As I stared down the most photographed alley in California I felt an opportunity. My son and I were walking downtown. Escaping a too small hotel room for a few hours before “bedtime.”

As we walked past the alley I asked him, “Ya wanna take a picture here?”

“Nah … let’s keep going.” He though I meant me taking a picture of him. I love taking pictures of my son, he’s photogenic in ways I never was. I feel pride … hope when I see pictures of him.

“No I mean, can you take a picture of ME?”

“Sure.”

Now there are lots of pictures you can take in Gumball Alley. You can stick out your tongue, inching oh so close to calamity, you can play it cool, but I wanted to show my son how to lose himself in his environment. He’s so self-conscious at this age- so attuned to what others think of him. I wanted to show him how you wipe your mind clean and just react to your environment. I had no clue, no idea what I wanted to look like, I just reacted. I wanted to show him I trusted his vision of my moment. I cleared my mind, looked down and said, “ready?”

“Yup.”