HubbardJA Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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A long overdue introduction
It's occurred to me that I've never formally introduced myself to you, my FM friends. So better late than never, right? I've been around but not really posting since 2005-ish. I purchased my first dslr – a 40D which I sold and replaced with a D80 in 2008 and 'officially' joined the forum then. I wasn't into wedding or portraits at that point but I always enjoyed stopping by the wedding form to enjoy the work that was posted here.
As I learned my way around the camera I slowly realized that taking pictures of people was much more exciting and rewarding than the abstract subjects, landscapes, and wildlife that I'd focused on in my photographic infancy. My 'breakthrough' of sorts, when I realized there could be some future for me in photography was after a group vacation to Canada in 2006. I was asked by everyone to make an album of the trip for them. At the time it was such a great feeling to make a little money for just doing what I enjoyed... but I was afraid that pushing further into a photographic business would ruin my hobby, so I just decided to leave it at a hobby.
After asking Rachael to marry me in 2010 I had hoped to find our photographer from FM; I'd always enjoyed the work that was posted here and most of my friends wedding pictures sucked. We hoped to have a bigger photography budget but two twenty-somethings in the process of 1) buying a home 2) totally renovating that home 3) moving Rachael from NC to VA – with no salary for 3 months 4) planning our wedding on top of everything else. Needless to say, it was tough and we just couldn't come up with more than 3.5k for photography – which I think is very respectable considering how many drains we had on our savings account at the time! Anyway, we eventually decided to work with a local photographer who came to us via a glowing recommendation from a friend of Rachael's sister. We liked his work, met with him, and decided to book.
That's when the fun started... I'll spare everyone most of the details but needless to say, the friend should have NEVER recommended him as she was having major issues with this guy and even considering taking him to court. Yeah, thanks for the recommendation! We couldn't afford to loose our deposit so we stuck with him and tried to make the best of the situation. In the end, his pictures were ok but, IMO, not nearly as good as the work he showed on his portfolio and blog. Worst of all was his customer service... after he had the final payment. He didn't deliver on any of his commitments and when we finally called him out on the issues he proceeded to teat us like shit... it was the most blatant exhibition of non-professionalism I've ever dealt with in my life.
After it was all said and done, Rachael and I started talking about re-considering keeping my photography a hobby. We looked at what we had paid this guy vs. what we got in return. I started running the numbers and came to the conclusion that we could do better and actually CARE about the people we work with... ya know, because we're good people and as cliché as it sounds, we just care about other people... especially couples getting married because we know how hard it is.
We wrote a plan and incorporated our business (d/b/a Jayson and Rachael) in February 2011. We've since covered six weddings as primary and I've even had the pleasure of 2nd shooting for Jason P. last September. We have a few weddings booked for this year but most importantly, we're completely stoked at the possibilities we have in front of us. Our work as matured so much over the last year and it truly amazes me to look at how far we've come.
To my friends and acquaintances here at FM, Thanks! Thanks for the support and inspiration to always strive for the next level in both my work and our business. I'm glad to be here and hope to meet and get to know more of you over the next few years. If there is ever anything we can do you for, just ask. That's what friends are for.
So that's my story. What's yours?
Jayson (and Rachael)
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