100 Sons?!?!

Scariness and Glory:

The last two days have been insanely busy, and with only 12 days to go before the wedding we don’t really foresee any changes in our hectic schedule.

First came Saturday, our “Gift Day” which started off like Christmas if you were in love with fruits, veggies, jewelry and money.  We stepped out of our room while Felicia’s mom covered our bed in good luck tokens, like oranges for prosperity, Pomegranates for lots of children (they have lots of seeds), evergreen pine so we can be ever loving to each other, and sweet bamboo so we can stay sweet to each other through the years, and a paper wishing us a 100 sons and 1000 descendants (I guess this is good luck, but it sounds like an awful lot of work to me…).  Felicia also received her inheritance in jewelry and some money for bedding & sheets for the new home, given from mother to daughter.  I was given money for pants and a new wallet (so I would have something to keep my lifetime of wealth in), and I also handed Felicia’s mother a red packet full of money to thank her for raising her daughter for me.

After the gift giving formalities, we headed out to hand deliver out wedding invites and small cakes to all the members of Felicia’s extended family.  I really enjoyed the idea of actually handing your invites to people in person, but I will say all that driving and visiting can be tiring.  The first stop we hit was Grandma and Grandpa’s (Mama and Yeye), and they spoiled us with a gigantic lunch which left me ready for a nap that I would never get.  The afternoon flew by and before we knew it we were back at home working on our neverending list of wedding stuff.

Then came Sunday.  My photography mastersclass with Steve McCurry was today, which was a extemely interesting slideshow/talk for the first half (it was 3 hours long), then he sent us outside to shoot for about 20 minutes, then we were supposed to come back in and get our pictures we shot review on the LCD screens of our camera for about 1 minute each.  I was in “Group 2” (of 2) which meant we had a little longer to shoot before getting reviewed, but being hot outside I ended up coming in and watching the Group 1 reviews.  After a few minutes I noticed he was correcting on things like image sharpness, shutter speed, ISO and aperture (all things I feel VERY comfortable with), I was really hoping for a little artisitic critisism, his ideas about use of color and such.

When Group 1 was done I positioned myself to be first in line of Group 2 to be reviewed, and as soon as I sat down next to him I asked if it was alright if I showed my portfolio instead of just images on the back of my camera. He responded with a “Yes, please.”

I whipped out my 20 image, 8″ x 12″, spiral bound, black mounted portfolio of all my favorite travel images from the last three years and dropped it in this legendary photographers lap. My heart was beating fast and hoping I don’t look like a fool (professional portfolio reviews sometime will easily cost hundreds of dollars)….

We proceeded to sit there for the next 15-20 minutes, with the class moving in closer and closer to see my pictures, while he looked at all my images and commented on what he like and what worked.  I was beaming with pride when I realized that he was actually enjoying looking at my pictures and was dumbfounded when he asked “Who do you shoot for? Are you making a living doing this yet?”

I responded that I was making a modest living that let me keep travelling and he confirmed that I was moving in the right direction to being a full time professional travel photographer…  I couldn’t have asked for anything more to boost my spirits.