As a new employee of a large studio, I was afforded several one time perks. The boss took me out to lunch at a nice restaurant, some of my previous attempts at portrait photography were allowed to occupy a small corner of the display window and I was permitted to print one negative of my own in their custom lab.

The picture I chose was a photograph of King Ludwig's castle I took while on a trip through Austria. This is the famous castle Walt Disney used as a model for his Disneyland Castle. The print came out beautiful and I mounted, textured and sprayed it with clear lacquer. I planned to enter it into a photography contest as soon as I had enough to satisfy the rules.

A couple of weeks later, a rumpled-looking gentleman entered the studio and asked if I had any pictures of an Austrian castle for sale. I was puzzled as to how he knew that I owned such a picture since I had not shown it to anyone and certainly not to this person. I invited him to sit down so I could hear the rest of the story. He told me that he had just come from the hospital where his Dad was dying. In a moment of clarity, his father asked his son to bring him a picture of the Austrian Castle of King Ludwig, his memory of the famous castle rose in the mists of the Austrian mountains not far from where he grew up. Not wanting to refuse his father's last wish, he searched the local galleries with no success. He said that he would pay any amount to please his father.

I quickly went through my basket of samples and found the picture of Ludwig's Castle. The owner told him that the regular price of this large wall picture was $250.00 but he could have it for $100.00 and she would also frame it for no charge. The man was amazed and ecstatic at this stroke of luck. He had little hope of finding the exact item that his dear father wished, but felt he had to keep trying until the end. After he left, the owner turned to me and gave me $50.00, half of her surprise sale, saying, "Your talent for photography was what made the sale." This early experience figured importantly in my confidence as a beginning photographer.

Occasional trips to Europe feed my brain with ideas.