I saw this young woman browsing thru records at Rooky Ricardos in the Lower Haight. I go in there to get schooled on 60’s music. The owner, Dick Vivian, is a fountain of knowledge about the music of that era. As she was looking thru records I asked her, “You a big fan of soul music?”

“Yeah, I like it. I’m just exploring.”

“Do you live in this neighborhood?”

“I’m visiting from New York for a few days.”

“Oh yeah, what do you do there?”

“I’m a photo retoucher.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means I assist other photographers by helping them edit and retouch their pictures.”

“I didn’t even know there was such a thing. How’d you get into that?”

“I wanted to be a photographer, but New York is so competitive and it has a way of changing what you want to do.”

“Hmm, it does seem really dense in that way. I’m a photographer too and I’ve been able to carve out a niche for myself here, I guess it’s more open. What are you doing out here?”

“I’m photographing a conference. I’m shoot with film though, seems kinda silly but I just love film.”

“You see, you are a photographer! You’re on the other side of the country for a photography gig. And you use film, obviously you’re passionate about it. I don’t even know how to use film. If you don’t believe in yourself no one else is going to.”

“Yeah…I guess so.”

Then she walked over to the counter to pay for her records and Dick said, “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

Her – “Yeah…this store is really cool. It reminds me of some record stores in New York.”

Dick – “Oh you’re visiting huh? What do you do there?”

Her – “I’m a photo retouch-”

Me – “-Ah ah ah.”

Her – “I’m a photographer.”

Then we looked at each other and smiled and I asked her, “Would you mind if I took your picture?”