| | THIS AD IS NOT CORRECT! I WILL NOT BE APPEARING IN FLORIDA IN JULY!
Please note: the following ad forwarded to me by MJ Wilson is NOT correct. I will NOT be speaking in Florida in July. They mistook me with Hanson Fong. It happens all the time!
If you do go, you will find Hanson to be a very motivating speaker with a great sense of humor. I've been to his program and he's really great! Whenever people ask him about the Lightsphere he'll say "Wong Fong!"
OHMYGOSH
guys! You should go! And then when you get a moment with him during a
break - ask him how his ranch is going and watch him make a Kung Fu
face!!!!
Want to hear a funny Hanson/Gary story?
OK I am in Honolulu at the Hawaii State Convention. I'm 26 years old and nobody knows who I am - but Hanson is very famous. I'd been doing seminars for Art Leather and packing the house... unheard of for an unknown but thanks to Hanson everybody thought they were going to see him and got me instead! HA!
Well I am at this convention, and they go, OK well we're glad you could be a judge in the print competition. I said, "what?" I've never even seen one before how am I supposed to know? And they go, you ARE Hanson Fong from San Francisco, right? And I said no, Gary Fong from Marina Del Rey. So they go, well just do the best you can.
So they give me a seat in front of hundreds of people on a stage with two other judges, American Idol style. They introduce the esteemed, "Master Photographers" (I to this date have never won a print merit, though I do have my Cr.Photog. degree). Anyway I go, dude, I'm not a master and they said, well do the best you can. I'm sitting to the left of two very famous photographers.
They give you a 10 key entry pad. The first 16x20 turns on the platform. It's a little hawaiian girl wearing flowers in her hair, portrait crop, BxW with a mauve bordered frame (mauve and or dusty rose were all the rage back then). I scored it 100. All of a sudden a loud buzzer goes off and an announcement.
WE HAVE AN AUTOMATIC CHALLENGE - Mr. Fong scored it 100, average of other judges, 59. (!) So they hand me the microphone. I said, "Hi, I'm Gary". Silence from the crowd of 500. They said, "substantiate your high score".
I said, "well, it's a nice picture, and I'm sure that this kid's mom would like it very much". (crowd murmers loudly) Mind you my speaking presentation is the next day! Anyway, the other judges ripped me and the print apart - saying you don't put a mauve border with a BxW print. The print quality was flat, shot lacked impact, etc. I found myself feeling sorry for the person in the audience because they were so mean to them and to me. I found out that any judge scoring greater than 20 points different from the other judges creates that loud buzzer and an automatic challenge - so I scored everything at 79 from that moment on. I never heard the buzzer again because any score between 59 to 99 was safe!
I wonder if that is analogous to how some people live life? Score 79 and stay out of notice? |
| | Posted 6/28/2007 9:58 AM - 227 views - 8 comments
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