First and foremost, hands down, across the country we have the best friends in the world. I wish I could bring everyone to Columbus and make them live in my neighborhood. The Scobey family ranks high in that bunch. They are kind, encouraging, loving, stellar examples of generosity and business, and straight up awesome people. Hanging out with them was more than enough to make us want to take a trip to Atlanta but they sweetened the pot by inviting us to speak at their photographer meet up and there was no way we could say no.

(Photo credits of me speaking: Graham Scobey)

For a few years I’ve been pondering this idea; I told a gas station attendant as I drove home from a wedding in Cleveland, “I’m headed home to crash.” He replied very wisely, “Our words inform our actions. Maybe you should ‘head home to sleep’  instead.” This got me thinking about how we make these subtile decisions every day in our jobs, even as self employed photographers. Our titles and self perceptions effect our actions and attitudes, and building a better business isn’t always about knowing how to work your camera better. I LOVED putting together this presentation; if you ever think this topic might be helpful to a group, please let me know, I’d love to share it again.

My sincerest gratitude to the Scobeys and to Shoot Proof for giving me this opportunity to share some of my thoughts and passion with fellow visual artists.