We just received a deposit for our 3rd wedding this past week, and we're really starting to get excited for the trash the dress shoot we are preparing for at the end of July in Maine. So, while tweaking the website a little more yesterday, burning CDs and flash drives, and getting things a little better organized with Sandi taking over the children and baby side of the business, I sat back and started to realize how much we've accomplished over these past 6 months. It truly is a blessing how much we've accomplished and how fast we've grown in such a short period of time, especially when looking at how much we have already scheduled for the coming months, even next year. It wasn't til the death of my mother on New Years morning that I decided to start making this photography idea more of a reality and start turning it into a business, which turned out to be a blessing in more ways than one. Its the times that Im not busy or times that I dont have much going on that I start to really miss her and get sad about her passing, so the photo business has kept me so busy, along with my engineering job at Comcast, that those down times have been few and far between.

It was my mom who pushed me to always do more with my artistic ability. It was my mom that always pushed me to get my own camera rather than use hers. It was my mom who wanted to be the first to always see the new pics I took and tell me how good they were...even when they weren't. It was my mom who up until the morning that she passed made sure I was bringing my camera with me to take pics with her where ever it was that we were going, especially weekends in Shunk. Is it just a coincidence that it was 6 months ago today that the early stages of Cass Imaging were beginning to take place? I doubt it. 

Yesterday was our first Saturday that Sandi and I both had off from both our full time jobs, and had no scheduled photo shoots in almost 6 weeks. So, we spent the day out on the boat...in the scorching sun, where apparently an SPF8 isnt as strong as I think it is, as Im in a good amount of pain this morning at my desk at Comcast. After we got back we met up with some friends at Rack's Bar and Grill for some dinner and drinks, a pretty good way to end a much needed day of laziness. 

While we were eating dinner, a friend mentioned how impressed she was with how fast the photography business has "blown up" and how our client page on our website went from what seemed to be 1 to about 30 over night. So this morning I started thinking about that comment and how long ago it actually was when I bought my first DSLR, and when I started posting my photos online. From what I can tell, I bought my first DSLR, the Nikon D5000 around the 1st of May of 2010, and opened my Flickr account right around that same time...where I still post alot of my work today. The photo at the top of the basketball, I took on May 27th, 2010, which was one of the first shots I posted on Flickr with my new camera, and the crazy thing is, its my most viewed photograph I have on Flickr to date...by almost 1000 views! It was a photo I remember taking while working out in the gym, I decided to take a break and go out to my truck to grab my camera to play around with a little shallow Depth of Field on the Opex basketball court.

Looking back at how new I was to photography just a little over 2 years ago, how far Ive come, and obviously how far I still have to go to reach my goals in this business, its funny looking back at this simple shot of a basketball that I took. A shot I took with the cheap 50mm f/1.8 lens on my first DSLR, and surprisingly still my most viewed photo to date. Even with everything I've accomplished over the past 2 years, the more professional...and lets not forget "expensive" lenses and cameras, this simple shot of a basketball is still my most viewed shot, currently sitting at 1688 views. 

Take a look, close to 1700 other people have....http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/page20/

For those of you who haven't seen it yet on Facebook, we are running a special for anyone with children or babies. $60 a session, for further details please take a look on our Facebook page.