There is a Photo Warning light in my head, and its bright red bulb flashes -- horns sound too -- when a human being wearing a hat enters my field of view. If I’m doing a wedding shoot and there is a woman in the crowd wearing a hat (or maybe she just has a cool scarf over her head,) my camera lens spins in her direction like a willow switch in the hands of a water witch who has stumbled upon H2O.
It’s a little freaky actually.
I’m not sure where my Hat Lust comes from. Maybe I like hats because I grew up in the 50’s and all my heroes on television, from Marshall Dillon to Yogi Bear, wore hats. More likely, though, I suspect I like hats simply because I’m a photographer and I react visually to the way a head covering frames a human face...not to mention the panache, style, and even personality suggested by jaunty chapeau.
The three photographs I’m posting today are of folks I encountered in my travels this summer, individuals whose picture I was moved to do simply because they looked so darned beautiful, or sweet, or interesting.
I also post the pictures with an appreciative tip of my own hat to Yogi and the Marshall.
