{This is the final post of the “What I’ve Learned So Far” series and it will become a book very soon. All of you may download it for free if you are interested. I hope you enjoyed the series. I’ve learned more than just this, but I figured wrapping it in a month long time frame gave it some closure.

I would love to hear your thoughts on starting out in photography. In fact, I would love to interview you and feature that interview in my weekly dispatch. If you would like to share your successes and how you came to the business with me and the readers, just let me know by dropping me an email. I will get right back to you for a schedule.}

I can still remember those Look and Life and Saturday Evening Post magazines that would drop through the mail slot when I was young. Really young.

I would wait for Wednesday, because that was the day they all came usually. And then I would sit on the floor, and scan every page, every photograph, every ad.

I was simply in love with the still image in a magazine.

I can even remember some of the photographers of those days. Eugene Smith and Eisenstadt come immediately to mind.

Of course as I grew up other interests were added to my love of photography  – drums, girls, motorcycles, girls, poetry and girls… What?

I didn’t get my first real camera until I was in high school. A Miranda with two lenses – 500mm and 200mm. I learned to see with a long lens. My first subjects?

Motorcycles, bands and girls.

Not necessarily in that order.

My first commercial gig came many years after I had started shooting and making “art”. My neighbor was an art director for an ad agency in town and he knew of my interest in photography, I had no idea what an ad agency was, and was not really thinking of being a professional photographer.

He asked me if I could photograph a can for him. A black can. On a white background. He even gave me a drawing of what it should look like. (Later I was to understand these were called layouts.

Of course I said yes… how hard could it be?

Took me nearly a week. Back and forth to the guys at the camera store who would all help me figure out why my picture didn’t look like his drawing. Camera angle, subject angle, a white piece of curved art board… and light. LIGHT?!?!

I didn’t have lights so I had to construct a scrim in the back patio of my townhouse to make softer light.

A week later he came down to see if I had the photograph for him. I had just finished it in the darkroom and he was fairly pleased. He commented that the lighting was pretty nice, but thought the print could use more contrast. Now THAT I knew, so I whipped another print up for him and that was that.

He gave me a check for $200.

I was, as they say, hooked.

The path I took to become a professional photographer was a very curvy one, with lots of interesting stops along the way… art director, jazz musician, warehouseman… not in that order, but you get the idea. I did all kinds of things while learning about what I was getting into.

The school I attended was called “Hard Knocks”, and it was wonderful. Full of characters I will never forget. And some I wish I could.

I started with a small, 900 sq ft studio on Indian School Rd, and ended up in one of the largest studios in the area. I was sort of a generalist, but specialized in people and still life (product) photography. Worked all the studios to the point we were breaking before moving up, and never, EVER, had a line of credit or a bank loan for operating expenses.

Cashflow was king, and I didn’t buy anything I couldn’t afford to buy. Being frugal saved me more than once.

I was never famous, never someone out of state would have known. I didn’t live in NY or LA (well, briefly) or shoot famous models for Vogue. I shot a few celebrities along the way, enough to know that was not gonna be my specialty. And I spent a few years shooting very high end real estate and commercial properties. Made a ton of money, but soul killing for me.

At one point my art director kicked back in and we took design and advertising for a few specific clients to being the second largest ad agency in Arizona in 2000-2001. Billing over 6.5M. For Phoenix, that was pretty impressive.

Heady days.

Looking back over a long career in photography I can’t help but see the various ways it has changed, as has the whole industry of ad agency / graphic design / magazines / publishing and creation of art.

I loved the good old days, but I keep in mind that these are the good old days of people in their thirties and forties. It is all relative.

My history is not my present, nor does it have much bearing on the present. Those who fight that simple concept become bitter outsiders. I welcome change because if it is changing it is still vitally alive.

Being a photographer, making images mundane and wonderful, and working with other talented people is all I could have hoped for. Would there be some things I would change along the way, of course. But hindsight is always so much clearer.

I took risks, made stupid decisions, took the fall, took the wins, and have always made it through whatever storm came my way.

It has been a good life, being a photographer, and it continues to be a focus in my daily work.

Thanks for reading along, and if you have not caught all of the posts, don’t worry. I will be putting them into a book form for you to download in a few weeks.

As I write this it is December 31, 2015.

We are halfway to the year 2030… wow has time gone by.

Have a great and joyful new year, and live YOUR life.