Tuscaloosa, Alabama

In the newspaper business, it’s all about faces. Smiling faces, frowning faces, angry faces, tear-stained faces. After 15 years of shooting, I’ve learned to seek emotion in everything that I shoot, diligently separating the wheat from the chaff with barely a backward glance. Given that knowledge, I have to wonder then why my greatest pleasure these days is photographing anything that doesn’t walk, talk, or demand much from me. Lately, all I want to shoot is color — glorious jewel tones of red, gold, and green.

I had four assignments for the paper today, and this, this was the shot that made me happy, the shot that I took just for me that will never see the inky kiss of newsprint. Actually, it was one of about a dozen taken at the local farmer’s market, where families proudly displayed their jellies and preserves in wonderfully old-fashioned jars. Never mind the weathered faces and dirt-stained hands that would have once commanded my attention; forget the rosy-cheeked children and smiling patrons — just give me color, liquid fire illuminated by an overcast autumn day.

If it didn’t make me so happy, it would worry me a little. Is my style changing, or am I discovering my true style? Only time will tell.