On a warm evening this past May, I sat in a conference room listening to Sandy Puc' during her 2012 Workflow Tour.

During the break we had briefly chatted about some camera gear she had for sale, the changes in technology (we both got started in photography as teenagers with film and large format), and most of all - merging video and photographs in fusion projects. I was looking at creating a mixed media project - and she had mentioned that a still-video project was about to come in the next segment of the show.

Anticipation was building...

During her final section of the show, she introduced the project. To introduce the "My Story', her video-still fusion product for high school seniors, Sandy told us that she presents it to the client as the most high end product available, and then she told us what she actually tells the parents during the consultation: When you watch this presentation, I do not want you tho think about your son and whether you want this product for your son. I want you to think about what it was like when you were seventeen, and how you felt. At 17 you don't realize how free you really are: you have the world in your hand, you get to choose to be anything you want to be. You have complete and total freedom towards your future. What would you give today to hear your thoughts, your dreams, and that freedom of when you were seventeen - and to be able to watch that now, twenty years later?

Now, if you haven't seen the Workflow Tour and don't know about the "My Story" products, here's your homework: before you go on, open a new tab on your browser, head on over to Sandy's website, find the video section, and watch her "My Story"video-still fusion art. And since you are there on her website, go on to Ukandu and gift yourself a copy of the Workflow Tour and the Still-Video fusion Tour, they are worth every second in GOLD. Sales pitch over, alright, but yes, you do need to see her "My Story" video.

And now come back to my blog, thank you. Sandy's "My Story" is pretty impressive, right?

Well, after playing the video, she asked the audience, us, (and yes, me too), one more question: "What have you found tonight that is going to be the thing that changes everything?"

When I walked out that night, I though about that question. And about the idea behind "My Story" - capturing that moment of absolute freedom, and the dreams and thought of a 17 years old. And I thought about that lost teenager, that me that was 17 years old once, and what that 17 years old's dreams were, and what she wanted to do in life, and to be.

A seventeen, I was in high school of course, and an intern in a large commercial studio. It was pretty clear in my mind what my future was going to be. Finish high school, go to college, go to architecture school, and build a career as an architectural photographer. Pretty simple.

It was perfectly laid out. The perfect career path, the best architecture school nearby, the studio to come back to, I had it all planned out.

And it never happened.

At the end of college, unexpectedly, madly, abruptly, I fell in love with Medicine. Or maybe the idea of Medicine, and of the impact that Medicine can have in the world. And in a minute, all plans were gone. Vanished, locked away in those restricted moments we find an excuse for, and we call interests, activities, hobbies. Medicine is a totalitarian and jealous lover, and leaves no room for casual flings or old friends. Medicine wants all power and pride to herself, does not share the attention, does not want to let anything else on the stage.

For many years, photography was relegated in the role of 'side activity', reserved for those few volunteering/pro-bono projects that would come along. Yes, there was always this idea in the back of my mind - that someday, somehow, at some point I would maybe start an architectural photography business, something like a side business venture, something to grow by the time I retired from Medicine.

And yes, seeing this written down, it does sound like a load of excuses... hiding behind excuses, and behind the perfect statue of the nice doctor who occasionally offered the pro-bono photography skills to help, years went by.

Years and years.

Until that evening a few months ago, when someone walked on a stage and asked me, all of us, and yes, me too, to remember what that 17 years old, long gone, wanted to be. What that 17 years old, not really gone, still wanted to be. What this 41 years old, right here, right now, really wants to be.

The architectural photographer of Medicine, no more and no less.  

And this is how the new re-branded Earchphoto is born, crossing paths between a long gone past and an uncertain future, in this confused present shaped by dream and work. And this is where my re-branded self is born, this intersection of photographer and doctor, striving for a peace which is never to be found.

What have I found that night, that changed everything? I found my own "My Story". And someone that somehow had the key to open a door and unleash a dream that had been locked away for a long time.

Sometimes, it just takes a special someone to unlock the door.

Thank you, Sandy.