Remember the good folk

I dread Tuesdays. They are by far my busiest day of the week. Between classes and shooting, I search for a 15 minute break just to grab a quick bite to eat in my hectic day.

It also doesn't help if my day is filled with disappointment. I can't see how some people can be totally unprincipled. I am a civil guy, one of the nicest people one could meet and not much bothers me. However, when people push me around, and are disrespectful ahem... Towson University, I get very upset.

I will leave it at that. We as citizens in society should praise those that uplift us.

Kanji or Sensee Takeno (above) is one of these people.

Kanji is the director of photographic services here at Towson University. Basically he shoots everything one may see in a TU publication, and he is great at what he does.

I met him when I first got to Towson last fall and he has been nothing but a great friend since. He never lets me down in giving advice, giving me motivation, responding quickly to e-mails or just being one of the nicest men I've ever met. He has a lot of charisma and never has a anything but a smile on his face. I think the above picture captures that impeccably. Too bad he doesn't have a camera in hand.

Most photographers and photojournalists are extremely pleasant. However some are so concerned about themselves and don't want to give back to the community. Kanji is not among these people. He, much like other photographer friends of mine, would do anything to help a young, budding photographer out. It's much appreciated.

So, why do I have a picture of Kanji you ask? He was asked to take photos of himself teaching. There is an obvious a problem there. He can't take images himself. I thought I'd help shoot during Japanese class tonight.

I had fun doing it, (I've always wanted to shoot images during class. The loud snap of the shutter always gets me in trouble though) but having studied for the wrong quiz, and shooting during the hints before the quiz, I kind of messed up on the quiz. Oops.

Although I had a bad day, bombed the quiz and have a busy rest of the week, I ended it happily by shooting.

Alas, what I am getting at, is even if we have bad days, and everyone does, just remember the good people: your friends, family, and the things we do that make us happy. We shouldn't get caught up in the things that bring us down, because life is too short.

Thanks again, Kanji. See you tomorrow.