This afternoon at work, my co-workers and I digressed during our planning meeting to talking about my revelation last year after shooting numerous ‘sketchy’ assignments.

I have learned that having a professional camera with a flash at a restaurant or bar (or anywhere else except anything politically-related) will cause a commotion. The camera and flash seem to draw people to me because people normally don’t come up to me and randomly chat whenever I am somewhere without them.

Folks will inevitably want to chat about what I’m doing, who I work for, etc. And I can deal with that — I’m a nice girl. Most of the time.

Then, after I answer those questions, some start asking personal questions. That is where I draw the line. Because these people haven’t picked up on the fact that I’m not looking for a friend, I’m just looking to get the hell out of there.

Obviously, this gets annoying. Especially when it happens numerous times on one assignment. Because sometimes, I just want to photograph the assignment so I can have some time to myself afterward. And sometimes (OK, most of the time), I don’t feel like being hit on by sketchy 40-somethings from weird Scandanavian countries.

So what did I do?

I went out and bought a fake engagement ring.

I know that it sounds ridiculous, but the band has worked wonders.

I absolutely love it because it oftentimes lets me get my work done without being pestered by numerous people.

After I finished telling the story, my boss looked down at the list we were going over and said something along the lines of, “Note to self: Send E.P. to ____ to shoot the sketchy 40-somethings.”

And needless to say, we all had a good laugh after that.