Updates will be somewhat sporadic over the next month, as I’m back in the Bay until January. Still shooting, just working on a tiny netbook for my post, which can be plodding and tiresome under the best of circumstances.
One of my first stops after I got back was to my favorite barbershop, just down the street from work. It’s about as classic a barbershop as you can get without fabricating one. Five old men and their chairs, all crammed into a shop no larger than maybe 10’x20′, simultaneously cutting hair and arguing with each other over politics or current events or sports or who-knows-what. I’d wanted to shoot in there for the longest time but always felt like I’d be intruding, especially on the customers.
While getting my haircut from my favorite barber, Jimmy, I found out he was going to be retiring on New Year’s. I figured there was no better time to ask if I could take some shots while getting my hair cut and he said he had no problem with it. Ironically, I got no shots of Jimmy himself. Though I had “permission,” I still felt somewhat self-conscious taking pictures of people at work as well as the customers getting their hair cut. I did manage to get a few decent shots, though not as many as I’d have liked.
I suppose I’m going to have to completely conquer my “photographer’s shyness” if I want to improve as a street and reportage shooter.
