I bounced out of bed early(ish) today and was already home from my icy-ditch shoot by one, slightly slowed by an interaction of sorts with a young lad of about 3 maybe, ('Hello. My name is Ronnie') who was out walking with his mum when they had the audacity to encroach on my shoot to cross to another field. My guess was he may not have a dad-shaped object in his life as he was keen to stop and hang out with someone vaguely resembling what one might look like. 'What's your name?' he eventually continued. I could just about muster an answer to that but any meagre attempt at conversation on my part only went as far as suggesting he needs a hat as it's so cold, (minus 6 wind-chill). He pondered that for a moment, ruffling his hair and smiling while totally failing to explain the oversight. Perhaps he has a similar ineptness at lengthy man-conversation although admittedly has had less time to get up to speed than me. He then wanted to be helpful and started to look around for stones to throw on the ice which I was about to photograph, before his mum considerately intervened on aesthetic grounds and coaxed him away to the next field. When I'd done with my photo-stint he noticed and called out a goodbye and heartily waved like a warm-hearted Tim Cratchit. I paused and returned the arm movement but more Scrooge-like but which seemed to be sufficient. No words. Best way.
Home and camera battery recharged and off to get a #1 bus to just south of town to the 8' high black-painted hoardings at the closed down mental hospital, for one final push for something or other then wrap up both of these incidental side-projects.
During this second shoot I encountered another young lad keen to interact. A bit older this one, maybe 25. Someone, presumably his gf, had seen me wandering about and encouraged him to investigate what that ominous Spirit of Christmas Past-like figure in a hoody was up to. He didn't come out with it and say so, so we had some scarcely intelligible, odd conversation. Him out of breath from running. I did wonder if he might be out-of-hours security for the site (there were numerous CCTV cameras along the fence) or if he actually had his own mental problems it was all so roundabout with him cautiously not saying anything straight out. He reminded me of a lad I had worked with so was quite at ease with him. He was interrogating me, without words but with an intense stare, which I returned less intensely, amused. I must have picked the skill up from Ron earlier and went ahead and introduced myself and I think he may then have felt a bit foolish and shook hands, 'I'm Ollie'. Besides that he did and said some strange things that baffled me further - perhaps I was incorporated into his performance art piece - but eventually he left me to it. I kept on capturing shadows till the sun said, 'no more'.
Wet fields, ditches, ice, shadows. People.
