News: Impact Images made the Paper!

Last Friday, Linda and I were featured in the Central Coast Express Newspaper. Not so much for Impact Images, more for the fact that Linda and I are a husband and wife team that live and work together. We’ve been almost inseparable since the end of high school. The only time we seem to be apart these days is the occasional holiday. More on that shortly.

Although you can read the newspaper article here, Impact Images Express Newspaper Article,

there is more to the short paper story and I thought the article was a good excuse to fill you in a little.

I was 18 when we met and just finishing high school. Meeting Linda totally derailed any chance of me following what I thought at the time was my dream job – to become a high school teacher. I’ve since come to realise it wasn’t so much the job of teaching that was drawing me to the profession… more the holidays 🙂

I know, I know, teaching is about much more than the holidays. Trust me, I know that now, having two boys of my own!

Back to Linda and her derailing of my life. I started university and hated it. I wanted to be earning an income, I wanted to spend more time with my girl. So I left. I left right after exceeding the HECS cut off date, a few months into the first semester. That was a great bill to receive (sarcasm).

At the time, I so wanted to be booking size 8 tall blondes

Fast forward a few years and I discovered photography. I found it through what was a passion of mine – fishing. I loved it, couldn’t get enough  – read, watched and learnt as much as I could about it. I was also working as a sales rep for a fishing tackle company at the time. I was totally hooked (aaahaaahaaa).

I decided to try submitting articles for some of the major magazines and found the articles were useless without images. Plus, they had to be great photos to get published.

I read, studied and learnt as much as I could about photography after purchasing my first SLR camera and was published not long after. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to fish – well, sort of. That’s what I told myself and Linda. I had to. How else could I explain a fishing trip not long after my first son was born.

Note to any newly married guys: Do not go away for any sporting or leisure trips in the first week of your new baby coming home. It WILL be held against you for LIFE.

I realised how much I loved the photography side of  the article writing and went out with a local wedding photographer mate of mine to see what it was all about. Loved it.

Soon after I was one of those newbies looking to book weddings as a photographer. No Facebook then but we had a very basic website pretty early on and couples mainly found us through bridal expos.

I remember starting out back then and being intimidated (not intentionally I’m sure) by other established photographers. I also remember getting the cold shoulder, shunned and  looked down on by some of the “old boys” in the industry. One or two though, offered a hand, some help and words of advice. From then I promised myself to help new wedding and portrait photographers to the profession where I could and I try to do that to this day.

If you are a budding photographer, here are a couple of helpful posts for you:

• Portrait and Wedding Photographer Newbies… do you need help?
• The Secret to Landing a Job with a Photographer
• The Best Path to Becoming a Wedding Photographer
• Free wedding and portrait photography workshop – this one is full but I’m planning more for the New Year.

 

All this time, Linda was by my side not only supporting my dreams of becoming a full time photographer but encouraging and pushing me to go for it. At the time, it was so good to have that support. Looking back now, it’s easy to appreciate how impossible a task it would have been without Linda’s support. We had a mortgage, a baby and half a wage. It would have been much easier to stay with the fishing dream instead of moving to the photography dream at that stage of our life.

We’ve both since learnt that changing dreams, crazy ideas and long term plans are just a part of my makeup. How lucky was I to have found Linda, the one and only girl that could possibly put up with… everything!

Interestingly, my first album, my only album at the time (my portfolio album) featured a larger couple. That was the album that we showed at our early expos and it was so well received, especially by larger couples. I’m sure I became the “go to” wedding photographer at the time for plus sized brides.

In hind sight, it could not have been better for me – although at the time, I so wanted to be booking size 8 tall blonde girls with muscly husbands-to-be. I wanted to be photographing the “model” couples I’d been seeing in all the wedding magazines.

The benefits, I realised later, were how to photograph ANYONE and have them looking their absolute best. I learnt how to hide the back fat, what angle to shoot from to give a better jawline, disguise a double chin, how to position couples so the man looks like the man – I learnt how to help couples have the most awesome wedding day full of laughter, good times and to trust me to do what I do – capture great photos.

Another thing I have learnt since then is no matter the size, shape and looks of almost anyone – they will have some hang ups – something they want to disguise a little if possible. I know how to do that – before using photoshop to refine any images. I learnt a lot of that when I started.

I became the “go to” wedding photographer for plus sized brides

After starting our little business from our Wyong home we knew we were going to outgrow the home studio so we started planning a move to Terrigal, a bigger home with a larger studio space before we outgrew that area as well. From there it was to the Entrance Road or Central Coast Highway and we haven’t looked back since.

Funny thing is, we have just been informed, the day the newspaper article came out, that our studio space is for sale. Fingers crossed the new owners (we lease the building) will want to keep Impact Images as tenants – it would be sad to leave our lovely studio. We won’t have news for a while but be assured, Impact Images isn’t going anywhere. We’ve started looking at new premises on the Coast which has been exciting too.

Back to Linda and what it’s been like working and living together all these years. I wouldn’t change a single thing. Linda is my perfect partner in business and life. She’s the one that worries, gets scared at my crazy ideas but supports me 100% of the way once we make a decision.

To some, it may seem too much – to be working and living together, seeing so much of each other. I just love it. Pretty sure she does too… most of the time.

Yes, we live and breathe Impact Images. Wedding and portrait photography and our business is all consuming. It occupies our day, our dinner conversation, our breaks and even our holidays. It really is who we are and we love it – Impact Images.

We have been asked, is there a secret to living and working together? I don’t think so. I’m sure it would be easy to tell if it was or wasn’t going to work from early on and that it’s probably not for everyone.

Finally, the holidays. Linda and I both love our holidays. Problem is, Linda likes to lay by a pool in the warmth with a cocktail in her hand, the bar only a short swim away. I prefer to be skiing off some mountain in waist deep powder or riding my bike up a Tour de France climb in the Alps. So, for one trip a year (two for me because I have the best wife in the world) we holiday apart – Linda with the girls, me with the guys.

Would I recommend a short holiday apart? HELL YEAH! If you can get away with it…