Day One: Meet Doris

“What part of New Mexico are you from?” A voice interrupted my concentration as I raised my camera to make yet another picture of Jesse Hall on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia. I lowered my lens to meet Doris Barnhart.

She spent the early 1960s in northwestern New Mexico, the area where I grew up and spent more than 20 years of my life. The 73-year-old is a Boone County native who works with MU’s Scholastic Journalism Programs, where she helps prepare high school students for careers in journalism. Her father was a newspaperman, and she says news ink is in her blood. After having worked for two newspapers myself, I can relate.

While I was parked outside Neff Annex last night to make a photo of a boring ol’building, I’m grateful Doris readjusted my focus. “It was your license plate, not your camera, that drew my attention,” she said of the Land of Enchantment’s yellow and red design. Had she kept walking without initiating the conversation, I may have missed out on meeting one nice lady.

As a student in David Rees’ Picture Story class, I’ve agreed to make (and post) a photo each day for the next 30 days. If last night’s experience is any indication of what can happen when I explore my world with a camera, I say “Bring it on.”

And I wonder whom I will bump into next…