Capture Date: January 18, 2015
This month's blog is a small step back in time, fifteen months to be more accurate. I love this photo, and to be quite honest I love these two people! They are my daughter Kalee and my wife Chantell. They are truly the ones behind the scenes that dependably assist me during photo-shoots.
As this blog is intended to share the "Story Behind the Photos", this photograph came about as the result of a very unexpected Christmas gift from Chantell a few weeks prior to taking this shot. Chantell has a way of totally surprising me during Christmas with out of the blue presents that I always cherish and often times find a new facet of my life that branches off of them. In prior years she surprised me with my first Macintosh (Apple) laptop. This permitted me the ability to work at home on advertising deadlines when I typically would have stayed in my office until 1:00 or 2:00 am to meet a deadline for a client. Another year she surprised me with a First Act acoustic guitar which spurred me into learning to play guitar from Youtube and later opened the door to play regularly in my Church. On this particular Christmas, she surprised me with a Canon 7D Mark II professional camera. The camera body itself was quite pricey, so it was truly unexpected. I had a small collection of lenses, but I was lacking a couple that would provide me with the perfect setup to truly put this new camera up for the rigors of shooting professionally. The following week I placed an order for two additional lens and waited for their arrival. Once they came in I was eager to see what this camera was capable of capturing. On a whim one late afternoon I asked the two of them to join me for quick photo-shoot of the two of them. We were out the door and on location within just a few short minutes. I began firing off some shots and could not have been happier with the capabilities of this new camera. The color, sharpness, detail and quality of the images far surpassed my expectations. My past photography experience that began in High School Yearbook in 1987, that continued through owning Hayes Freelance Advertising to shooting for a hobby has once again sparked a passion that has become Hayes Freelance Photography and Video where I delight in photographing everything from maternity, newborn, family, senior, landscapes and special occasions.
Kalee and Chantell are instrumental to the success of this business. Kalee has become quite creative with recommending and choosing props, designing chalk boards and working with clients to get them laughing and at ease on the other side of the camera. Chantell works extremely hard in pre-planning creative compositions, she is an excellent assistant on location from assisting me in getting the right poses, looking for problems within the composition, bouncing light into shadows with a reflector, providing creative ideas and even giving up her own jacket and gloves to clients when on a shoot.
There is no way I could ever take full credit for the work that goes into the photographs we provide to our clients. It is a team effort, much like a band that finds success, it seems like the lead singer always gets the attention of their fans and their head gets so big that the singer decides to go off on their own and you rarely ever hear from them again. In this business we are a team and I couldn't ask for a better partnership then my wife and daughter. We have an awesome relationship and that transcends into a great work environment not only for us but for our clients.
To my two amazing ladies in my life, thank you for all you are, I love you both to the moon and back!
Mike Hayes