Photo by Julie Dodd

The moral of today’s post is to always have your camera and your curiosity with you.

When I went into a store at the mall, I could see the employee in the back of the shop carving a pumpkin. As he was getting up from his workbench, I asked what he was carving. So he brought the pumpkin with him and turned to show — Marry Me?

He told me that he was carving his proposal to a co-worker and was planning to surprise her the next day when they decorated the store. He pulled out the second pumpkin — Will You — that was hidden under a table.

He placed the two pumpkins together on the counter — Will You Marry Me?

I could envision how the pumpkins would look with candles glowing from within. This was going to be quite the proposal.

He talked about how they had met at the store, had worked together for almost a year, had discussed marriage and had met each other’s parents. (I must go back to the mall to find out how the proposal turned out. Well, I hope.)

As I remind students in the media writing class, great stories and photos can be right around you. You just need to be curious, ask questions, be interested in people, and have your camera (or iPhone, in this case).