I also have another tale of serendipity to add to my growing list of synchronistic happenings. A few weeks ago, just after my wonderful exchange with Dorothy, Ryan mentioned a photo seminar he saw in the paper. Luckily we had a copy there at work as it turned out to be for that evening. The Photo District News, along with Kodak and Nikon, presented “Your Picture… Your Career: Strategies for the Young Working Photographer” at RIT.

Most of the audience was made of young-en’s, er… students. Damn, that was weird. I didn’t feel old, but the age gap was quite evident, at least to me. At the same time, it was a bit invigorating to be among so many fresh, enthusiastic minds. “Minds”, I said. Anyway, a cool crowd. Made me want to try classes again… Yeah right. Anyway, the speakers were from PDN’s 30 Under 30. Two of the speakers were buyers from a couple of other magazines and three were photographers that also showed slides of their work. They all spoke a bit about the business aspect of what they do, and how they got started. Very good stuff. I liked all the work shown, but one photographer really stood out. Teru Kuwayama. Oh wow! He started with some pieces of various punk concerts. Not something that I would have guessed would grab me, but I thought they were great. Then he showed some pieces of Tibetan Buddhist monks in India. My jaw literally dropped! OK, sure I’m gushing, but up to this point only Jerry Uelsmann has been able to seemingly “reach into my mind” and create photos that match my taste so well that I can say that I would make pictures like that if I had the skill. The thing with Teru’s pictures is that they hit me deeper than conscious thought. The picture of the boatman is perfect; I wouldn’t change anything; yet I can’t say I would have created it. It appeals to an aspect of taste that I didn’t realize I had. That’s why his work struck me so deeply. I was blindsided! Hehe. This is something I definitely want to explore.

After the seminar, I was able to chat up some of the speakers at a reception. Michael Green, photo editor from Fitness Magazine gave me some good tips. Teru showed me one if his Holgas, a super cheap medium format camera I wasn’t familiar with. Jonathan Worth explained his fondness for the increased contrast one gets from using pyro, and then went on to explain breathing it could be a problem! Teru didn’t seem too anxious to try it, but considering his darkroom doubles as his bedroom, I don’t blame him! Christy Bush was the third photographer, but I didn’t get a chance to say much beyond “hi, liked your stuff.” Afterwards, I stopped at the King and I to grab some take-out to bring home. I was so worked up about the seminar that I started talking about it. The owners exclaimed “Oh, you do photography? Show us your photos!” I had my book in the car so I brought it in for them to look at it. They told me that they really liked my work and that I could hang some photos in the restaurant with a price tag and they would sell them on consignment! What a way to top off the night! So I framed three photos and brought them down last week. They liked two of them enough to buy them outright! My first sale outside of the family. Hey! I’m a professional! Hehe.

On that note, I registered the photogs.net domain to set up a more professional looking site to display my photos. Bay 13 will stay my personal place to rant, but this style of writing doesn’t cut it for making sales. There isn’t anything there at the moment, but I’ll take a stab at it this weekend.