FalconRose Photography ~ Dedicated in my Father's Memory

Each day without my father has been a journey in itself. I know that there are many choices to make. I know that my time on this earth is finite and I have to make the most of it. For many years I had no idea of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and gravitated from job to job finding myself dissatisfied. I took music (in college), real estate (as a career) and accounting (as a potential job). I worked as an office person as well as a security guard and I also worked retail. Now, it seems, I have a concrete plan...a crystal clear goal of building this photography business from the ground up.

My dad wasn't too sure of whether or not I was going to be a success at anything that I attempted. Because for many years, I considered myself nothing else but a failure and you remember the old adage: If you feel that you are a failure and repeat it enough, the fallacy becomes reality. I kept asking myself "Why do you even bother when you haven't been able to be a success at anything in your life before." Before I was much too scared to think that I could be any good at being an entrepreneur. But finding the courage to do what I really want; to step outside my physical comfort zone means finding the peace to accept myself for who I really am.

My father was scared though of the fact that I was taking a step that he never had the courage to take himself; which was become an entrepreneur and try to take a business and make it a solid investment and the sole stable income in the family. Certainly he had done it himself with his gardening business but that was a secondary business to his full-time job as a glass cutter, but that wasn't really what he wanted to do. He wanted to learn to play the cello. But unfortunately during my infancy, he lost his thumb and index finger to the first joint in a glass cutting accident. It took him months and months of rehabilitation.

My father was absolutely estatic when I showed him the results of my photography attempts. He’d known that I had finally found my place. At least he was alive to know that I had finally found my place in this world. That’s all any father wants for their children and that’s all I want for my own children is that they find what they truly want to do with their lives. He knew I wasn’t happy in music, he knew that I wasn’t happy in real estate and he knew that I was absolutely not happy in accounting. But to see his face light up when he saw the results of my photography, that was the best feeling in the world.

My mother has always been sceptical of my photography attempts, but she has slowly come around in the wake of my father's death. And she has made one concession, that she is going to get me the DSLR body that I need to get started in wedding photography as well as the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto that I need for "staying out of the way" of the wedding party while they are doing what they need to be doing during the ceremony. All of this will run her in the neighbourhood of at least $4000.00 CDN. The rest of the lenses I have to earn myself. Consider me ever grateful to her for doing that for me.

My father's passing in December has lit a fire in my belly with regards to getting something going with this photography and turning it into a business. I know I have several strikes against me. 1) I'm starting a business when I haven't had a business course. I'm navigating uncharted territory. 2) I don't have a line of credit. My credit rating stinks worse than blue cheese. 3) I'm competing with people who have the finances to get a professional grade DSLR body or replace any lens any time that they want. But in my corner are: 1) my grit and determination to succeed 2) the skill and knowledge of being self-taught. 3) and the dedication to build this business in the memory of my father's life...in that he never, ever gave up and likewise in his memory, I will show my own children that their own father NEVER, EVER...GAVE UP!

FalconRose Photography is dedicated to my father's memory; his ever present courage and perseverence in the face of adversity and his belief in the fact that if you believe in your own inner strength, any obstacle can be overcome. This one's for YOU...Dad.

I love you, Dad, and I miss you so much.