start back to my car before he let his dog out.
Driving back from the shoot last week I was treated to a wild cornucopia of political signs. This is one of the tamer ones, believe it or not.
Oxford County Unpleasantness
In happier news I got more film back this week from my Mamiya RB67. I've been trying desperately to get people to let me shoot portraits with it so I broke it out a few weeks ago at the styled shoot I already wrote about, much to the dismay of everyone else there. The results are great! I want to do so many more portraits with it. Landscapes are cool but I'm over it.
York or Ogunquit Cottages
James at Wells Harbor
Dover, New Hampshire Tower
Styled Shoot in Biddeford
Wells Harbor
Footbridge Beach, Ogunquit, Maine
No shoots booked til late April. Got some travel to Florida scheduled. Should be fun. I haven't flown since before the pandemic. It's totally normal again, right??