I was driving with a model friend of mine, looked to my left and saw an abandoned house with no roof.  I slammed on the brakes of my car and pulled over by the side of the road.  I got out; my friend stayed in the car.

There were a couple of guys were sitting outside the house with pit bulls on leashes.  I could hear a few more people and dogs inside the house.  I nodded at the guys outside and asked if they minded if I took a couple of photos of the inside of the house.  The guys couldn’t have been nicer.  They gladly ushered me inside the abandoned house, yelling for their friends to stop what they were doing.  When I got inside the house, the guys there bade me a warm hello, constantly called me ‘chief’, and told me if I needed anything to just ask.  They gathered their dogs and headed outside, to give me some space.

I didn’t stay at the location long–four or five minutes seems a good guess–but I loved the way the broken out windows of the house looked out on the Caribbean.  I got my shots, thanked the guys again and hopped back in the car.  It wasn’t until a few minutes later that my friend said, “You know they were fighting those dogs, right?”  And I hadn’t.  The thought never crossed my mind.  “Really?” I asked.  She nodded.  “When you were inside they were talking about how they couldn’t believe you’d asked to go inside the ring and take pictures.”

I took this in stride and realized that this was probably why the guys looked at me so confusedly when I asked if I could pet the dogs.

Regardless of what they were doing there, I absolutely love this photo and am glad that I asked to go inside.