Today I added a new skill set to my life. Let me tell you about it.
This winter, as the annual doldrums of February returned I looked at my career of 35 years in the photography business with affection and analysis. I have done almost everything I have wanted in this wonderful field. There is more I want to do and I will, but I have had a blessed career with great customers, and wonderful friends and a success level I could not have imagined at the beginning. Oh, my I was young and green! I was so enthusiastic! The possibility that I could photograph people for a living barely entered my mind because the larger elephant in the room was that people would let me photograph them! I had a start that could only be described as a jump-start. When I returned from art School in San Francisco, I was offered a studio by Marlis Jensen, who was an art director in Minneapolis in the Wyman building. Offered, as in given. For free!! I took it, and the first three businesses that I showed my book to hired me. One of them hired me for 18 years of continuous employment until they went out of business. Over the years, I have had studios in Mpls, St. Paul, Maplewood, and now for the last 17 years Stillwater. Each location has been wonderful, but Stillwater has been the best, and I have made this valley my home. Something more is needed now, though. I am 57, and while I still jump off the ground with excitement when I take a great image,(though not as high as I once did, knees!) I am looking for opportunities outside of these doors. A decade ago I bought the building my studio occupies and I began to see the world of a property owner. Tenants, leases, paying off a mortgage, the balance sheet; I had began another business, and it was interesting and fun. Well, not always fun. I had some very interesting tenants!
So I began to read about real estate. I talked to people, investors and salespersons. I looked up web sites and journals, and in my learning I saw the possibilities more clearly. Photography is a solo pursuit. It isn’t lonely but it is solitary. I have often wished for a more collaborative engagement. I wanted more activity in the public world. I wanted to see what the real estate industry was like from the inside and so… In February, I began to take the real estate salesperson training at Kaplan, in Roseville. Last week I passed the test, and this morning I handed in my certificates and results to the good people at Keller Williams. I am going to become a real estate agent and a photographer. Woohoo! I’m excited! I have a new and exciting direction that I can dig into. Moreover, I can do my photography as well.
I remember my high school interest in Architecture. I loved it. I still do. It is amazing what a talented architect can do with materials and space. But we all need a place to live and work, and for me, it is not just the lofty dreams of the architect that matters, but the equally lofty dreams of a young family seeking to shelter their loved ones in a home. I can now participate in that world as well. Stay tuned for the exciting updates. I have a house to sell!