Call it luck, divine intervention, or opportunity, but I'm a firm believer in the saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” This has happened to me a few times in my life and when it does, it hits me like a ton of bricks. Internally I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be in life, and all the moments, both good and bad, have successfully brought me to this seemingly chance meeting. But there is that gut feeling that comes and tells me, yup, this one is a life changing moment.
That moment happened to me earlier this week. I was so lucky, fortunate, and blessed to have a one-on-one meeting with industry leader and legend, Scott Bourne. Scott has been a photographer for as long as I've been alive and is a digital media pioneer. He's experienced his own personal growth, as well as the explosive growth and changes within the industry and is highly sought after to test out new products and give reviews. He has many speaking engagements every year, and can basically walk in and revolutionizing one's business. He has over 78,000 Twitter followers, and is the famed publisher of Photofocus.com, and frequent podcasts. It didn't take me long to figure out I was in the midst of a legend.
Scott and I met at Skip's Summer School recently after I posted a quick welcome message to him on Twitter. When we wrote me back a direct message, I was shocked! I figured my message would get mixed up with all the other hundreds of messages he gets a day. But, he made me feel important and thanked me for reaching out and offered to take me to lunch. Who me? I was nervous and scared, but I knew every word uttered out of his mouth was going to be genius. Darn, I should have brought my digital voice recorder, but I didn't want to come across as needy.
During our lunch meeting we enjoy casual conversation and shared our backgrounds and future goals. The similarities of both having lived in Minnesota, traveled extensively in the Middle East, and finally ending up in Las Vegas, speckled our conversation with bonds. I soon realized what Scott was trying to convey the whole time. He's a regular guy who worked hard, found his niche, and is in a constant place of paying it forward and sharing his knowledge.
One thing he challenged me to in order to excel at my carft, is to take a picture every day for one year. And so, my 365 Day Project began. I do have to admit, that in the short amount of time I've worked on this project, it is forcing me to look differently at my skill set, ah, a lesson from Scott! So here are a few of the images I've taken so far on the project. I'll be periodically posting images throughout the year, and just as I am seeing a difference and change, hopefully you will too. Please join me on this journey!
Here's my Micky Mouse phone that my sister gave me as Christmas gift about 20 years ago.
This is a closeup of my Middle Eastern poof, a prop I use for sessions some times.
And this is one of my favorites, the tree trunk from the middle of the bar at my new favorite restaurant, NU Sanctuary.
