Serendipity

Things just happen.  There I was in the middle of nowhere Iowa, this afternoon, going into a McDonald's to refill my coffee travel mug and I spotted this young woman out in the field, adjacent to the restaurant's parking lot, grazing some horses.  I put the coffee down and took my camera out from behind the seat and walked over.  I talked with her and her mother for a while taking pictures the entire time—dad was busy repairing a blown out tire on the trailer.  They were nice people from some place I'd never heard of in Iowa, on their way to a rodeo in some other place I'd never heard of.  What did I know, I was on my way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  I asked the girl's mother for an email address and sent them this photo when I got to my room this evening.

Two things are important here.  One is keeping your eyes open all the time and being receptive to your surroundings.  You never know what will pop up.  The other is a public relations kind of thing.  When you take a photo like this, you should offer a copy to the subject. There's a second part of that interaction that is very important as well.  Always follow through and send the copy.  If they don't have an email address handy, give them yours.  There's no excuse for not having a business card.  You can buy the blanks at an office supply store and print them yourself on any inkjet printer.