I was cleaning up my office and came across a group of slides, each one featuring the lovable Ryan Soderlin looking into the camera, holding a notebook and a pen in my Lincoln apartment that overlooked Hazel Abel Park. He was logging the changes I was making to my flash settings for each frame I took.
The slide mounts show that they were developed January 1998. Ten years later and I’m still trying to unlock the mysteries of flash photography.
It’s really hard to put perspective on a block of time like 10 years. If I were a betting man I would say that we were taking these pics while drinking Busch Light and listening to CCR. I think ’98 was the year I gave up Busch Light.
Those were good times. In 1998 a Clinton was always in the news, Matt Miller won Nebraska College Photographer of the Year and Brett Farve led the Packers to the Super Bowl. How’s that for irony?
It was in January of 1998 when Matt Miller, a fellow Daily Nebraskan photographer who I miserably despised at the time, said, “I never thought I would say this but if we had to pick a photographer of the week it would be Lane.”
It was a time when things started to click with me photographically (no pun intended). Later that year I would serve my first two (of four) internships. It was an intense time of learning and discovery.
In many ways I feel like I’m back there. Two weeks ago Ryan came into town to help celebrate my move to full-time self-employment. I’ve spent countless hours setting up the business, talking with insurance agents, bankers, other photographers, etc.
While I now have a fair amount of confidence when using my flash, I’m basking in this new age of discovery as I acquire a brand new skill-set of running a business. It’s hard to fathom what the next 10 years will bring.
And for those who don’t know the rest of the story, that Matt Miller guy ended up being a pretty good friend once he stopped busting my balls for being a hack photographer. How’s that for irony?
