Barber Shop

Harry McDonald, of Berryville, gets his sideburns shaved after getting his hair cut by Ed Morgan at the Main Street Barber Shop. Ed has been working there part-time for 23 years. The Main Street Barber Shop is housed in a building that was at one time a jail and then a candy store. It has been a barber shop since the 30s. "It's a busy little shop," says Ed, "they don't have very many of these left." There's a lot of chatter at the shop. Morgan says, "we solve a lot of political problems here."

Some people have really great faces. They are expressive and look great in photographs, making my job really easy. This was part of a story I did on the Main Street Barber Shop in Berryville. It took me four trips to the barber shop to get four usable pictures to tell the story. The biggest challenge was to get photos that didn't repeat themselves. How do you do that in a small room where the main activity is cutting hair? I definitely learned how to look for different things.


The clock in the barber shop is a mirror image of itself. Its reflection looks normal.

Norma Green finishes up cutting Gary Conahan's hair at Main Street Barber Shop. Norma is the owner. She bought the place in 1986 and was the first female barber in Clarke County. The cash register, which Norma bought at a second-hand store, only goes up to $9.99. Just about everything is old-fashioned except for teh tanning bed in the back.

Juniper Street

Hannah Gammill, 5 of Fairfax, gives a hug to Santa Friday night. The Love family had Santa Claus in their garage on Juniper Street for the children.

This girl was one of the first kids I photographed that night. I like it because of the little girl's body language. You can tell that she really trusts Santa. Also, I wanted to show where Santa was, a garage, so I kept a lot of the background in the photo. I stuck around and got photos of a few more kids. It's surprising how many kids are afraid of Santa Claus. I came back with this photo of a girl hugging Santa and a bunch of photos of kids crying. I went with the hug because it was a nice moment. The kids crying were a dime a dozen.

Santa comes to the mall

John Pearsall (right), 4 of Leesburg, and his little brother, Nate, 22 months, sit on Santa's lap on Wednesday at the Dulles Town Center.


Victoria Glancey, 3 of Ashburn, colors in a Santa as she waits in line to sit on Santa's lap at the Dulles Town Center Wednesday.