This bit of discussion reminded me of a very profitable and very fun instance in the summer of 1968, when I was just getting started in photography.
At the time I had very little money, and was living in a storefront in San Francisco. The storefront had a big darkroom in back, and, downstairs, in the "bargain basement" as we called it, a couple of home built drying cabinets for negatives. In those days I'd be up early, and start wandering through the city, a "fl�neur" photographer, looking for things to photograph. On this one particular day I was walking down Mission Street, a big shopping area at the time, which was filled with restaurants, shoe stores, butchers, poultry markets, five-and-dime stores, radio repair shops, and the like. You know the kind of street I'm describing. Anyway, I walked by a fish monger, and there, in the window, standing ankle deep in ice, wearing high, rubber boots and white aprons, were the two owners of the shop holding a fish that was about six feet long. It took the two of them to hold it, and they were standing side-by-side in the window, facing the street. They were going to place the fish on the ice for display. The timing was right, and I snapped a quick exposure while they were looking right at me, smiling, holding this fish, and looking like they just stepped off the boat. You could almost smell the sea in that 1/125 of a second. I stuck my head in the shop and told them that I'd return with a print for them, and later that day I delivered a nice 11 x 14 printed on Agfa Brovira (some of you will understand - vbg). They were quite pleased, and asked me to wait a moment as they had something for me. In a few minutes one of the guys returned with a big package, and told me to enjoy dinner. When I got back to the studio I opened the wrapping paper, and there were a couple of nice, fresh crabs, some shrimp, and some halibut. I called my girlfriend and she brought some salad fixin's and a bottle of crisp, white wine, and that evening, sitting on boxes and with a box for a table, we had a wonderful dinner by candle light. That was one of the best days I ever had making photographs. Shel Boris Liberman wrote: > Hi! > > ft> But, you know what? As much fun as I get from it, I think it goes way > ft> deeper than that for me. I'm going to sound all stupid and pretentious now, > ft> but you know what? Photography is my form of self-expression. So over the > ft> last number of years, it goes way beyond fun. It's almost (but not quite) > ft> an obsession. I no longer carry a camera because it's fun, but because I > ft> have to. Not in a weird sort of "I'd panic if I ever left the house without > ft> my camera" sort of way, but in a "I get a lot of self-fulfillment by > ft> recording some of the world around me" sort of way. > > No, you did not sound "all stupid and pretentious"... Not that I have > to take my camera with me always, but almost always on weekends... > > Sometimes, I feel like you do. Not too often, but sometimes I do. > > I must say that my previous serious hobby was PDAs. It lasted some 4 > years or so and I was very good in knowing why one OS is better than > some other OS given some conditions. Also I got some good friends > through some web-communities. > > But then I kind of returned to photography and, man, I feel > wonderful... > > So if they start throwing whatever it is customary to throw in such a > case, they'd have two targets <g>... > > Cheers! > > P.S. Thumbs up to J.C. for starting this thread.
