OTR Trucker Project: A Potenial Participant

*** UPDATE: ***
Went out on a ride with Lane in March.View my post and photos here.

Photographers they say, should always have a personal project in the works or at least thinking about it. My slow moving project is documenting over the road truck drivers. I traveled with a couple drivers a few years back, but for extenuating circumstances they were unable to continue with the project.  After a couple of years of putting the project idea out there with no prospects, I was feeling like the project had reached a dead end. Given the transient nature of the trucking life, it's a challenge to find a willing subject.

I was happy to see that Lane, a Facebook "friend" I had never met in person, was on his way south from Minneapolis. I sent him a message saying I'd meet him at the TA Truck Stop just north of Madison if he had time to stop. The timing to Madison from his location was just right for an overnight stop, so we arranged to finally meet.

Lane is an interesting person with a no-nonsense, get'er done attitude with a good dose of humor. He was a police officer, owned a number of successful businesses and then decided to take up trucking after his last company fell victim to the economy and changing marketplace.  He tells me he loves it.

We quickly developed an easy rapport, and he expressed an interested in participating in the project. By the time the evening was done, we had gone through several bowls of soup and a tentative agreement to work together. I'm thinking sometime in March might be a good time, something to look forward too when the long winter starts to give way to spring.

While we were sitting in the trucks stop restaurant, I pulled out my camera to get a few shots. It's interesting how the person's demeanor changes as soon as the camera is up and pointing at them. The challenge is to get them to relax and let ago a bit of all those insecurities that we have about how we look. After a few test shots, Lane started to relax, and  I was able to get a some nice candids of him.

Fingers crossed 'til March then!