Story Frame 71 – About F*cking Time!

Journal entry … 1 October 2015 – I woke up, turned on the computer and, as I was making myself a cup of coffee, opened a message informing me a photograph of mine had been picked by National Geographic as one of their “Photos of the Day.”

It’s a photograph I took at sunset at the Mountain State Fair – a silhouette of a little boy jumping into the sky on a harness as cable cars pass by in the air above him. I titled it “Skywalker.”

I am super pleased and excited about this.

But I’m not the type to feel ‘humbled and honored and blessed’ – I’ve seen those words so often, they feel disingenuous. Picked up and parroted by the thousands, they have become the clichéd, go-to phrase, used so often they’ve lost their punch and with it, any semblance of sincerity.

I’ve worked too long and too hard to get to this moment. Instead of being humbled or honored, someone picked at random to receive a dose of good luck, I picture myself, a little stick figure standing on top of a mountain with hands clenched into tight little balls at her sides as she shouts up to the stars in the night sky –

“IT’S ABOUT F*CKING TIME!”

Working on other people’s documentary films now provided enough financial security that I was able to work side gigs based upon my two passions – travel writing and street photography.

In 2008, I spent nearly two weeks solo traveling in Africa, photographing, researching and writing a book about my grandmother’s adventures there. In 2011, I wrote a published travel article about my adventures in Reykjavik and beyond, "Hiking with Trolls & Elves in Iceland.” In 2013, I spent a week in Barcelona, wandering the streets with my camera, not photographing Gaudi architecture as planned, but instead photographing the stories of love I saw all around me.

In the coming years, I’d write stories based upon my travels and street photography in Athens, Lisbon, Finland, San Miguel de Allende, Austin, Salt Lake City, Rome, Southern Italy, Poland and Paris. In 2016, a travel feature I’d written about “Getting Naked with a Dragon in Helsinki” was published. And in 2019, I’d be a semi-finalist in an international Atlas Obscura competition with a $15,000 prize – to travel and write!

And of course, there were always plenty of stories to tell, and photographs to take, in my own little town of Asheville.

Even though I had helped create a couple of documentaries at the documentary workshop that actually had my name on them, and even though I’d worked with dozens of other filmmakers in support of their films, this little seal of approval from National Geographic was the moment I felt I’d finally gotten my first real break as an artist myself – and for something that was my vision and my own interpretation of the world around me. What I was capable of creating had finally been recognized.

I internalized this moment into the very fabric and fiber of my body. It even infiltrated my dreams – dreams that within days materialized into a paid professional photography gig.

Journal entry … 7 October 2015 – Last night I dreamed I’d become recognized as a ‘professional’ photographer, finally! I remember walking through a hallway, wearing blue and purple, and being congratulated by people. I don’t know what the exact situation was. All I know is that it felt completely natural to me.

Journal entry … 19 October 2015 – I just spent two hours talking with Stacy L. at Dobra Tea House in Asheville this evening, discussing her ‘vision’ for her wedding day over cups of “Memories of Prague” tea. She wants me to be her photographer!

I told her I wasn’t a wedding photographer, that I was more a street photographer, more journalistic in capturing stories and people, not ceremonies.

“That’s why I want you to do it,” she said.

I met Stacy two years earlier on a purple party bus tour of Asheville with Sirius.B – a self-described Absurdist Gypsy Folk Funk Punk band.

Halfway through the tour, the bus stopped for refreshments at the Double Crown bar in West Asheville. As Stacy got off the bus in front of me, I could see colorful tattoos on her back peeking out around the edges of her sleeveless white top. When I asked her about them, she told me she had an entire back piece.

“Would you like to see it?” she asked.

“Absolutely!” I said.

She turned her back to me and pulled her top up to her shoulders, revealing a colorful and detailed tattoo. It’s a story of survival, she said.

When I told her I had a growing collection of photographs of body art, she said it was fine to take photos of hers, if I wanted to. Which, of course, I did.

And that’s how we first became acquainted with one another. I love meeting people that way. Tattoos have started many interesting conversations for me. Asking them, tactfully, about their body art, is a great way to find out interesting things and stories about people. Since then, we’d run into one another several times on hiking adventures in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

When I asked her why she was asking me to photograph her wedding, she said she’d picked me for three reasons: 1) I hike, 2) she likes my photography, and 3) I’m “unconventional.”

This made me extremely happy. She gets me.

She’s planning to have the ceremony on top of a mountain at Max Patch– a favorite spot for both of us – and on Leap Day. I don’t get this right, we’d have to wait another four years to try again. No pressures there!

So, my first professional shoot will be on the top of a mountain in winter. Ignoring my qualms, I was so excited about the gig, I said yes.

Finally, I am now a for-real, professional, hired – and paid –photographer.

About f*cking time!

Kristin Fellows is a published writer, world traveler, and a well-seasoned documentary film consultant. When not writing, Kristin can often be found listening to someone’s story or behind the lens of one of her cameras.

More about Kristin @ kristinfellowswriter.com