Neckties Have Impact

This professor at Yale University wore a necktie during a portrait session with me.

    While hiking the Appalachian Trail, I came upon a campsite. Several men were huddled around a campfire. I joined them. Most of them were strangers to me.

    One of the men stated that he didn’t like people who wore neckties. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t inform him that whenever I handle a photo shoot, a tie surrounds my neck.
    At some white collar institutions, people don’t wear ties on ‘casual Fridays.’ In the high tech sector, does anyone wear a tie? Neckties aren’t prevalent as they once were.
    But I continue wearing them. Neckties convey professionalism. During photo shoots, my sense is that people are more cooperative because I wear a tie.
    Before I became a photographer, I studied to be a high school teacher. My student-teaching experience occurred at a school near Boston. Afterwards, I handed my students an evaluation form. I wanted their opinion of my performance. Several students made a similar observation: They respected the fact that I wore a tie. Those students revealed to me the impact of a tie.
    Wearing a necktie offers a competitive advantage.

A Single Tree

    Every December, a Christmas tree catches my eye. It stands alone beside a field.
    What attracts me is the simplicity of the scene. There’s no Santa Claus statues near it, or glowing wreaths, or other electronic displays.
    To photograph the tree, I hauled a tripod and camera through a thicket of branches. The night was cold. I positioned my tripod on the opposite side of the field.
    Behind me, occasional cars drove by. Drivers couldn’t see me. I was hidden by trees.
    I used a timer on the camera. When I exposed for the Christmas lights, the back-
ground turned black. When exposing for the background, the Christmas lights washed out. What a pain! (Photoshop to the rescue on this one).
    Time went by. I grew colder.
    The thought occurred to me that Mary and Joseph must have been cold on that first Christmas eve. That random thought disrupted my concentration. I paused in the photo taking.
   I viewed the scene no longer as a photographic challenge, but merely for its beauty. A sense of peacefulness took hold.
    I looked up at the sky and said, “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

Norms of Behavior

    When I was growing up, libraries were exceedingly quiet places. Not as much anymore. Librarians are tolerating more conversations among patrons.
    At a library in Ohio, I booked a study room. Those rooms are usually the quietest places.
    In the room beside me, a young man—late teens to early twenties—was talking loudly. On and on he ranted. He made concentration impossible for me.
    I stole a peak though his door. Nobody else was present in his room. He faced a desktop computer. A headset covered his ears. He was participating in an online, realtime strategy game. From the sound of his conversation, he was leading a team of people against an opposing team. For all I knew, they were playing from locations all over the world. 
    Didn’t the gamer realize he was distracting other library patrons?
    When the video game was nearing a climax, I asked a librarian for assistance. She seemed reluctant to intervene. Still, she asked the gamer to stop talking.
    He was taken aback by her request. And he was freaked out. No longer could he lead his army of gamer heads. In the other room, a smile creased my face. Nothing like a little payback.
    In some libraries, norms of behavior still prevail. I visited a library outside of Boston. It was like walking into a cloistered nunnery. My kind of place.
    An employee was placing artwork on the wall (seen in photo). They apparently changed the paintings from time to time. It was clear that much civic pride was invested in this library.
    If a library features art on its walls, there’s a good chance the rules of quietude will be enforced.

False Impressions

This sportsman posed for a portrait at a shooting range near my home.

    An African priest delivered a sermon at my church. He was a citizen of Zambia. He had recently arrived for a visit to the United States.
    I asked him to share his initial impressions of our country. He said he was surprised that nobody was walking around with guns.
    I wasn’t surprised by his response. Holywood films and news media convey an impression that our society is infatuated with firearms. That impression creates another belief that violence is pervasive.
    Those outlooks are wrong. My town is peaceful. My town is safe. The same conditions prevail in most communities I visit in our nation. For the most part, the people I am acquainted with do not posses firearms. Those who do possess guns are responsible and law abiding.
    Sure, there’s problems within some inner cities. Chicago comes to mind. But those places are not indicative of the nation as a whole.
    I wonder if most foreigners have false impressions of this country. 

When Bad is Good

     The scowl never left her face. I went ahead and took the photograph.
     This husband and wife lived in Massachusetts. They resided in a house alongside a road lined with malls. They were holdouts. The couple refused to sell their property to developers.
    A newspaper assigned the photo. The woman almost certainly viewed the article. I wonder if she objected to her expression in the photo? Maybe not. The scowl conveyed her strong mindedness.
    It is never my intention to make a person look bad in a portrait. But sometimes an unflattering photo, if it’s honest and within context, can be appropriate.

Liquid Diabetes

Studio photo compares nutritional value of whole foods vs. foods with added sugar.

    A friend of mine contracted diabetes. Sugar caused the disease. For years, he had been drinking Mountain Dew at his job. That soda is chock full of sugar.
    I know a med student in Mississippi. He told me that one in four people down there are diabetic. And they’re fat. Sugar is one of the reasons. It promotes obesity.
    Today I went food shopping. I inspected the ingredients on a trail mix bar. Surely that snack would be sugar free? Wrong. It contained eight grams. Even yogurt, supposedly a healthy food, contains sugar.
    The problem isn’t so much natural sugars. The problem is added sugars. They wreak havoc on our bodies.
    I don’t want to end up like my friend. No longer will I drink soda. As far as I’m concerned, sodas are liquid diabetes.