Well, it’s been way too long since I have posted an update and I sure wish that my post that breaks the silence was of a different nature, but sometimes that’s how things go. For a variety of professional and personal reasons I found myself having to make the decision to step away from photography as a full-time endeavor. While it was a difficult decision, it was also necessary.  Although I will still be involved in photography it will in a different capacity.

To all of my clients, friends, and family who have supported me over the years, the people that I have met, learned from, and photographed, you will all forever be in my memories and I wish you all the best.

Thank you all so very much for allowing me to share a bit of your life. I hope to see you all again sometime soon.

Peter

As 2011 prepares to spring upon us I wanted to take just a few moments to send out a heartfelt “Thank you!” to all of our friends and clients that have supported us through this past year. 2010 was a busy and challenging year for us. We had the chance to meet and work with some wonderful new people, as well as some longtime friends and we have enjoyed every moment. It was also a year that I had to say goodbye to my mother and some other close friends as they passed on and the thoughts and notes from our friends here were much appreciated. We like to think of our clients as family and you guys certainly came through for us!

Thank you all for a wonderful 2010!

Have a Happy New Year!

-Peter

Wow, it has really been a long time since I have updated, hasn’t it? It has been a challenging few months and I’m going to take a bit of artistic license as the owner and ramble a bit here so bear with me.

As most of you probably know, in a small business like mine the owner is often responsible for just about everything that takes place, including updating the blog and the social networking sites that are pretty much essential these days. Sometimes in all of that flurry things like the blog get pushed to the back burner as it’s is much easier to post a quick Facebook blurb or Twitter tweet and move on.

When I realized that August was my last post I was a bit shocked! I couldn’t believe that here we are almost through November and I hadn’t posted anything in three months! Then I began to think about what had been going on since then and how could I have let this, the blog, slip to the wayside. Then it began to make sense, along with the day to day business of photography I had also experienced the loss of my mother. She had been ill for quite some time and passed away late in October. And between August and October I had been trying to get back to Iowa to visit her as much as possible as we all began to realize that time was very short.

I consider myself very lucky that my photography allows me to work remotely in a lot of circumstances. Of course I need to be present for the weddings, but after that I can do a lot of the work from my laptop. And that’s what I did, from the hospital and from my mother’s home, trying to spend as much time as I could, always wondering as I drove away if that would be the last time I saw her.

I was actually finishing photographing a wedding when the call came that I needed to get out to Iowa as soon as possible, that the time had come and it was just a matter of hours. As quickly as possible I was on my way, driving west. I was fortunate and I arrived in time to be able to spend a few hours with my mother.

In the blur of activity that happened afterward my family found itself searching for photographs for the memorial service. My mother was not one to like having her picture taken and we ended up using a snapshot that I had on my iPhone for her obituary. It’s not a great photograph by any means, just a simple snapshot, but it is one of the last pictures taken of her when she was healthy and full of life and I will cherish that photograph, probably even more because I had taken it. My connection to her.

Mom - NY

I have been a fan of David A. Williams, a Toronto based photographer whose seminars I have been fortunate to attend, and with my mother’s passing I was immediately reminded about what he told us. Unlike most photography workshops and seminars David’s doesn’t center on equipment or technique. The seminar I attended, entitled Cycles and Echoes, talks about the importance of family pictures. You would think that as a photographer David would be telling us how to make sure we get our clients into the studio and increase sales but that is exactly opposite of what David was talking about that day. His seminar was about how important any picture can become to a family.

In David’s seminar he says “No one truly ever dies until all those that have known them, and loved them, and all the photos ever taken of them, are dust”

Very true indeed.