Why I made the leap from Corporate to become a full time Photographer
Managing Work and Home life with a small child is a difficult task. Doing it with 4 small children is a nightmarish task! The rewards are endless, with many beautiful moments. So are the daily tasks, and responsibilities. A full time corporate job, with a company either big or small comes with limited flexibility, in my case long set hours (and additional hours in most cases) and a boss that may not want to hear about your kids and/or family problems. Leave at 6am, get home at 6pm. Dishes piled high, mountains of clothes, dogs to feed and walk, lunches to pack, paperwork and homework for school, extra-curricular all over the place! ohhh and applesauce to clean off the ceiling. LOL. The list goes on and on. We needed a better Solution to life.
When we found out our son had a diagnosed ongoing issue a wrench was thrown into the proverbial circus. As time went on we realized we needed a solution fast as everything for 4 kids including one special needs child was falling on my wife's shoulders most of the day and time was ticking to figure out what that best for our family.
Along with being a tremendous photographer, My wife Rachel balances everything at home in a way I can only dream. She is a badass strong women, attacks life with kindness, love, creativity, drive and determination. (When she was away for a conference one time I made the kids waffles and broccoli for dinner) BOOM! Seriously though, I like to think we balance each other out personally and creatively, wabi-sabi.
I have been enjoying and thriving in all things art and creativity for all my life, well as far back as I can remember. Almost like a partly untapped resource as time went on. My passion for Photography started to take off sometime in the last 5-10 years, turning a hobby into a part time job when I started to become a second shooter for Rachel and her studio, rachelgregoryphoto.com
This is one of her signature newborn images below. She is truly amazing.
After many conversations and weighing pros and cons we made the leap to open a new photography studio in Phoenixville that I would head up! A sister studio per se. While Rachel focuses more on newborns, young children and family sessions, We opened the new studio as compliment to that, where we would feature family shoots as well but also pets, a photobooth service, senior portraits, headshots, weddings, as well as many other forms of photography.
While it creates a ton of work for us (good thing :) ) it also generates the flexibility we desperately need and lets us both do something we truly love to do. This is not just a job for us, but we put a passion and care into each shoot, for the love of what we do and also the gratitude that comes along with it.
We take pride in being a small business in a small-ish town, and being able to offer hands on services that huge studios can't compete with.
There is not enough fine arts and music in the world. I was shocked when I found out a few years ago that the kids would have one "special" (art, music, gym, ect..) once every 6th day. While traditional studies are of major importance, and creates a basis for all we do - I also believe kids need to let their creative side run free as much as possible. I hope making this decision to go in this direction will also influence our kids and even further our community in a positive way, in turn saying to them through action that you can do what you like and make a living doing it, you are not stuck, you are not predetermined, your future is not written or set in stone! Its not work if you enjoy what you do. I would be thrilled if my kids want to get into fine arts or music, but no matter what they want to do, if they enjoy what they do that's all that matters.
I have always dreamed of doing something like this and now that it is happening its tremendously........ Scary.. and EXCITING!!, and rewarding, and fulfilling. I can't wait to see what the future holds and how we can grow together. Myself, my wife, our kids and Photo & Graph Studio.
Last but not least, we are shooting now and loving it, Please Contact us through the website or pm on https://www.facebook.com/photoandgraphstudio,
to set up and schedule your session. We are shooting fall mini sessions Oct 12 and signups are live, half are filled so don't wait too long! Also right around the corner we have Christmas and Santa sessions, check facebook and instagram https://www.instagram.com/photoandgraph_phoenixville/ for the latest updates.
Kevin Gregory
Photo & Graph Studio, Phoenixville Pennsylvania