Manuel: Film & Photography Student Exploring Voice in Art, Inspiration, and the Moral Responsibility of Creating.

Name: Manuel

Age: 20

Location: Denver, CO - 16th Street & Welton St. (Downtown)

Date: Sunday, June 15, 2026

Time: 10:09 PM

Camera: Canon 6D Mark II

Senor Type: Full-frame

Mega-Pixels: 26.2

Released: 2017

Lens: Canon EF 24-105 MM 1.4 L IS USM

I was capturing a series of angular shot images of street art and multiple light sources contrasting late in the evening on the corner of 16th St. & Welton St. in Downton Denver, CO, when a young man with a Sony DSLR caught my eye watching me to my left.

I had my headphones in both earls, listening to a private phone call. When I turned and made eye contact witht he young man, I noticed he had a nice Sony DSLR around his neck and he was overtly checking out my camera gear. I had my Canon 6D, 24-105mm lens, and my Canon Speedlight 430 EX III mounted (but I wasnt using the flash). He asked me very specific questions about my Speedlight (flash), and asked to see how it works. So I offered to show him on quick auto settings what the same image looks like flashed, and left with no flash. He volunteered to be the test subject (after all, I didn't actually have any photos captured yet where I felt I needed to use it).

He posed, and I snapped one with full flash on, and the other with no flash. He was intriued by the results. I further explained with adjusting the Exposure Compensation Setting, I can use the flash to provide "fill light" for the subject without washing out the background ambient color and lighting.

We continued to discuss the nuances of settings and camera attachments for another 15 minutes, I wager.

With the flash on auto. Without the flash off.

After some camera-nerding, Manuel informed me he is working on a project about "Gentrification", and asked me if I knew of a spot that would fit that theme. I chuckled, and pointed down the main road behind us, and explained that the entire distance I have covered tonight was this one block, and that I am not from here. He seemed a bit puzzled, so I elaborated.

We discussed, briefly, that I travel for work a lot. He seemed genuinley surpised by the inference that photography was not my work. He asked, and I told him that I work in the construction industry, and after spending about ten years as a contractor, I transitioned into the business side of the industry in 2018, and I now manage distribution accounts across the southwest, selling tools for the tile and stone industry. I had just came back from Steamboat Springs (Colorado) this evening, and wanted to relax and take some photos in downtown Denver.

Again, Manuel seemed genuinly shocked. He kept looking at my camera gear - I'm sure, wondering how feasible this story was, and how feasible it was that a guy like me would spend so much time and money on what's basically a hobby.

Quickly, Manuel asked me about the weight of my gear. I told him I didn't actually know the full assembly weight as I had it on my wrist, but that it is infact heavy - with a large lens, a vertical dual-battery grip, and my shoe-mounted flash. He began telling me about his wrist and finger pain, and I comizerated with him for a minute, mid-story, about my carpel-tunnel in both wrists. He asked if I was injured from photography, and I lightly chuckled and told him it all began in the military many years ago. But that, despite the discomfort and sometimes acute pain, the tools I have allow me to explore and create art that makes it well worth-it, to me.

I continued, telling him that tonight, I was snapping photos of this alley way, when a gentleman (Cainan) approached me, and we spent a little over an hour together. And what I was doing immediately before he saw me capturing photos of the utility box and street art was taking some photos of a young beautiful family that had approached me. I was relcunant to admit, I had not accomplished much urban photography. But then it clicked, that same alley way, may just be what he's looking for.

I asked Manuel to follow me, and we walked a few hundred feet and entered the alley way. This is where I become very passionate. I showed him the juxtaposition, the right side wall is bare and utilitrian. The opposing wall was well lit up, and had a substantial mural painted on it, with "Denver" up on top. We began more heavily discussing composition, texture, color tones, and the dichotomy between two worlds facing each other fifteen feet apart. We talked for about ten more minutes standing in this alley way, and I began wondering if Manuel would allow me to capture some of his photos.

I asked, and he was pleasant and kind, but reluctant. He first wanted to step out of this alley back into the main street, so I followed. Manuel surprised me. He asked me for guidance on how to pose. I explained I don't want to pose him, I just would like to capture some profile shots of him as we discuss art, technical specifications, inspiration, and voice. I explained that I seek and value a story, and authenticity. He joked and told me that he's "no good in-front of the camera." A sentiment I understood completely.

As we continued, I shot a few photos, but he generally became stoic and looked away from the camera when I raised it up to my eye.

