Meet Steve: Today I stopped by a place I know of where I can get good close shots of passing trains while still remaining on public property. When I got out of my truck I was...

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Today I stopped by a place I know of where I can get good close shots of passing trains while still remaining on public property. When I got out of my truck I was immediately greeted by Steve. He saw me aiming my camera down the track and asked me if I knew of something coming. I said "No, I'm just an amateur photographer wanting to get a few shots." He then talked non-stop for the next 45 minutes, telling me all about his life and places he'd lived. He had been a trucker and had made good money but was now down on his luck and living on social security. He has no regrets though. He was well spoken, and apparently well read, and had very strong opinions on Wall Street, the government, guns, religion and politics. He seemed pretty eccentric, but harmless, and kind of interesting. He had been parked there for quite a while watching trains pass by. We have about 72 trains a day go through here, so it kept him entertained. I was glad to have met him.

This is Steve

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Zebra5 Loc: Area 51

Great portrait

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Zebra5 wrote:

Great portrait

Thanks Zebra5, I converted to B&W in Perfect Effects 8. I was hoping for an opportunity to take a portrait such as this to try and this chance encounter was the perfect opportunity.

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

Very well done street shot and I love the narrative. I bet you really enjoyed your time with him; and that's a good thing! I think he enjoyed talking as much as you enjoyed listening. Thanks for sharing.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

To borrow some words from Rod Stewart, Every picture tells a story and there is certainly a story or two on Steve's face. The b&w treatment was a very nice touch.

John Lawrence

A wonderful picture and story, Whuff. Street photography at its very best. Thanks for sharing your time with Steve.

John

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Photo Girl wrote:

Very well done street shot and I love the narrative. I bet you really enjoyed your time with him; and that's a good thing! I think he enjoyed talking as much as you enjoyed listening. Thanks for sharing.

He did enjoy talking. He's had a lot of experiences and lived a lot of places. Thanks for looking.
Walt

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Mike D. wrote:

To borrow some words from Rod Stewart, Every picture tells a story and there is certainly a story or two on Steve's face. The b&w treatment was a very nice touch.

Thank you Mike. I knew before I took the photo that I wanted to convert it to B&W.
Walt

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

John Lawrence wrote:

A wonderful picture and story, Whuff. Street photography at its very best. Thanks for sharing your time with Steve.

John

I was glad to be able to fill some of his time today. I think he may have been a bit lonely as well.
Walt

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Very nice portrait of Steve. It is nice when people surprise us and blast our preconceived ideas about them. I sat at a picnic table at a truck stop with a trucker one time who wanted to talk philosophy - but I mean Plato and Socrates classical philosophy. Being the techie type, he was way over my head. I was justly humbled.

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

Very nice story and portrait, thanks for sharing.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

sb wrote:

Very nice portrait of Steve. It is nice when people surprise us and blast our preconceived ideas about them. I sat at a picnic table at a truck stop with a trucker one time who wanted to talk philosophy - but I mean Plato and Socrates classical philosophy. Being the techie type, he was way over my head. I was justly humbled.

Yup - I work in a factory and we've got all types of people working there in the shop. We have folks who have been to college doing assembly work to a guy with no education beyond on the job electrician training that we've dubbed "Einstein" because he loves to explain every technical detail of anything mechanical, electrical, or electronic as he goes about his work.
Walt

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

TraceyG wrote:

Very nice story and portrait, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for looking and commenting.
Walt

Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

Sometimes a photo can stir powerful memories.

Your beautiful portrait of Steve took me back 43 years to a Sunday morning in church. When I walked into the sanctuary, my pastor was talking with a man who looked weathered and worn, like Steve. My young heart momentarily felt sorry for him, but then dismissed him as just another Chicago bum, probably looking for a meal. I'm sure my attention was turned to looking for Perry Hutchins, the cutest boy ever. I sat down next to his sister.

The service began with a prayer. We sang a song, the announcements were made ... and then the pastor introduced "Steve." Steve marched up to the pulpit, and the pianist began playing the first few measures of "The Holy City." When Steve opened his mouth, out came a trained, thundering tenor voice as I'd never heard.

Since then, I've never been afraid to strike up a conversation with someone who looks like Steve. Everyone has a story -- sometimes classics are hidden beneath tattered bindings.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Another "bum" story about a diamond in the rough - and really a tragic tail of what schizophrenia can do to a brilliant mind. When I went to college in Boston there was a "bum" who used to wander the nearby streets. Late one night he seemed to be shouting - I thought maybe he had lost his mind - but I stopped, and in fact he was delivering a very powerful speech to the darkened walls of a nearby building. I listened for a while, and given the references to the axis and Hitler I gathered that it was a speech originally given by Winston Churchill. I wondered if Churchill himself did such a powerful and eloquent job on it as I was hearing on that night. A month or so later, I saw him sitting in a chair at the corner drugstore - during cold weather they often let him sit inside during the day. He was staring into space reciting a poem about snow that sounded like Robert Frost. I asked the pharmacist about him. He told me that this man used to be an assistant professor of history at Harvard until he developed schizophrenia. What a tragic loss.