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THREAD: quick “Miller is an awesome dude” story. So it’s the mid 00s and I’ve just moved to NYC. My dad is a photographer back home in Buffalo, worked for the Courier, and then made a career out of industrial photography after the paper folded (now communications but w/e).
Pops started to branch off in his 60s and do his own thing and started to have little shows here and there at various Buffalo galleries. I happened to be home for one of them and was excited to see my Dad flexing his artistic side once again. Mind you, this is smack dab
In the middle of the Sabres Briere/Drury/Miller/Vanek frenzy. Yes I was there to support my dad but I was also there to see as many games in a home stand as I could. So it’s an off night and Dad is having his little opening at a gallery on Elmwood (I think).
I show up to this thing and it’s packed with friends, family, and my dad’s little newspaper/photography cohort. He starts introducing me around and finally introduces me to his “friend Ryan.” Now mind you, this is a man who drove me all over WNY and Southern Ontario for hockey
games and still has no idea the rules of the sport or even the position I played (goalie). Very supportive, but couldn’t give a shit about sports in any way shape or form. So I go to shake this dudes hand and it’s Ryan fucking Miller. Obviously I freeze and stumble and make a
General ass of myself. He’s very nice to me and then starts chatting with my dad about Stereoscopic Photography (3D SLR stills), of which my old man was kind of an expert in the field. He leaves, and I stare at my dad. “Dad do you know who the hell that is” “Ryan? Yeah very nice
young man I think he plays for the hockey team or the football team. Very good photographer! I’m glad he came!” I’m absolutely floored. Turns out they met at a fuckin frame store and started chatting photography and the entire time my Dad had zero clue who he was. Even my mother
Was referring to “that nice young man Ryan whom your father met” and APPARENTLY HE EVEN STOPPED BY A FEW TIMES TO TRADE EQUIPMENT. Anyway, I absolutely love that story because in the middle of arguably the most pressure Ryan Miller was under in his career, with an entire city on
His back, he found time to talk shop and trade ideas with an old photographer who didn’t have an inkling of who he was. Hope you find all the time in the world to flex your photo chops in retirement, “Ryan”.
