Often I pick a photographic theme for a trip to force my eye to pay a bit more attention to what surrounds me. It’s usually some innocuous idea that flittered across my mind that also allows me too play around a bit with which photographic subjects qualify. You’ve probably seen some of the resulting shots here before, even if they were never identified as being part of a specific trip’s theme. Others, like the Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! have become legendary. There are also recurring themes that exist for no better reason than they tend to always draw my eye. People’s hands are one of those. They say that the eyes are the mirror to your soul; for me someone’s hands tell a much fuller story. And if you’ll quit thinking about that last happy ending you had at your favorite rub and tug shop, these shots might show you what I mean.

Since I have a few hundred pictures of people’s hands, abiding by the 7 Shot Rule, as usual, was a difficult chore. Even trying to cull through the lot and select only the best still left me with far more than seven. So I needed a sub-theme. And the idea of hands from an employment perspective seemed to work. As long as I wasn’t too strict with what qualified as employment. Think more along the lines of life’s work. Or the work that finances you life. Or that feeds your soul.

Even those of us who travel off the beaten path (and I don’t mean visiting those places everyone else who worships Lonely Planet visits too) primarily meet locals at their workplace. Which must suck for them. Not only because that often means they have to deal with farang all day but that it is a constant reminder that everyone else is on holiday and they are not. It’s kinda like being a bank teller. You spend your day watching hundreds of thousands of dollars pass through your hands, while earning minimum wage. But there is work and then there is work. Those who manage to snag a job doing something that they are passionate about are lucky. Even if they don’t make a lot of money, they still reap rewards. Even if at the hands of farang.

As I sorted through the mass of photos that fit within my sub-theme, that thought (working at a job you enjoyed, not the happy ending that is still hovering at the forefront of your thoughts) was on my mind. And while I can’t guarantee that everyone of these photos represents someone who loved the work they did, I think if there were accompanying shots of their smiles you’d probably agree I hit the mark. Thais are known for their smiles. Frequent visitors tend to learn just what the hundred of smiles every Thai had mastered actually mean. And those beamed by each of these folk were honest ones; they had more to do with their contentment with life than with the little bit of cash meeting me brought their way. Especially the old guy challenging one and all to a game of checkers on Khaosan Road. I wouldn’t call him a hustler. But unless you were an idiot you had to know you were gonna lose if you took him up on his challenge. And his smile was worth every baht I lost to him.

The photo of ticket taker on the Chao Phraya express boat is the only one in this group that immediately says work, and the only person who you could not immediately feel joy radiating from thanks to the work she was doing. Not that she was grumpy. She was just busy. The boat was packed and part of her job is tracking which customers she’s already collected the fare from and which she still needs to hit up. I was with some friends and already getting tired of being the tour guide so rather than being the one to say which pier we’d get off at, I made one of them ask the girl to let them know when they’d arrived at their destination. Needless to say, there was little joy radiating from my tour group thanks to that job either. And while being a tour guide is probably not part of the express boat ticket takers’ job duties, as busy as she was, she did manage to make it back to our group in time to tell us when to disembark. I tipped her a hundred baht. And there was nothing fake about the smile that 100 baht note bought me either. That my travel companions all now thought it was customary to tip ticket collectors was an added bonus.

Come to think about it, I coulda named this post 7 Shots: Hands That Have Been In My Wallet. Not that I feel obligated to pay everyone whose photo I take. But each of these seven did, either as a tip, donation, or payment. And it wasn’t just because I was visiting a temple, or buying a snack at the Sunday Night Market in Chiang Mai. Rather my hand went to my wallet because of the obvious enjoyment or pride each showed in what they were doing, in what their life’s work entailed. That tends to set someone apart from the pack. And while each, I’m sure, was appreciative to have a few baht handed their way, I like to think that someone recognized their pride in and love of what they were doing meant more.

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7 Shots: The Grand Palace	The 7 Shot Rule	In Thailand Money Really Does Grow On Trees