Halle

 Sometimes an instructor stays with you for life

    Halle Hamilton was that type of guy.  He was never Dr. Hamilton, he was always Halle.

    He was the photo instructor at Northern when I was a student majoring in journalism.  By the way, I could write, type. and spell much better 55  years ago.

    We would develop film and print pictures in the lab.  He always was telling us, "only make one change."  Instead of changing paper, f stops, and exposure time all at once he urged us to only make one change.  That way you know what caused the problem you were trying to solve.

    We had an assingnment to do a photo essay.  I did mine on Lincon Park Zoo.  I was living at home, and loved going to the zoo.  Something is always happening at the zoo.  (Thank you, Simon and Garfunkle).  So I took my Yashica D and wandered the zoo and surrounding grounds.  

    One picture I took was going to be the centerpiece of my display.  It was a man sleeping on a bench, a newspaper covering him.

    I thought it was a great shot.

    So here I am, working away in the photo lab  at NIU and I just can't get the print right.  No matter what I do, there is a huge smudge in the middle.  I try washing the negative, dodging the area where the smudge was, different paper.   Nothing worked.  

    Finally, in desperation, I took a print into his office.  He was sitting at his desk, smoking a pipe, and looked at my picture.

    I told him all I had done and nothing seemed to get the smudge out.

    He looked at it for a minute, then grinned.  "Was it a foggy day?" he asked.

    I told him yes, it was.

    "That's a building.  Hidden in the fog.   It's not a smudge."

    After that, I was always the guy with the rose colored glasses.  

    He was approachable, patient, and remembered my name even years after I was in his class.

    So....after several nights on non-itchy feet (oh no, not THIS again!) I was about out of my mind last night and took an allergy pill, anti itching pill, applied anti itching cream, washed my feet......and in the end, the itching stopped.

    And I remembered Halle's advice:  only make one change at a time.  I made 4.  Now if my feet itch, I won't know what I need to do to stop the itching.

   Sometimes the lessons you learn are recalled too late.

    Peace and Love