a lie? actually no ...just a bit too much truth

When the question was posed about a photograph being a lie...this set of photos ...which are etched in my mind came rumbling up inside of me.

I lost a friendship with an old acquaintance over them.

I was invited to a surprise birthday party for a schoolmate [high school]  It was his fiftieth, so  biggie!

We had just gotten back together after almost 20 something years of not being in touch.

My wife and I traveled to his town of Clarksville, KY, and stayed at a hotel working with my friend's wife as this was supposed to be a surprise for him.

We met at a local winery, they have a band concert scheduled, and a good time was expected for all.

My D100 was just back from a major repair, and I had my D70 as well, so I am prepared to record the event.  And I did.

During the event, the daughter of said friend came from being away during the course of the early evening.  She engaged in conversation with the father [my friend] and I got a number of photos.

These two were in the sequence and amongst the hundreds of photos I took, put on a disc and gave to my friend and his family.  The one photo riled him so much that he has never spoken to me since. 

He stated I caught her crying and should not have invaded her in such a private moment and certainly should not have distributed it [though he is the only one to have gotten the photo distributed]

This is almost ten years ago now, still no contact between us.  Lots of reasons, besides the photo incident...but this was the trigger, the catalyst.

The lie is that she was NOT crying, as I pointed out in the timing and sequence of shots ...I remember the incident, she was actually just making a very demonstrative point in her discussion, exaggerating her speech.  I unfortunately [for the friendship] had impeccable timing and caught this moment of facial expression.

The very next frame shows no sign of crying...it was shot in quick order the very next frame.  But it mattered not..as some one had already blamed me for the issues that he had with his daughter, for I found out he did have a tougher conversation later and there was crying...but I was not there for that   did not capture that and yet was blamed for being an ogre and intrusive insensitive person....which I am not.

 Is this worthy of such critical admonishment?  Did I do the wrong thing in taking this photo at that precise moment?  As part of MY principals, I felt NO so I stood my ground in that I could not and would not apologize, and this cast the stone...so be it.

 

Is  a lie a lie when it is the truth?