I saw a photo of myself a friend took during my last wedding I shot. Jerry, my second hand man during weddings, took the picture. I skipped right by it and about two minutes later it dawned on me that the image was of me. So I scrolled back a few hundred images and opened it up in Lightroom. Yup….. it was me. (ugh) Really? “You gotta do something about that joe” I murmured to myself. The photo was a not so flattering photo of me from the side. “Really Jerry? Thanks buddy”, I was thinking.  Then I noticed the image was properly exposed and was a pretty good shot. It just turned out that the image was pretty true to life. After looking and studying the images for a bit I turned off my PC and went to bed. “Really Jerry!?” , I thought to myself….again…..

The next morning I was checking out Facebook and noticed a friend of mine had joined a group that was filled with photographers…………. working on a lifestyle change. Seems I was not the only photographer that had noticed himself in an image that was less than flattering. So I “liked” the page and found five other photo friends that had joined this group.I read through a few posts and clicked on a link that explained a little about this diet/change of habits.  This link sounded good to me and I had friends who were already committed to this and were having great results.  So, I looked at Jerry’s images he took of me again and decided it was time.

Four weeks later (maybe five now as I did not circle my start date) I am down twenty-five pounds and feeling pretty darned good about it.  A good friend of mine (not a photographer) started his own journey with this plan and has been going to workouts as well with me the past four weeks and has lost fifteen pounds.  (He has much less to lose mind you and is almost to his goal)  I am not at my target weight yet, but I am a lot closer than I was last month.

A funny thing happened on my way from WPPI.

Seems United Airlines take the Red Carpet treatment of their First Class passengers extremely serious.  Not saying it is right or wrong the way United treats its First Class, Platinum, Executive or Frequent Fliers.  Notice I said, the way they treat the high flying patrons. Not lil’ ol’ me.  As I was getting off my knees from praying for a safe flight ready for my return flight I noticed a little intense conversation happening at the ticketing podium.  Seems a “First Class” patron was a little rushed and was trying to make his way to the podium so he could follow the instructions of the woman. “Last call for all First class, Executive (….. etc.) passengers for pre-boarding flight number…. 2631 for Pittsburgh”.  Well this gentleman was getting there and apparently took the “wrong line” to go to the Jetway.  Seems he was taking the “coach passenger” line.  The woman from United Airlines insisted that he take the Red carpet line for all First class……. (you get the idea) passengers.  He glanced back at us “coach passengers” as he was holding up the boarding process by mistakenly trying to hurry along and get on board the aircraft by taking the quicker route.  He just lowered his head, backed up and took the Red Carpet walk.  Five seconds later the Ticketing agent called for Zone 1 and we all started to walk the “coach” isle to board the plane.  As I was the last one to board I had to stop and take a pic of the area where the Red Carpet line vs. Coach passenger line episode took place.

For the record, the gentleman that was arguing about his choice to walk the “coach” line was stunned how big a deal it was  that United make him walk the red carpet.

He said something to the effect that he hoped his wife had the red carpet out when he got home.  If not he would call United and demand that she roll it out for him.

All said and done, this little episode in the airport made my flight a little less stressful.