psychology 1000

I photographed Alan Strathman, an MU psychology professor this afternoon. A gentry looking, middle-aged Canadian fellow (since the photo is at work, this description of him will have to due until I can post it.), that is very passionate about getting students to come to class AND actually learning something. I wasn't too keen on his theories, as I thought they were a little out of touch, but whatever, who am I to judge, right? I am just a hack photographer, still playing off other peoples vision. Alan equated being a professor in a large lecture hall, to being a comedian at a night club. So, appropriately, we photographed him on the stage at the local comedy club. To get some genuine expression in the photo, I tried to get him to tell some jokes, but he knew none, so, I asked him to start lecturing. He began talking about exploring behavioral patterns, the old Pavlov's dog trick, conversational psychology as he called it. Then he got on the subject of memory, which I have been thinking about a lot lately. The next thing he said caught my attention, between shutter clicks. I have a hard time splitting my brain during a shoot like this. Alan said, that stress is the largest inhibitor of short term memory. Maybe this explains why I freeze up around intelligent people. Maybe this explains why it's hard for me to contribute to group discussions. I become anxious and my mind goes blank, I can't think of anything to say. I know I have a garbled mess of knowledge up there, that I am sure someone would benefit from, I just have a hard time recalling it when needed. I don't know if understanding this will help me, but at least I have something else to blame my recent memory loss on, besides Maker's Mark.