varying degrees of light

It's at a point in the semester when fun and relaxation and conversation takes a small, humbling step down and academia nods understandingly to take a step up. So there was no party last night - Friday night. There was quietly focused reading, a review of the layout for photo book and moments of theme consideration for a paper that is now past the due date. (Yes, there was time spent with friends in an apt. but it was sober and somewhat brief and - screw you - very, very, very fun. And, anyway, I came back and read some more.)
So after that evening at the end of this week, I dreamt of a cross-country road-trip, casually picking up and dropping off various people along the way, riding in an old VW bus and, somehow, I spent most of the driving time outSIDE of the bus (sticking head out the window, surfing on the roof, on a red wagon getting dragged by the rope tied to the back bumper etc.) And you were there, and you were there and so forth. The last thing before I woke up to a house of cute Korean girls asking me what I wanted for breakfast was

We had stopped for a meal together. There were, at this point in the trip, almost twenty of us. It may have been a rest area because that would explain the picnic tables. There were two of them and the rest of us were eating on top of the bus. Eight at the big table, six at the other and six more on the bus. While places were set and food was brought out, I tried to get a portrait of everyone at that point. I was shooting with film and it was early evening (in the summer) so the sun was low, but still bright, and shadows were strong.
I hate the idea of posed photographs - portraits, senior pictures, the majority of facebook smiles and all that. Smile! Say Cheese! 1,2,3! Mostly because a lot of these planned smiles look the same so, say you look through someone's facebook and see that the person is with different people, at different places but, often times, the smile is the exact same. It's static, and creepy.
I didn't have to say this in the dream - I don't think I would have, now that I think about it - but I didn't want to document that this person was on the trip. Each person had a different reaction to the energy of the trip, and to everyone else in the group, and the location was new and visually interesting (the corrugated sides of the van, the textures of the worn picnic tables, handing plates up to the roof of the van).
But sometimes people take direction very, very well and you can tell them specifically what you want in the photograph. Other times, you want THEM and, in order to get that, you have to make them comfortable with the camera there pointing at them. And you have to know exactly when to release the shutter, considering the composition of the frame and the lighting and...

My point is, let's go on a road trip. Also, I'm looking forward to the Philippines.

OK. Back to work.