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Ken was lugging a plastic crate full of stuff when she walked by and I asked him for a quick portrait. I didn’t think he would stop; but then again, if I were carrying what seemed like 30 pounds of stuff, I would look for any excuse to take a break.

Ken, of course, was on a mission, so he kept going. Twenty seconds later, though, he appeared again -- still carrying his crate -- and asked me the most common question of the day: “What is this for?”

After I explained, he said, “What the hell?” and posed for me. “I’ll send you my bill, $1,000,” he told me afterwards with a smile. He took his crate and he was off.

I have indicated in many of my previous shots of this project that one of my “principles” was not to tell my subject how to pose or what to do or change their look, that I wanted to capture their portrait the way I saw them.

So when Deborah walked by and I gave her my spiel, I was pleasantly surprised when she stood in her spot, clutched the strap of her purse, and turned to her right and showed me her profile.

It was such a strong, confident move that I wasn’t even surprised when we were done, she shook my hand harder than anyone has shook it in months, and wished me luck.

In another life, I imagine Deborah was a biker.

Daniel was walking with his friends and when I asked him to pose for a portrait, he had one caveat: I had to photograph him with a picture of a cat.

“Is that YOUR cat?” I asked him, wondering why he was walking around with a photo of his pet.

“Nope,” he said, “I just bought it because I liked it.”

Cool cat, that Daniel.

Any conversation about the movie “Dirty Dancing” is never complete without someone saying the immortal quote, “Nobody puts baby in the corner.”

A great quote, indeed. But my favorite quote comes much earlier in the movie, before Johnny and Baby have had the time of their lives. My favorite line is the one weighted with the humiliation of young love: “I carried a watermelon.”

It is also the quote I was thinking of when I saw Nova walking toward me carrying a large piece of tropical fruit in her arms..

“What is that?” I asked excitedly.

“It’s a Crenshaw melon!” Nova responded, equally excitedly.

“I have to get a shot of that,” I told her. And with that line, Nova -- who lives in Columbia Heights -- and her friend Nigel posed for this fun shot.

And look at this happy accident: the bird on Nigel’s shirt looking like it’s sitting atop the melon.

This portrait might be one of my favorite shots I took all day, simply because I spoke longer to these two than anyone else.

Brent (on the left) has lived in DC more than 40 years, while Vince (on the right) has been a DC resident for 18 years, both eternities in this transient town. They met and fell in love in 1993, back when DC was much less tolerant of homosexuals walking around and when there were certain parts of the city they just were not welcome in.

“You couldn’t go [east of] 15th Street,” Brent said. “If you were white and gay, you just didn’t go.”

They have seen this city change in leaps and bounds, though, since those days, due to shifting beliefs and the infusion of progressive-minded young people into the District.

After being together nearly two decades, Brent and Vince got married last year in the DC courthouse, a small, simple ceremony that, they said, meant more to them than they could explain.

“The fact that it’s legal,” Vince explained, “and they can’t do anything about it!”

They posed for a couple of shots and after seeing how warm and loving they were to each other, I asked them if they would kiss. This was one of the few times I broke my rule of “maneuvering” people out of their natural poses, but I wanted to capture their relationship in a more intimate moment.

When I showed them the photo I took, Brent looked at Vince and said, “I didn’t know you were that tall!” Together 18 years and they’re still learning about each other! Thanks guys.