There are a very select few people we meet in life that end up altering the trajectory of our life as a direct result of having met them. In most, if not all cases, we don’t know what they will end up meaning to us one day when we do. Well, the guy you see on the left here, Gene, was one of those select few people for me.

It was the year 2000, and he owned Photo 1, a photo lab and studio in Valdosta, GA. I went in one day to see if they could print a darker photo of an image I thought I’d overexposed, and one of his three kids, who all worked there for him, looked at it and told me that they could darken it but first, they were gonna show me how it was supposed to look. After Amanda handed me their printed version of the same negative back to me, I learned that who you had process and print your film in photography matters. I left that day with a new life goal: professional photography. It wasn’t long before Gene took notice of me, and took me under his wing. He was a wealth of knowledge to me. Not just about photography, but about life in general.

He and his cousin, Kenny, who you see with him here in this photo were so good to me. I learned to shoot weddings by tagging along with them and acting as a third shooter. Gene would give me rolls of film, and let me shoot fly-on-the-wall type candid shots – before that style of wedding photography got to be the new thing. I wasn’t paid anything but the free film, a free set of prints of what I’d shot, and the experience of being there with them to watch, learn, and shoot in a pressure-free environment. Back in the days of film, which we were still in at that point, that was huge, as a huge barrier to learning photography was the cost of film and processing (you have to shoot and practice a lot) and getting into a professional shooting environment when you’re not yet a professional photographer yourself. I shot this photo of Gene and Kenny at one of those weddings.

I was so saddened to hear that Kenny had – very unexpectedly – died of a heart attack, maybe six or seven years ago. He was too young to go at the time. And so was Gene. One of his daughters, Jennifer, messaged me late Friday afternoon to let me know her dad had passed earlier in the day. He was only 69. Learning of him being gone felt like a punch to the gut.

Gene was not just loved by me, but I think everybody that knew him. He was so interesting to talk with about anything, but like me, he was obsessed with photography. So, we always had that to talk about. His whole crew at Photo 1 all seemed to be a reflection of who Gene was as the owner of the business. It’s been 23 years, and I’m still connected to all of those who worked there here on Facebook, even those who worked there that were not his family, just employees of his. Me? I was just a customer – that they saw a lot of. Looking back I realize that Gene was the one that made that place and crew feel like family to each other. They made me feel as if I was part of that family. Gene loved them all and seemed to love me too.

I moved to Atlanta to pursue commercial photography in 2001, and have always tried to make certain that Gene, and a couple of others that have gone out of their way to help me in that pursuit, never felt as if I’d been a waste of their time. I didn’t let up on it until I went down the healthcare path I’m now on. This just happens to be an extension of what Gene took the time to teach all those years ago: Imaging. Medical Imaging. I’d think he’d approve of the effort.

Sadly, due to the intensity of the radiography program I’m in, and it being the middle of the summer semester, I won’t be able to make it down tomorrow to pay my respects to you and your family, Gene. Thank you for changing my life, Sir. Anybody that has looked at one of my photos and admired it since those days at Photo 1 has you to thank for it. I’m not done with photography yet, and you will live on in my images.