They said yes without blinking, and I have been uneasy about it since.

Twelve prints, 30x40, each one a separate exposure. Which means twelve sheets of paper I have to coat by hand, twelve days at least of waiting for the right sun, and the seawater. Two of them I will almost certainly ruin and start again. There is no file I can send. If the wind comes off the land and brings dust, the whole morning is gone.

I worked out afterwards what it comes to per hour and it was not good. But that is not really what bothers me. What bothers me is that they agreed so quickly that I have no idea what the work is worth to them. Maybe 260 is nothing to a gallery. Maybe I could have said 400 and they would have said yes in the same breath. I will never know now, and that is my own fault for naming a number I was comfortable with instead of the one I actually needed.

The prints go up in July. I am glad of the show. I am just tired of learning this lesson the slow way, one too-cheap summer at a time.