About two years ago when I found myself single again, I began to crave a creative outlet and started picking up the camera to photograph things other than my adorable daughter.  I was still deep in my corporate sales job at this point so photographic creativity usually happened after hours – which meant I was shooting parties again 🙂  I did a bunch of that as well as a few model shoots in my spare time throughout 2009 and 2010.

The Beats for Boobs breast cancer charity organization throws a killer fund raiser party and local designer fashion show every year in San Francisco and I had shot a couple of their events in the early part of the decade.  This organization is made up of some of the finest people I know and I’m proud to work with them.  So when they asked me to shoot the 2009 event, I jumped at the opportunity to participate.  This really is a great party!  The shot above is from the fashion show.

The 2009 Beats for Boobs event was where I met Katie briefly when I took her picture backstage.  Katie would soon get engaged and ask me to shoot her wedding.  At that point, I had turned down offers to shoot weddings because I was terrified of the huge responsibility of getting it right the first and only time the bride walks down the isle! However, I knew that I was ready now and accepted her request to shoot the wedding.  I had a great time shooting both the engagement and the wedding.  Katie and Bryan are awesome and their wedding was beautiful and so touching.  (More about the wedding in a future post)

By the end of 2009, I was really ramping up my photography by learning as much as I could online and from books and anywhere else I could find nourishment.  I bought a new camera at the end of 2009 after the unspeakable loss of my Nikon D700.  I like to blame it on a cab driver but I think I may have left it on the roof of my car!   (I haven’t drank while carrying my camera since.)  I also went on a camera gear shopping spree at the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010.  I knew I was going to shoot the wedding in August and that gave me all the excuse I needed to gear up like a pro!

By the beginning of 2010, I had little interest in anything other than my daughter and photography.  My day job was becoming a grind and lived my real life at night with the camera.  I shot more events and more portrait sessions to feed my creative appetite.

The Best Camera

After reading an inspiring book by Chase Jarvis called “The Best Camera is the One that’s with You“, I started taking a lot of photos with my iPhone.  I was blown away at what I could do with my phone.  There are amazing apps that will shoot and edit photos in a few seconds.  It really can release your creativity!  I’ll do a later post about iPhone photography but here are a couple of my favorites from 2009/2010.

While all of this creative energy was beginning to rise, I was becoming more and more disillusioned with the corporate world where growth for the sake of investors is king.  I wasn’t doing anything in my day job that brought joy to anyone – especially me.  I was dying to do more of what brought smiles to people’s faces and even moved them to tears.  I wanted to do photography!  So, I started to silently – almost subconsciously – plan my escape…