Three weeks ago: humble pie. This week: I don’t need no stinkin’ ribbon from the fair…I’ve got a buyer!  An admirer!  A patron!  Okay, I may be going a little too far.

Oh, the tangled web that is ego.

Guess who sold her very first photograph?  To a complete stranger!  Not a friend.  Or a family member.  A stranger!  A stranger wants to buy this photo:

It’s actually my personal favorite of those that I entered into the fair.  It got honorable mention.  Me and my buyer feel that it’s worth more than that.

Last week I received a voicemail from a woman who identified herself as a local photographer who saw the above entry at the fair.  She obtained my telephone number from the camera club that sponsors the exhibit and called to tell me how much she liked my photo (she said it makes her feel calm and that she loves the color and the composition) and that she wanted to buy it.  Buy it!

That, my friends, is heady stuff.  Extraordinarily flattering.  So flattering that I was tempted to just give it to her.  But, that didn’t seem real smart.  I returned her call, we failed to connect, so I left my email address and she followed up.  She named her price, which seemed reasonable and I just responded to her email this afternoon.  I expect the final transaction will take place sometime this week.

Now, the amount I’m being paid is certainly not going to fund my trip to Santa Fe this fall. It might put a tank of gas in the rental car.  And I’m not quitting my day job anytime soon. But, it means more than I can express that someone reached out to me and said, “That photo strikes a chord with me.  Enough of a chord that I’d like to hang it in my home.”

Good, good times.