The man in… brown?

I was at an event this past week where a highschooler asked why I always wear brown. I’d never really noticed I wear a lot of the same-colored clothing. But there is actually rhyme and reason behind what I wear.
I’m wearing a lot of khaki.
Johnny Cash wore a lot of black, and he had some good reasons. Black clothes were cheap and didn’t really show the dirt of long tours on the road.
Last time I wore a good set of pants to work they got ripped open at a construction site – so now I’m buying the cheap, expendable Wal-Mart brand.
But I’m not just crawling around in the mud taking pictures at job sites, at a moment’s notice I may need to be taking pictures at a church service, a formal dance, the scene of a shooting…. Versatility is good.
Khakis are a good way to look reasonably acceptable in most any situation. You’ll rarely be too over-dressed or too under-dressed. And when you’re trying to be a journalistic fly on the wall at a town meeting or sneaking up on animals on a hike in the woods you won’t be distractingly flashy.
Throw on a pretty good shirt and suddenly you’re dressed pretty well. Put on a relatively cheap, yet fine-looking khaki jacket over that and you’re ready for a roll in the mud again.
And khaki subdues mud stains pretty well.