Reinvention

Reinvention implies a prior career or course of life and a subsequent change.

Most people who meet me today don't know that beginning in 1998, I worked full-time as a computer software developer programming primarily in C++. Over the past ten or so years, I've been employed by five different companies where I've written and tested code for libraries, entertainment, defense, communications, trading firms, and other industries.

About two years ago, I picked up our digital camera and decided I would try to take pictures for my wife's cupcake blog. If you go back far enough in her blog's archives, you can see some of my first attempts mingled with her own much better cupcake photos; I had a lot to learn.

So I did.

I read about photography, composition, and exposure, and applied both my technical skills and artistic vision to this new hobby. I practiced. I practiced more. I took pictures of all manner of things to learn everything I possibly could.

Some good fortune hit me in March, 2008 - I was at the right place at the right time with the right equipment. The Sauce Magazine team won a trivia night at a benefit for Slow Food St. Louis and I took their table's picture. They published a few of my photos from the event, and I met with Sauce and started shooting regularly for the magazine shortly after that.

Photography was still a hobby at this point, though I started to make a little money doing it. I struggled with some questions: Is it still a hobby if you incorporate? Can you call yourself a professional once you're regularly published?

I brought my camera gear to weddings to take pictures - trying as hard as I could to not interfere with the photographers hired to shoot the event. I was flattered when brides would tell me that they liked some of my pictures better than their hired help's work.

There was no reason I couldn't do this on the side, right? Lunch breaks and weekends and any spare time quickly became full with taking and editing photos.

Inquiries began to come in: Could I shoot families? What about children? How about an engagement session, wedding, or a Bar Mitzvah? Could I go to a farm and take pictures of pigs? Yes!

Photography started looking like a nice backup plan, a successful side business, even, and maybe one day in the future I might be able to switch from full-time coding for a living to part-time.

I didn't anticipate the mental toll that resulted from juggling my side business of photography with the day job in computers. I didn't want to say no to photography assignments, but every waking moment was spent either programming, taking and editing photos, being stressed about my situation, or being stressed about being stressed. This wasn't fair to my wife, family, friends, or myself. I wanted to talk to my employer about cutting back my hours to accommodate the photography business, but they had just asked employees to give just a little more of themselves and to remain busy working on billable projects if at all possible. I tried to keep it all together as best I could, but I was unraveling internally.

Citing bad economic conditions (I hadn't been assigned to any long-term customer projects in a while), I was told that I would have two paid weeks left at my job of five years. Just like that, my employment there would end. They were kind enough to offer me the use of their equipment and facilities for a while to look for work elsewhere or to polish and submit my resume to their sister consulting company where I could be placed.

While that might have yielded a great programming job, I felt that it was time for a change. I chose to view what happened as a great opportunity rather than an enormous loss.

On April 6, 2009, with the support of my fantastic wife, I took the plunge and became a full-time photographer.

Shortly after that, a reporter from our local NBC affiliate, KSDK, reached out on Twitter to locate people who had reinvented themselves. I thought I fit the bill, so I tweeted Kasey back. Within a few days, Kasey came and took footage of me for the story she was working on.

Here's Kasey's story about reinvention. You can read the transcript as well as watch the video from that link.

Nurse-Family Partnership, Building Blocks Program

The Nurse-Family Partnership is a national organization providing support, education, and counseling on health, behavioral, self-sufficiency, and parenting issues for first-time, low-income parents. It accomplishes its mission through home visitation by highly educated registered nurses. In the state of Missouri, this fantastic program is called Building Blocks, and it is available to residents of both St. Louis County and St. Louis City who meet their enrollment criteria.

One of my friends, who is a nurse in the Building Blocks program, recommended me to the national office (thanks!) to photograph one of her home visits. I aimed to candidly capture their visit - including the overall scene, some details, and pictures of the nurse, client, and her daughter.

Here are some of my favorites:

Moonrise Hotel St. Louis: Grand Opening

The Moonrise Hotel in St. Louis is a new 125 room boutique hotel built by Joe Edwards in The Loop, next to The Pageant. I took photos of their grand opening (for their marketing firm, Twist), which involved hotel management, Alderwoman Lyda Krewson, and of course Joe Edwards.

