The dog didn't make it...

I was in Hong Kong on my way back from China in 1987, having dinner with a friend of my that owned three companies over there. They were in the clothing industry and I dropped him a call to tell him I was in town, so we had dinner overlooking Hong Kong Bay. We were generally catching up on several decades of non conversation as he was there and I was in Carthage. As the dinner progressed he told me of the plight of a photographer he had used with his company producing images for his advertising. It seemed as though this guy had an assignment to photograph a building in the downtown area and the only was he could get the shot was to photograph it from the building across the street. Inquiring about the possibilities of getting to the roof of the building and shooting, the owner of the building he wanted to shoot from told him that under NO circumstances could he get on the roof and complete the assignment.

Undaunted the photographer slipped through security and went to the roof to complete the shoot. The richest man in Hong Kong at that time owned a pink Rolls Royce, which, as luck would have it, the Rolls pulled up to the entrance of the building the photographer was shooting from. Looking down from the top of the roof the photographer saw the wife of the man step from the Rolls, reach in and grab her small dog and put on the ground. Leaning over to get a better look the photographer nudged the camera and tripod that was sitting on the edge of the roof and I think everything went suddenly into slow motion for him. The camera fell about twenty stories and scored a bullseye on the dog. I'm told he raced down the stairway, glanced to see that the dog expired and made a hasty retreat. My friend told me that he had heard that the photographer left Hong Kong for several months and was somewhat invisible for a time. He also noted that the wifes' husband was not happy that the dog didn't make it and had ordered a hit on the photographer.  Continuing, he also noted that he had heard that the photographer had returned to Hong Kong a week or so earlier and that if HE knew the photographer had returned, Mr. Big did also and that photographer was probably not among the living...

Moral.....be careful of tall buildings and small dogs...

It almost got by me.....

I was doing some work today and I guess my mind checked out on me.....now, mid afternoon,  I realized that Morgan Studio turns 44 today. I had applied to numerous colleges and Universities after I graduated with my Masters but the Draft had ended and the college teaching positions were fading as enrollment had tanked. All of the companies I spoke with told me I was over educated for any design or photographic jobs they had. It was looking pretty dismal.....the great plan didn't work.

I was reading a book and my Dad came into the room and asked me what I was going to do. I guess I had a blank look on my face........in a few moments he said"GET A JOB'.

Carthage had three studios, Carl Taylor, Moyne Norris, and Stewards, all competing for the same dollars. They all had small studios, a dressing room, a reception area and an office. As I remember they all had Hot lights which means that strobe lights were on the horizon and not widely used. All of the cameras were twin lens or Speedgrafics which was not what I was looking for. Taylor was really the only seriously interested party I talked to but his location and all of the other issues just didn't fit what I was looking for. Plus he'd did his own color processing which with the technology was a shot in the foot.

I went to the bank for an appointment with Mills Anderson, the president. I told him of my situation, explained that I could make a living photographing people and products, but I needed a professional camera, and operating capital. I had found a location at Third and Lyon  that consisted a front room, to be my reception area. the next room had a sink so that would work for a darkroom, one more office to be the assembly room for framing, putting mats on prints, and a back room for a general employee area and a bathroom. The rent was $ 125.00 per month, utilities included. He looked at me and I signed a note for $ 5000.00. I really didn't believe it happened. I was a rookie so to speak in the business area. There aren't any business courses in the BFA program, but I needed a camera, I promptly bought an RB 67 which delivered a 2 1/4 by 2 3/4 inch negative and then looked for a space.

The issue then was what to do for a studio. I figured I could shoot in peoples homes but then realized that the outdoors had the best light. NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THAT !!!!! A true stroke of inadvertent genius.

My first Senior portrait was Will Grey photographed at Morrow Mill, and the only senior I photographed 1972, I picked up some other portrait jobs a wedding or two and that was about it.
The next three months I could have learned how to play several musical instrument, written a novel or two, learned a new language.....I wasn't busy. I made a connection with Joplin Printing and they gave me my first big job photographing for Teledyne Neosho. From that I gained several other commercial accounts, won some awards for the imagery in the Teledyne piece and the ship of Morgan Studio took off.

Looking back over the last 44 years I have met amazing people that have opened doors for me, expanded my possibilities, and allowed me to live a life so much fuller than I ever could have imagined. The challenges have never been overwhelming although at times they seemed extremely large, but that's just part of the mix I guess.

As part of the unexplained luck that seems to have been with me for so long, showing my slide show concerning my trip to Baghdad a month before Desert Storm broke out and our retrieval of Japanese hostages, I saw a beautiful lady walk into the room. I didn't recognize her. Having been in the area so long there weren't many people that I hadn't met. To make a long story short involving the luck factor and good fortune, we got married 4 years later. We moved to Tulsa Oklahoma in 2002 so she could follow HER dream job as C.E.O. of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma. She did a fantastic job and has since retired and now occasionally assists me on commercial shoots.

I guess I've written a book with this one.................but all I can really say is that I Love My Job.
Thanks for all of your support.