Welcome to my first blog post, it's a long one so hang in there! This is crazy, to be honest, finally setting up my website up and trying to teach myself along the way with no prior knowledge on anything to do with web design or coding; I have to say I feel quite accomplished today. Anyway, this blog post is telling you how I got the idea to create my website not only for blogging but mainly for my photography business and combining the two just made sense. 

I spent pretty much a year trying to decide if this is what I wanted to do; I mean so many people have blogs nowadays, and they make it look so effortless too. I started to read more in-depth into running a website and after contacting a few of my favourite photographers and lifestyle bloggers, asking which programs they use and how much dedication it takes to maintain a site, as well as keep the content creative and fun. At the same time, I wondered how they stayed true to themselves, learning what they did and how these bloggers do what they do. This captured my attention, and I got more eager than ever to give it a try. Something was still holding me back. Maybe it was how much time I spent at my job or how much time I needed to allocate to my schoolwork plus trying to have a social life, it was exhausting. I can't count how many times I would be out till two in the morning and have to be at work again at 4:30 AM, then I would still have a full day of school. If it wasn't for working at a coffee shop, I don't think I would have made it. Come around towards the end of 2017, I had decided to put the website off yet again, as I wanted to focus on my job and school before I started a new adventure. It seemed like a wise choice, you know, trying to be responsible after just turning 21 in June that year I felt like I had to start making better decisions for my life and being accountable and follow through with the commitments I was already engaged in.

However the new year came around, and by the third month I no longer worked at the coffee shop, I had more time to think about what mattered to me and how I should enter this new leg of my life. I know I sound a bit dramatic, but I had worked at this company since I was 17, and before that, I worked at a small coffee shop on the weekends at my church, all I knew how to do was work at a coffee shop, it was what I loved. It was my reason for waking up in the morning, being able to serve my regulars and meet new faces; anyway enough dwelling in the past. It was time to follow my goals and ambitions elsewhere, to recenter my life get it back on track so to speak. I have plenty of people to thank for that, mainly my close friends, Liz and Kathy along with my family, they helped push me to strive for something better, something that I was passionate about, something I was good at, Photography.

I've been doing photography most my life but really got serious about it, at a trip to Disneyland. Inspired by my close friend Alex, she told me about how she liked to take pictures of the parade dancers in " Mickey's Soundsational Parade" for fun whenever she went.  We started shooting photos together along with my brother, the three of grew both in skill and friendship. We were a fantastic trio, Alex taught us the best spots to get the attention of the performers, and together we shared our knowledge of the best settings to use and best apps to use to edit on our phones and then the better way on our computers.  After three years of doing this, my brother and I moved to Minnesota, leaving behind Alex and all the other great friends and performers we met at Disneyland. 

Moving out here not knowing anyone isn't the greatest when you are no longer in "required" schooling. You don't have that same group of people that you would typically have to connect to and get to know, and as beautiful as Minnesota is, it was a tad hard to find friends a lot of trial and error shall I say. So as I struggled to make friends, my camera became my best friend again. First I started just taking photos of all the buildings in Minneapolis (MPLS), the older architecture of both MPLS and Saint Paul, then as I was making friends, I learnt cool new places to go take photos and continued with shots of friends etc.

As the year went on, I did more travelling, saw different states, went to Europe, etc. I wanted a place where I could write and share my ideas, be a travel diary, as well as a place where I could write about events in my life, the people and places I work with, things I do. So I created this site and blog to help get my photography business off the ground and to start blogging my experiences along the way so welcome, and I hope you enjoy the ride.

- Josh