NoBs Digital Dogbowl

NoBS Member of the Month: Riff

I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. What I didn’t know was that I was wrong. Back in middle school when I got my first computer, a TI 99/4A, I was captivated with programming. When I got to high school there were only two computer classes: Computers 1 and Computers 2. I got to college and majored in Computer Science where, thankfully, they had more than two computer classes.

In the fourth year of my degree it occurred to me that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life holed up in a cubicle. I finished my degree but never pursued a computer position aggressively. The year was 1993; the same year a little web browser named Mosaic was released that changed the computer world forever. By the end of 1993 when I graduated, there were less than a thousand websites worldwide. It wasn't long before my education was about to become obsolete.

In 1994 my mother, with whom I was still living, passed away and I was thrust into the real world. It was a difficult time for me, and I turned to music to escape. I played guitar in lots of basement bands until then, but I then got more serious about it. Not that I wanted to be a big rock star or anything, it was just something that I enjoyed. For the next 10 years, I played in bars all over the state happy with the couple hundred bucks it put in my pocket on the weekends. That’s when I met Julie.

Sometimes you just know what you’re supposed to do with your life and that time had just arrived for me. It took a lot of persuading, but I eventually convinced Julie to be my wife. The caveat though was that I had to leave the bar bands behind. I can’t say that I blamed her: giving up half of her weekends for late nights at a smoky bar? My last gig with the band was Thanksgiving weekend 2004, and we were married February 2005.

For our wedding, we completely cheaped out on as much as Julie would let me. I had a friend of mine take photos for us at the wedding. I really wanted to learn Photoshop, and this was the perfect opportunity for me because I had the digital files from the wedding. Searching Google for Photoshop tutorials, I came across a website called NoBS Photo Success. The forum was free back then, but I was reluctant to even give them my email address because I hate spam so much, but I gave in to the marketing pitch on the home page.

I was just enthralled with the stories and laughs being posted in the forum. I spent a couple of weeks reading the forum and watching the silly videos of James and Rob before the idea hit me: I want to be a photographer when I grow up! Cameras and gadgets, people interaction, creative, computers, fun, and money: it was perfect for me. I told Julie my idea and she was 100% behind it.

We purchased the Big Kahuna and Rob’s wedding system, and then in May 2005 I had my first DSLR camera: a Nikon D70. It was my first SLR camera of any kind. In August, Julie and I sprung for classes at Image Explorations East in Niagara Falls, Ontario where I met James and Rob for the first time, as well as many other NoBS members. It was wonderful!

Julie and I started doing portrait sessions with friends and family and I did my first wedding for strangers on New Year’s Eve that year. Before that, I shot a couple of friends and family weddings, using what I had learned from the forum and from Rob’s videos.

In 2006, we went to the Dominican Republic and took a class with Mark Hamilton. James and Rob also spoke there. During the workshop I invited myself up to NoBS Mecca: Sudbury Ontario where I got to tag along with James at a wedding on Friday and with Rob at a wedding on Saturday. By the end of the year 2006, we had done several more weddings and family portraits, and even a few senior sessions. It was a really good year for our fledgling business. We were able to save quite a bit of money from it which enabled me to quit my day job that I had since high school working for a car wash company. Finally, I was free from “the man” and could call myself a professional photographer. Wow did that feel good!

This past year, 2007 has been incredible for us. We joined the PPA, the WPPI, and got to go to Las Vegas for the WPPI convention as well. I was able to get away from our busy schedule to attend a 5 day class with Tony Corbell at NSI. Not to mention attending (and speaking at) my second Inferno at the Falls.

Our photography has really grown and so has our business. It’s a dream come true. With Rob and James taking us under their wings and our entire NoBS family’s support, we’ve been able to accomplish so much in so little time. It’s been just over 2 and a half years since I picked up a camera and can’t even imagine what life would be without it. Now, my dreams aren’t just dreams. I’ve got goals and direction and a plan. All I can really say is that I really am a product of this forum; of this family. I’ll never be able to give back as much as I’ve been given.

Thank you, NoBS!

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