"I used to hate taking pictures."

Josh a. bailey | head of PRODUCTION

(803) 387-4690 - josh@ahzonah.com

I bet you never heard a professional photographer admit that he used to hate taking pictures. So, here you go:

I used to hate taking pictures.


My wife would always have her phone in the air taking selfies of us, and she would regularly ask passers-by to take our photos. It was such a cringy experience; easily the most annoying part of going on vacations with her.


I would rarely smile in my early photos with my wife because I wanted her to know just how much I hated it. But she was never phased; unmoved. No matter how annoyed I presented; no matter how much I nagged, she never stopped taking photos.


Then one day, she told me her Facebook got hacked, and all the photos she had posted that weren't tagged to someone were lost. I immediately felt her pain because I knew what those photos meant to her, and it resonated with me.


I reached deep inside to determine why I hated photos while at the same time feeling sad about all those lost images. Then I realized it wasn't the photos I didn't like. It wasn't the thought of not "living in the moment" I was afraid of.


My own self worth was tarnished. 

"Photos deliver something memories cannot."

The truth is I was insecure about myself. I wasn't happy with my physical appearance. I even thought taking selfies challenged my masculinity. Yeah, I know...this ignorance was deeprooted. But, I made it out of that way of thinking.


Unfortunately, it took such a devastating event to realize what a flawed way of thinking that was, and I now know the purpose of taking photos. It's not a sacrifice of living in the moment, but instead it's an opportunity to freeze the moment to be able to relive it once again.


Now, I think I take more pictures than my wife when we're on vacations. I'm the one asking people to take our photo, and I'm the one holding the camera in all of our selfies.


Fastforward to now - I understand that photos deliver something memories cannot. And that's an undisturbed, untampered and unfuzzy record of things as they once were.


Camera technology is more advanced than it ever was, and this is the worst it will ever be. But no matter how insane light capture advances, no matter how fast AI progresses, the one constant will be the existence of people who need photos, and I don't mind using my little blip in Earth's existence to help capture them.



Thank you for visiting the site. I look forward to capturing your next event. If you'd like to book, ask a question, or invite me to your office, I'm available anytime by phone or email.