A Red Letter Date In History

In the movie Back To The Future they talk about a date when everything started coming together. In the movie that was November 5, 1955. I sort of had my own date much like that. Ten years ago today I was in Chicago for a photo conference at Navy Pier. It was something that I found on Groupon. I am not sure if that is even still a thing, but it was a way for people to market things to you acting like you were getting a heck of a deal. The conference was called Capturing True Emotion. For the most part it seemed like a money grab. I did learn a decent amount though that day. I started making photos in manual mode instead of shutter priority. At that time I didn’t even know what shutter priority was. I just knew it as TV mode, and occasionally I got decent results using it. As I look through the photos from that day I can’t help but wonder what happened to the others at the workshop. Did they have the same epiphany that I did?

Ten Years Of Capturing Emotion

That Groupon that saved me $250 or whatever it was at the time actually cost me a lot of money over the years in camera gear. That short conference supercharged my love for photography. I was always making photos. Later in the year I started this blog because I heard about a photo 365 project. Of course the blog has stayed active for the last ten years with at least one post a day going out. It is hard for me to believe how much has changed in that time. One of those things I will talk about below.

A Moving Experience

The love for photography was not the only thing to come out of the conference. During a break I got a call from my brother asking if I would fill in for him at his job for a week. I still lived in LaPorte and he was working in West Lafayette. I was of course down there all of the time for Purdue events so it would be cool to fill in for him while he was on vacation. That week turned into a short fill in role as he was leaving for another job. That short fill in role turned into a job that allowed me to move to West Lafayette. Of course that move allowed me to meet my wife and start this adventure that I now find myself on. At that point in my life I was at a loss for what I was supposed to do. Everything really came together ten years ago.

Ten Years Of Learning

These last ten years have been filled with me learning as much as I could. The quest to improve will never end. There is always another goal to fulfill. I have published a few photos from that day ten years ago on this blog. The photo at the top is another from that day. For the most part they were all terrible. I was learning though. I have come to call my need to make photos ‘the disease’. It is something that I just have to do. For ten years I have pretty much made a photo a day and it has not gotten old at all yet. They say that when you find your calling the work does not feel like work. That is exactly what I have found here. I absolutely love what I do. After ten years I am finally becoming fairly decent at it. There is a long road ahead to get better though. That is the fun part.

What Comes Next?

Ten years into this adventure I have done some amazing things. I never could have imagined that day where photography would take me. I will never stop making photos. Right now I feel like I am back at the beginning with the business though. The virus and other factors have taken me out of my comfort zone. The good thing about getting out of your comfort zone is that it can spark creativity. One thing is for sure. These last ten years have flown by. In ten more years my oldest will nearly be 18. Hopefully I am still writing on this blog and this passion for photography is still there.