An Aside: Best compliment ever!

Helen Richardson/The Denver Post: Alic Nemirovskiy bakes fresh rye bread at The Bagel Store on South Monaco Parkway.

Today I got an amazing compliment from an equally amazing photographer that really helped it hit home for me just how far I've come. I ran into Helen Richardson today, a staff photographer from The Denver Post and someone who's work I've admired for many years. She told me that she was talking about me to other staff photographers, saying namely that she thought I was probably making more money at photographer than they were! After assuring her that wasn't the case since I'm not full time, it sunk in that this celebrated photojournalist had been talking about ME...to the rest of her colleagues who are equally fantastic photojournalists!!!!

Helen is interested in doing more freelance photography herself outside of her day job at the Post. You can find some of her most recent published work here. She asked me about my pricing structure and what kind of work I do outside of my normal full time job at the Denver Post. She took the time to look at my work on my website and was amazed that I had done so much shooting!

I can't tell you how much this five minute interaction brightened my day and encouraged me to keep going. This will be my fourth year as a freelance photographer, and I know I've come such a long way and still have much more to learn. I think many of my print colleagues at the newspaper thought photography might be a passing phase, especially since the joke is most print journalists long to be a photographer and most photographers long to be a print journalist. But this was not just a hobby for me. Photography has become an integral part of my life and my camera is just as much an extension of me as my pen is when I'm interviewing sources or writing an article. To have someone of Helen's caliber notice my work and compliment me on it was amazing, generous and just plain cool! It's always fun for me to be able to "talk shop" with Denver Post staff photographers and totally understand what's being said or done.... and not just be faking it! I can't wait to see what new stuff I learn this year, and thanks Helen for your kind words and support.