Almost Famous

This morning a copy of the Daily Collegian, our student newspaper, was taped to my office door. My 15 minutes of fame had arrived -- I was on the front page of the paper. The photo above was made outside the Berkey Creamery, my profile gracing the passing public. I'm still waiting to cash in on my celebrity.

The way this unfolded was that I had stopped in front of Tyson Building on Shortlidge Road to photograph a bumble bee on a flower for possible use in our magazine for a short piece on pollinators. As I was shooting I could hear another camera shutter firing.

I zoomed into the wide setting on the lens and adjusted the focus to see a young woman pointing a camera towards me. At first I thought she was making pictures of the flowers but it only took a moment to realize I was the focus of that camera's attention. Unlike most people I don't mind having my picture taken. She told me she was shooting feature art for the Collegian and asked if I would mind having my picture in the paper. I told her it would be fine, gave her my business card and we both went our separate ways.

I worked for the Daily Collegian decades ago and used to do the same kind of thing in the summer. Only then I would have to go back to the darkroom to process the film and make prints. One of the guys who was on the staff the same time I was is Steve McCurry. He shot the iconic cover shot for National Geographic of the young Afghan girl with the bright green eyes. If you are on campus stop by the Palmer Museum. McCurry has a show there right now.

I didn't find a good picture of a bumblebee. The flowers are already in decline and just looked sort of ratty. I'll find another plant still in it's prime.

I wish I had been doing something more heroic on the front page.