Re: First Photo Ever Sold was: Photography: Fun or Profit????

[Paul Stenquist]

I sold my first photo to a magazine called "Drag Racing USA" in 1975.  
It was to accompany an article I wrote about a race car driver named  
Cliff Brown. I believe it was a shot of  him on his farm near Joliet,  
Illinois.
On Dec 27, 2003, at 9:39 AM, J. C. O'Connell wrote:

Very first photos ever sold? Guess this brings up another question,
What was the subject of the first photo you ever sold and who did
you sell it to?
Mine was a picture of a bunch of pelicans resting on a dock with  
moorings.
When I took the film to a local lab, the owner loved it and offered to
buy if from me to make a custom postcard for advertising. I was caught  
off
guard as no one had asked to buy one of my photos before so I just  
asked
for free processing. That was about a $30 bill. He agreed and my first
sale was history. This was in the middle '80's.

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   J.C. O'Connell   mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://jcoconnell.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: frank theriault [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 9:27 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Photography: Fun or Profit????
Shel,

Please tell me that the fish was in exchange for the very first  
photograph
you ever "sold"!

That would make it the perfect story (not that such a thing exists  
<g>).

I truly enjoyed your recollection, Shel.

cheers,
frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds.  The  
pessimist
fears it is true."  -J. Robert Oppenheimer




From: Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Photography: Fun or Profit????
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 23:11:59 -0800
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
"flâneur"
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.

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