Last week I was shooting architecture for a client from the roof of a thrity-three story high-rise here in the Atlanta area, and this was the security officer that was assigned to escort me up there. I titled the shot “Busted” because the look I’ve captured on him here looks as if he has caught me up there when I didn’t have permission to be. It doesn’t really fit him at all based on how I saw him interacting with everybody we saw when I was with him, though. The man seemed to have a smile for everybody – and if they had time – a fun story to tell them, too. His upbeat and positive spirit was highly contagious to everybody around him it seemed.

This is 65 year old Eugene Council, and he is a retired Army Master Sergeant originally from Asheville, NC. “I’m a hillbilly!” he told me. He and his wife have been married for 44 years now, and have three children. I ask him to share any bit of advice he had for those that saw this portrait of him as he said, “Always be positive. If you have a negative at home, leave it at home. If you have a negative at work, leave it at work. Always keep a smile on your face. You only live once.”

It’s ironic that he isn’t smiling in this shot. That’s my fault not his, though. I wasn’t able to spend enough time photographing him that morning to really work it out of him. Ideally I would have had him start telling some of his stories and captured him in action as he was telling them. The man is a character.

Mr. Eugene, thanks for reminding me of how much I love my job due to getting to meet and interact with people just like you. It was a high point of my week.