March is Cruel

    My car spooked a whitetail deer. The animal raced ahead of me, unable to jump over snowbanks.
    What was the deer doing on a road? I suspect the creature was exhausted from walking in deep snow. Its hooves were sinking in.
    March is a cruel month. By that point in winter, deer have burned through their receives of fat. Weakness takes hold. They’re vulnerable to starvation and predation.
    Sometimes I hear a pack of coyotes howling at night. Deer must shudder at the sound. Coyotes have paws. They don’t sink into snow all that much. It gives them an edge. A deer struggling in snow would be hard pressed to elude a pack of coyotes.
    In nature, a bad ending for one animal is a happy ending for another.

Coaxing a Smile

    Joe Biden smiles naturally. He doesn’t force it as some politicians do. I came to this conclusion on the presidential campaign trail. The photo above was taken during a portrait session.
    For many people, natural smiles can’t be turned on like a switch.
    That condition describes me. When I am asked to smile for a photo, I take a moment to recall a humorous memory. Here’s one that works:
    My friend slept outside during a winter camping trip. A fur hat covered his head. During the night he shouted. I woke up. An owl was attacking his hat. The predator thought the hat was prey. I laughed my butt off.
   Sometimes a natural smile must be coaxed.

Ice Breaking

    The painting at left depicts an ocean liner. Viewing it recalls a memory.
    I once crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Queen Elizabeth I. A storm hammered the vessel. I swam in a pool below decks while the weather raged. The ship listed big time. But not the water in the pool. Gravity kept the surface level. As I treaded water, it appeared as though the walls in the room were moving on their own. The effect was disconcerting. I found myself floating over part of a wall.
    The man in the photo is an economist. I photographed him for a newspaper. His office is typical of an executive’s work space. It contains artwork.
    When I photograph executives, I first ask them about their art. Right away they relax. I’ll then broach a related subject. This approach leads to a better portrait.
     I can’t say for sure, but that ship in the photo resembles the Titanic. Four smokestacks are visible. A radio mast stands above its bow.
    Ice broke up the Titanic. Now the ship breaks the ice for conversations in someone's office.

Cold Comfort

    Relief at last.
    Temperatures are rising. Snow is melting. Statues at a nearby shrine are emerging from winter’s grip.
    The relief goes beyond weather. My health is back on track. I’ve recovered from a pinched nerve. The ailment was triggered by shoveling massive amounts of snow. And I’ve gotten over a bout with the flu.
    Get this: I was hoping for another two inches of snowfall. Sound crazy? One more storm—a teenie-weenie one—would break the record for the snowiest winter in history for this region. Last Saturday my hope was realized. The record was broken.
     People take comfort—or cold comfort in this case—by knowing their suffering was part of something historical.

Making ‘Scents’ of Portraiture

    Show their relationships. That mantra echoes in my head during portrait sessions.
    Subjects loosen up when they engage with another person, a pet, or even an inanimate object, that has meaning to them.
    The couple in the photo appear natural while playing with a flower. In static poses during the shoot, they appeared stiff.
    Portraits that depict relationships strike a chord with people—magazine readers for example—who view portraiture.
    Relationships are the ultimate props. They lure into the open a subject’s essence.

Ticket Exchange

     Strangers keep to themselves in subways. Sometimes that disconnect breaks down. Here are two examples:
     A woman (in the photo) lost her purse on a train in Boston. Another rider recovered the lost article. He contacted her. Nothing had been stolen.
    Stories like hers are commonplace. But not this next one. 
    Last December in Boston, a young man fed dollars into a subway ticket machine. A stranger beside him struggled with his payment. Instructions on the machine were confusing.
    The young man handed his ticket to the stranger.
    This gesture stuck a chord. The stranger reached into his jacket, sifted through a pocket, and removed his hand. A pair of tickets lay on his palm. These tickets didn’t resemble subway tickets. Not even close.
    They were tickets to the AFC championship game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. The stranger handed over the football tickets. Turns out, the stranger was a player on the Patriots.
    Random acts of kindness are contagious.

A Tradition That Never Disappeared

    “Excuse me,” I said.
    The woman looked up from the pew. She had been engrossed in prayer.
    “How come you’re wearing a veil?”
    “It is a sign of submission,” she said.
    I told her that when I was a child, women often wore veils in church. Nowadays the site is rare.
    She told me that The Catholic Church never discouraged the covering of one’s head.
    I’ve noticed an increase, albeit a slight one, of veils worn inside Catholic churches. The ages of these woman range from young to elderly. They usually frequent churches located in urban settings. This woman I spoke to, however, prayed inside a suburban church near Boston.
    Veils symbolize humility, submission, and modesty. Those behaviors contradict the cultural values of self empowerment and individual expression.
    Wearing a veil is not a sign of weakness. Quite the contrary. Wearing a veil in a secular culture requires strength of character.

First Time Rider

    Rush hour loomed. The expressway bunched up. Our driver (above) bypassed the congestion by cutting through South Boston. His detour succeeded. He delivered us on time to a downtown appointment. And so ended my first ride in an Uber taxi.
    Ride sharing services are new. They’re popular with riders. But they’re controversial. Traditional cabbies deplore them. Some municipal governments are cracking down.
     New services and new inventions often encounter resistance. A caveman invented the wheel. He probably got laughed at. But not for long. Hauling things around became easier. Next came horse drawn carts. Then came automobiles, and taxis, and Uber.
     Inventions appear, resistance follows, and inventions prevail. The late Robert Kennedy better summed it up: ‘Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.’