Deciding to start a photography business in Corpus Christi Tx

We get asked all the time what made us decide to start a photography business.  The simple answer is we enjoy working together and wanted to build some thing that we could call our own.  Sometimes people go further and ask if there was a moment that solidified our resolve and actually start.

To answer that I would have to say there were a series of moments starting in the spring of 2006 when my wife was called to active duty to fly support missions in the mountain regions of Afghanistan. She spent the latter part of the spring and the entire summer completing her High Altitude Training near Colorado Springs Colorado; this training was essential to prepare her for the tough conditions she would face once she set down in Afghanistan.  While she was training I was busy flying for a charter company, engaged in a never ending struggle of trying to balance the needs of work with family.  Try as I might Denise always seemed just beyond my reach and as the summer drew to a close, she boarded an aircraft and was gone.

Email and eventually a cell phone were the bridges that spanned the gap of time and distance.  Then while driving to the airport I get a call of a life time, I never thought in a million years my wife would call during a mortar and rocket attack.  Typical Denise, she was sitting in the bunker and "just wanted to talk".  I could hear the muffled thuds, real or imagined and thought for a second the enemy was about to breach the defenses and over run the compound. (Too many war movies I suppose. Her description of the mad scramble into the bunker, followed by the realization and relief that everyone made it to safety before the bombs hit the ground was rather interesting. She told me how fast one gets conditioned to the essential needs of life preservation.  In that environment events take on an instinctual motion where people spring into action before they even know they are supposed to do something.  I now understand the true meaning of trust your instincts, trust your training, trust your team.)

Then reality and current events collapsed in on us and we were forced to say goodbye.  I kept thinking this is good for I figured it would be hard to shoot a gun with a cell phone wedged between her head and shoulders.  (Not that it was remotely required)

There were many moments like that where life was broken down to a few simple thoughts and emotions, love your spouse and make the most of what life has to offer.   Those simple thoughts carried us through until she came home and have stayed with us ever since.

They say the toughest part of any journey is the first step and although true, I believe the most important part is figuring out where you want to go.  So when Hurricane Ike blew into our lives it stirred things up and helped set in motion the path my wife and I committed to taking together.  Although I would not wish the destruction Ike wreaked on anyone, I am grateful for the moment of clarity it helped instill in our lives. 

One fundamental truth to travel is that "a picture is worth a 1000 words", there were so many places and points in time that we wanted to capture and share together.  The more time we spent apart, the more we truly appreciated what joy photography had brought to our lives.   Photos were important when she left for Afghanistan however the importance was driven home when Hurricane Ike threatened to hit Corpus Christi; Family Portraits, Maternity Pictures, Baby Portraits, Wedding Photographs were the first items we knew we would take should we have to leave our home.  Every thing else could be replaced but the photographs that helped define the life Denise and I have lived were priceless to us. 

We knew from that period on that we wanted to start a business that would allow us the create the images that would become part of others history and mean as much to them as our pictures meant to us.