I was nearing completetion of my bike trip to Kentucky and back.  I was sunburned, tired, bug bitten, smelling TERRIBLY, sweaty, cellphone-less, but surprisingly happy because I knew that some things during my trip just didn’t matter.  This was the reason that I took this trip, so I didn’t have to worry.

As I say this, I’m remembering that I wanted to stop worrying about what people in the 21st century America worries about.  F*** fashion, being a slave to a clock and always having to be on time (some messed up, made up concept in itself), caring what people think, deciding where to party one night, caring about where I went and who I was with.  I know this all sounds selfish, but bear with me.

It’s not that I didn’t care about my friends, which is obviously not true.  I just wanted to get away from all the crap in my life that took me apart from what really matters.

When I say that I didn’t have to worry, that’s not necessarily true.  The things I worried about were much more natural.  Questions regarding where I was going to stay that night and where I was going to get my water next so I didn’t dehydrate were much more pressing questions than “when do I have to be at work tomorrow morning?”

This freedom allowed me to forget, just for a moment, about all this diluted reality that we deal with every day.  I miss that feeling every day and I think about it every day.  You may not have guessed it, but it’s there.

That being said, I’m not unhappy at all with my current state in life.  I’m making photos more than ever, meeting great people, and finding more in myself every day.  I feel really lucky to be where I am and be surrounded with such special people in my life.

I digress. Back to the photos.

I was looking for a place in town to sleep in Lawrenceville and about an hour after setting out, I found a little grass area next to a public library.  It was mabye around 6PM while I was looking, and I came across a boy.  This boy was maybe 6 years old and I had seen a glimpse of him while on my daily search of a place to sleep.

Now, keep in mind that on this trip I got promptly up at sunrise (or earlier) because of the birds.  I could count on them every morning to dress up as little alarm clocks.  I also went to bed as soon as the sun went down.  I would’ve gone to bed earlier but if you’ve ever tried falling asleep for a night in a public place in broad daylight, you know that it’s pretty uncomfortable knowing people can see you.

Anyway, despite being really tired from the ride that day, I came back to the general area where  I saw the boy and luckily found him.  I basically just started shooting photos and talking with him.  He was all dirty from a hard day of playing and he had no reservations about telling me about his favorite super heroes.

I ended up shooting photos of him for about 45 minutes and talking to his grandfather, who was a beer drinking fella, about auto racing.  Now, I don’t know ANYTHING about auto racing but he brought it back to a photographer that he knew at the racetrack.  Random!

Nicholas, the kid, had a sister (who’s name I forget) and they were having a blast together.  These below are some of my favorites.  I’ve been sitting on these ones for awhile now and I feel it’s finally time to let them loose.

When I see these, I think of everything that I went on my trip for.  When I look into Nicholas’ eyes, I see a kid with only one worry. What to play with next.  I’m infinitely envious of his happiness.  I suppose “ignorance is bliss” is a fitting saying for this moment.

That’s all for now, I feel good getting that out.  I guess when people look at these photos, try to just think about how much disillusion we have in our lives and maybe reconsider the notion that happiness comes from within and not from the external. I’m not much of an advice giver and I hope I haven’t lost all my readers by now.  Here’s your reward for staying with me until the end.  Look at that bliss… are you as jealous as I am? Shoot me some comments and let’s start a discussion.

Time was ticking and I decided to ask my friend and aspiring photographer/stylist Jessica Vanfleteren if she would help me style the shoot.  She was really happy to but unfortunately was unable to come on the trip with us.  She did, however, go with Lindsey and I to Urban Outfitters and H&M where she helped me pick out outfits for Lindsey to wear.  I ended up spending $300 at Urban Outfitters and $100 at H&M… Not too easy on the pocketbook.  We kept the tags on and I returned them today though, after some questioning about being harassed by the cashier about why they were being returned… Oops!

A few weeks ago I met Tyke Riggs at Lindsey’s b-day party and I found out that he made some super awesome jewelry.  I thought that it would go perfectly with this shoot and so I got ahold of him and was able to use some pieces.  All the bones/flower pieces are his, which he calls “Roadkill”.

We left Sunday night so that we could get there at sunrise to catch the sunlight when it’s the best.  The next morning we arrived at the dunes right around 6AM and found that it wasn’t open until 6 (should have preplanned that one).  This was terrible because I knew that the light then would not be nearly as good.  We somehow found a way to sneak in (no joke) through the campground area and were able to shoot shortly thereafter.

We shot until about 8 or 9 and then meandered around in the empty state park for awhile.  Later on, storms were on the horizon and I thought it’d be great if we could get some shots where the sky was stormy.  We got out and shot a little bit and proceeded to get completely drenched by the storm.  Photo shoots in the rain are fun!  We then went and got lunch, relaxed for awhile and then shot some more in the evening and then packed up and left for home.

Lindsey was a real trooper because we ended up climbing the big main dune 3 times and she was sick, but she totally put up with my demands the whole day.  She’s always a pleasure to work with!

We did three total looks, although I brought more clothes for more looks. It didn’t really make sense to do more with the amount of time good light that we had. I really wanted to use more of the Roadkill jewelry but it didn’t seem to fit with all of the outfits.  I’ll definitely try to use his pieces in the future though, so look out for it.  That’s all of my rambling for now…