But... to Manuel's credit, he did get courageous and become more expressive, and even did look into the camera, a time or two.

This interaction led us naturally to explore concepts of truth, authenticity, rawness, an individual's uniqueness, and what story exists to be shared in the everyday world, without needing to engineer it.

This really opened up the gold mine, and we began discussing our own interests, motivations, fears, and the way we see art and how we capture it. Manuel demonstrated his new Prism filter on his lens, which allowed him to take a quick shutter-speed single image and it presents with blurred long tail lines of motion - something I was not aware of. In past years I would set my Camera gear up on a tripod and use a r emote to release the shutter and leave the aperture open for extended periods of time, and capture the motion of people, vehicle lights, and other things. He was able to do this while holding his camera and taking a single quick shot. Fascinating.

This young man was teaching an old veteran new tricks, and they weren't about TikTok or YouTube. I havent had someone teach me anything about photography, or any art for that matter, in well over a decade. I picked up my first DSLR, my Canon Rebel XS, in January of 2009. I was barely twenty-two years old, and here is Manuel, already a formal film and photography student at the local University, and as he described, he'd be active in the arts for several years already. Impressive. And not cheap.

For a moment, I allowed myself to wonder what kind of a person he may become, what kind of an artist he may become? And if I may be able to influence even 1% of that result?

Manuel had a lot to say about his vision, and his believes and his desire to tell a sotry with his art that resonated with him. He described his studio at home, where he lives with his single mother. His studio, as he is proud to call it, is in some nature of a detached garage or shack, complete with all of his other gear. He recognized the financial investment, and the time, and logistical burden, and I believe he mentioned a fear his mother has of him spending too much time and money on something that wont make him any money. Im afraid I am not a good example to disprove his mother... but I encouraged him to continue to explore and create, none-the-less. As I would do multiple times through out the night.

We began walking west along 16th Street, as we continued to converse, Manuel did the majority of the taking. I learned that his mother and he moved from Florida when he was a young boy, after a messy divorce, that she has worked hard and made sacrifices for him. We discussed everything from the media, to the creation of classic films, social classes, and how even movies rated PG-13 sometimes should not be seen by thirteen year olds.

I didn't pry, but he seemed to imply that he was recognizing with his more adult brain what influences as a younger boy were inappropriate, and he continued to expound on the effects, cognitively and emotionally, and that tied into a broader picture of diverse social segregation and division.

I couldn't help but wonder what this artistic, bright, young man would think of me if he knew what I was doing with my life at twenty years old - newly married for the first time, and patrolling Haditha, Iraq in full combat gear, and all the associated behavioral and social conditioning that accompany that environment. I kept it to myself. I chuckled while we walked as I remembered my first actual camera, a simple digital point and shoot, A Sony as well. I brought it with me to my first deployment. It fit perfectly into my grenade pouch on the left breast of my flak-jacket. But I would hardly compare it to even my Canon Rebel XS I would purchased less than two years later.

Camera: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S650 Released: 2007

Grade & Format: Entry-level digital camera wit 3x optical zoom

Mega-Pixels: 7.2

Sensor Type: CCD (Charge-Coupled-Device).

Manuel and I continued to walk the streets, both of us holding onto our photography gear in one hand while illustrating our messages and the world with our free hand, and I felt sliver of adoration growing as I listened to this young, twenty-year-old man explain how film inspired him, and showed him a new way to relate to the world, and that art has no bias. It is niehter good, nor bad. Art can be used to evoke emotion, memory, convey information, sell an idea or a product. Art can be used to portray truth, or lies, and it can be used to connect humans, or divide humans.

I remember thinking these are very mature, very large-scale thinking insights for such a young man. Maybe a tinge of jelousy creeped in for a moment as I listened to him while I remembered my life at twenty years old. I was making decisions to stay alive, and potentially, who to kill; and Manuel is analyzing society, the world, and his relationship to it and how he can contribute to it. Frankly, to me, the latter sounds heroic and productive, from a societal lens. The former, less so.

I glanced down at my iWatch, and saw that I had consumed more than 45 minutes of the phone call still in my ears, talking to Manuel, and I decided I had over stayed my welcome - to Manuel, and to the other person on the phone. I politely thanked Manuel and allowed him to enjoy his evening, and encouraged him one final time to not stop creating art. To not stop exploring. And asking that age-old question all artists struggle with:

"What do I believe in, and as such, what story do I want to tell?"

Thanks Kid, you taught an old man a few lessons.