A really nice opportunity

Fuji GA645/Kodak Ektar 100

Jesse Sample is a singer songwriter in Toronto, KS, a small town in the Flint Hills. Jesse started following me on Instagram awhile back and I noticed we had a couple musician friends in common so I followed back. 

He sent me a message saying that he really enjoys my work and would like to hire me to shoot him for his promotional things for his upcoming album.  I say immediately that I am not a professional and I shoot film and the turnaround time is longer than for digital and pretty much anything else I can think of to discourage him.  But undeterred he told me that's precisely why he likes my work, especially Redscale (yes I was shocked too) and asked me what I would charge him to drive out for the day and photograph him.  

Money always makes me squirrely inside.  I don't like the idea of someone holding the fact that they're paying me over my head.  I shoot for me because it's fun and I'm not tied to the outcome.  I like to experiment and those don't always work out but it's MY money I'm spending.  

Being pressured to deliver is nerve wracking but I really wanted to do it.  So I told him to cover the cost of the lab and the gas to get out there and that would be fine.  As a sign of good faith he sent me some money right away! Oh boy, he's for real. I guess I'm really doing it. 

Saturday morning comes and I hit the road east.  Jesse and his wife were waiting for me so I hopped in their truck and headed to all the spots he had in mind. 

He was very easy to shoot,  very calm in front of the camera and both he and his wife had good ideas for poses.   A really great day.   I headed home with exposed rolls and a dozen of their eggs from their hens and promptly collapsed into my easy chair at home.   

I mailed off the rolls to Boutique Film Lab in Tennessee and then the anxiety began anew.  How will the Redscale look? I rolled it myself because it was sold out online.  Did I take the lens cap off my rangefinder? That one woke me up out of a dead sleep.  Will he even like these? Should I offer to reshoot/refund?

The scans finally arrived yesterday and I wanted so badly to go home and download them immediately but I had to wait until after work.  It took forever between downloading the extra large files over my spotty internet connection and flipping all of the Redscale mirror image because they're all backwards simply the nature of redscale though, doing a little editing and FINALLY sending them to Jesse, I was up so late but I wanted to get them to him as soon as I could.  I guess some part of me wanted it to be over with so I could finally breathe.  Not that I didn't have a blast in Toronto but providing a service is stressful.   I never thought I'd have the chance to shoot for someone, be paid and still stick to how I do things.  Wild to find out what's possible for yourself.  Be open to receive and don't talk yourself out of it once offered is what I learned from all this. I'm excited to see what the universe has in store for me.