This fantastic old Buick was parked right outside of the hotel entrance for the grand opening:

While I did capture photos of everybody speaking, I think Joe stole the show with his outfit:

Joe also christened the hotel by breaking a bottle of Segura Viudas Brut Reserva against a wall. Shards of glass flew everywhere, scratched his head (causing it to start bleeding), and ended up collecting on top of my camera bag. Here are two shots from two different cameras taken at nearly the same instant (a lucky coincidence!):

Despite his cut and bleeding forehead, Joe went on and introduced the hotel to the community:

The hotel is going to be a huge boon to the East Loop, and I'm sure it will be a fantastic success. Congratulations to everyone involved!

St. Louis Editorial Photography: Green Cuisine

When I do editorial photography and commercial photography, there's always some lag between when photos are delivered and when I'm able to share them with the rest of the world. I never want to scoop the publication that I'm shooting for, after all. While days go by, the wait to share the photos can be grueling, especially when I love what I've ended up with and had a fantastic time shooting.

Now that this particular article has been published, I'm thrilled to finally be able to share some photos and the associated story, Green Cuisine: Earth-friendly, healthy recipes from top chefs and local farmers, from the Union of Concerned Scientists. I loved this assignment!

Now, on to introductions.

This is a pig:

While it may appear like any other pig you've seen, it is different. It and its peers live together in deep straw, have the freedom to wander into a pasture when they choose, and are hormone- and antibiotic-free. They are raised by their mothers in an environment without the pressures of modern industrial agricultural practices.

This is Russ:

Russ is a hog farmer who switched to drug-free farming after nearly dying from an antibiotic-resistant infection. He went on to found the Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative to produce premium meat "raised in humane and environmentally friendly conditions without the use of unnecessary additives."

This is Andy:

Andy is a fixture in the St. Louis culinary scene. As the former owner of Riddle's Penultimate Cafe and Wine Bar and current owner of Eat Here St. Louis, Andy has been a longtime proponent of eating locally-sourced products.

This is KT:

KT took the reins at Riddle's from her father after years of working in the kitchen. As the current owner-operator, KT continues to source fresh, local ingredients as she constantly experiments in the kitchen with seasonal produce and locally-sourced meat. Chefs like KT help drive local, sustainable farming.

With the introductions complete, I have to share that I was (and still am) completely blown away by the care and love that Russ has for his pigs. Even though these pigs are bred to become food (such as Riddles’ Pork Tenderloin Stroganoff, photo at the end of this post), Russ treats them respectfully and with dignity. His pigs live better than many household pets and happily interact with Russ and visitors to the farm as if they were family.

The partnership between Russ, Andy, and KT forms a circle of healthy and sustainable farming -- fueled by consumers making conscious decisions about where and what they eat.

Here are some more photos from our day on the farm and then back at Riddle's -- and again, please read the UCS article to get the whole story of Russ, Andy, and KT (with more, different photos!):

An Afternoon at Bethlehem Valley Vineyards

This month's Sauce Magazine insert features a photo story about an afternoon at Bethlehem Valley Vineyards. Dan, Connie, family, and guests who came and went all afternoon were so friendly and hospitable to all five of us who drove out there.

This article represented many firsts for Sauce and me:

1. Sauce has never done a story quite like this, to my knowledge.
2. I've never worked with a stylist before. Rusty Conklin did an amazing job. I hope I get to work with him again!
3. I have never had miniature horses try to eat my lenses.

I treated the shoot as if it were an event or wedding: I got pictures of details, the setting as a whole, interactions, and emotions. After driving time, six hours of shooting, and time spent processing the RAW images from the shoot, I provided the assistant art director, Meera, with 651 photos. These included cows, horses, tractors, grapes, vegetables, meal preparation, an antique truck, and 17 photos of chickens.

Let it not be said that I fail to provide choices to customers!

I'm not quite sure how Meera narrowed it down to the nine photos she used, but I couldn't have been happier with the finished product, a result of everybody's hard work:

What Goes Into Your Meal

One of my specialties - and joys - is food photography. For those who don't know me or my story, I do food photography in St. Louis regularly for Sauce Magazine and for my wife's inspiring (and often hilarious) cupcake blog. I've also written a little about food photography techniques and tips for Digital Photography School.

While food itself is a huge component of my work, I love capturing the personalities involved in the preparation and serving of the meals we eat, from farmers to bussers. These people work hard for many hours in brutal conditions trying to satisfy everybody. Their hard work goes into every sip we take and every bite that we savor. Food photography has made me appreciate this fact even more.

Below are some of my favorite photos of food and of the people working to make it end up on your plate.

Please send my compliments to the chef.