Love is Greater Than …Life through a lens of love and hope

…and it’s getting worse.

who’s seen sister act two? come on guys, don’t deny it…

remember the line, when whoopi is talking to lauryn hill and is talking about a book, she quotes “if you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is writing, then you’re a writer.” ?? remember?

“if you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is photography, then you’re a photographer.”

listen, it’s one thing to be passionate about something, but passion only takes you so far. i could be crazy passionate about dancing, but i still have the same two left feet God decided to curse me with. at some point, passion must be followed up by commitment, a willingness to learn, and on some level… talent. i would say this though, that raw talent is probably the least important thing. hard work and a humble desire to learn can make up for it in the long run, for a lot of things anyway. my point is; i’ve been passionate about photography my whole life but it was never really all i thought about until the last year or so.

i’m not kidding ya’ll. it consumes me. i wake up in the middle of the night thinking of a new way to compose a shot, light a shot, a new location i want to scope out, a new way of communicating something on our website, a new tweak here, a new tweak there, better ways to interact with clients, new posing ideas, gear, gear, gear, and gear… i came into this as raw as they come, and got by for a long time with just the same composition and lighting rules i had learned from video production. over time, i submitted myself to the masters, the people i looked up to and i learned from them. i sucked in every bit of knowledge i could get from people like chase jarvis, zack arias, jeremy cowart, joe mcnally, jasmine star, daley hake, strobist, and a variety of other websites. it wasn’t an attempt to emulate anyone’s style (though in the beginning, i admittedly really wanted to be daley… haha), but rather just an attempt to get myself a better understanding of the field. to this day, i still read every single word these guys and gal’s put out, and look over every single image they publish.

it’s taken me two years to get to a point where i can look at my work and say “yup, that’s who i am as a photographer. that’s my work.” i don’t mean to say that i’ve arrived or anything silly like that, but i think i have finally carved out my “voice.” and i really, really dig it.

but unfortunately, getting to this point has left me in a place that i didn’t anticipate. i thought once i got to here, i’d feel a little contentment, just a teeny bit. but alas it wasn’t to be. instead, my desire to just be neck deep in photography has intensified. i want more. i want to learn more, i want to do crazier things, i want to hang out of cars and take pictures, i want to go to ridiculously dangerous locations, i want to get more involved in missional work, i want to tell stories, i want to be creative, i want to make pictures that leave people feeling the same way i do when i look at a great picture.

…speechless.

sometimes when i look at a picture, i honestly don’t know what to say. the words escape me. i am not ashamed to admit it’s happened a couple times with photos i’ve taken. but more often than not it’s coming from the people i’ve listed above. we’ve been blessed to work with some amazing clients who have let us tinker around to get the shot we imagined, and that’s been a big part of our best images. truly, we can’t say enough about our clients… they make up a large part of why our images look the way they do.

so what’s next? this is still a referral based business, and nobody comes out of the gate making money hand over fist. so there is going to continue to be rough patches and slow times. i am still praying hard for a position i interviewed for in portland a couple months ago to work out. but the photography isn’t going anywhere. so long as weekends are available, i’ll continue to fly back here to toledo to shoot weddings, and hopefully gregg can join me out in oregon (if that’s where i end up) for weddings booked out there. one studio, two locations.

we’ve got a long way to go. we’re not anywhere yet, just getting more to where we feel like “yup… this is us.” we want to continue shooting the weddings we love (we’re discussing how many we actually want to book a year now, haven’t made that decision yet). no doubt though we have the most fun and feel most at home shooting portraits. whether it’s senior, family, engagement, or just straight up one person for whatever reason. that’s where we feel we get to have the most creative freedom, and that’s what we love. personally, i know i want to continue shooting music photography, both live and the artists themselves for promo materials/cd art/etc. and then, i know long-term my heart yearns for telling stories. i want to continue shooting all the things i talked about before to not only provide for my family (and for this semi-expensive vocation), but to also fund my desire to travel to third-world countries and areas of great need here in the states to tell their stories through my lens. the written word can be powerful, but i truly believe if you can add some compelling images to those words, hearts change. these stories need to be told, and i want to have a part in it.

so, i have a disease. it’s called “icantstopthinkingaboutphotography-icitis.”

and you know what? i honestly hope there isn’t a cure.