07/27/2017
The last thoughts and memories that I want to leave you with concern advice, gratitude… and a warning.
Get your picture made (as my mother would say) every single year of your life. If you are a part of a family, take the time to document your family - every year - and share in the journey that you have made. If you find yourself in need of photography, in need of capturing a single moment in time and preserving that memory, take the time to do it right.
Quality will always and forever be superior to quantity.
Your family. Your senior year in high school. Your wedding. The first days of your child’s life. A lazy sunny afternoon in late summer with your loved one or your best friend. Hold these memories in your hands, in the form of a beautiful book or gaze at your favorite image in its place of prominence in your home. Don’t pull out a flash drive with dust on it and sort through hundreds of images that by their very nature have not entirely preserved the memory. We spend so much of our time and resources worrying about the better home, the better car, nicer clothes and status symbols that are meant to show others our value as human beings. Show them your memories and you will display a value beyond measure.
Dreamstate Photography taught me boundless gratitude in so many ways, but the most important lessons of that gratitude involved my wonderful wife, Bethany. It’s fair to say that Dreamstate was more a labor of my passion than it was for her in the beginning. However, every single great decision that we ever made came from her mind. Not mine.
There was this horrible, horrible day. We had been working seven days a week, trying to figure out ways to entice more people to come to our studio and get good, quality artwork, rather than a disc of files. We had been pushing so hard that we didn’t pay attention to Dreamstate’s bank account. Then about a week before our rent was due, we looked into the account and we were broke. It was like getting a phone call informing us that someone, suddenly, had passed away. We looked at our personal accounts and we had enough money to cover our bills and consume food for a week or so and that was it. We couldn’t save Dreamstate and Dreamstate certainly could not save us. I felt like an animal backed into a corner and no matter where I looked, the monster of Failure was there to gobble us up.
Bethany stood up, rolled back her shirtsleeves, picked up the sword and in the bravest act of courage I have ever seen, walked right into battle and single-handedly slayed the monster.
We downsized our studio by moving into the suite next door. Our rent and expenses went from $1,500 to $700 and we could afford to survive for another month, maybe two.
While I stood there sick with fear, she moved about like a Disney character, making plans on where the desks could go, where shelves could be placed, how the space could be utilized to the fullest to allow us to continue our work. I sort of shut down and just became manual labor as she took command and led Dreamstate forward. I shut down not because of fear or loss; I shut down because I was in utter AWE of my wife and her courage.
A few months later, we were successful enough to not only keep our current suite, but reclaim our previous space and that was the home of Dreamstate for a long while. All thanks to Bethany.
Someone recently told me, in regard to the future that lay ahead, “if you don’t go on this journey, then you will never have lived.” If you are standing in front of the path of your journey and want to reach for your dreams, simply do it. Pick up your shaking, scared, bold, defiant foot and take the first step. You’ll falter, you’ll fail – you’ll be so heartbroken that you will hate the day that you dared to believe that you could make it.
And if you have courage, perseverance and love in your heart and mind, you’ll get right back up, write a new nametag for yourself that says, “Hello, my name is SUCCESS IN PROGRESS,” and you’ll keep walking on your journey.
Find your Dreamstate Photography; you never know what lessons it will teach you.
I ask you to share this post on your Facebook feed so that these experiences, these lessons of Dreamstate Photography, will find a way to inspire others one last time.
To all of our clients, our friends, family and anyone that walked through our studio door – it has been a privilege for Dreamstate Photography to be your image-maker. Bethany and I thank you for sharing in our journey and we hope that our paths will cross again.
