I had a dream

After working for other people in creative industry jobs for a large part of my life, I decided to stop making other people rich off my skills and talents.

This is a brief look at what I am, and where I come from.

As a young lad, I graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta, specializing in video production and audio engineering. I had lofty dreams of being a film editor in Hollywood, but no connections or real plan. I managed to get a job straight out of school working for a small video production company, where I learned many skills. I worked with that small family-like outfit for about a decade, but necessity demanded something more lucrative. I moved to a company that produced staged-productions for corporate clients. You know the kind, hotel ballrooms, stages, pipe and drape, truss hanging everywhere with a literal ton-of-lights hanging from it, sound, and, of course, video projection. Video was my discipline, but I picked up various lighting and sound techniques too. Staging work required a great deal of logistics, which I also did, including driving equipment trucks across the country. Then this thing happened where some lunatics flew some planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. Everything changed. Most notably for me, business dried up and people were let go, including yours truly. So, I went back to school and turned my A.A. into a B.S in communications and information technology. I was finally able to get a job at a television station, which was something else I always dreamed of. I grew up at at time before the internet when TV was the top of media food chain. I did get a job working for the number-one rated local tv and news station in the area. But by that time the internet was on the rise, and it never really was a very good deal for me. It was the height of the Great Recession though, and I was lucky to have any job. Lucky me, I kept getting stuck in recessions. So, I bided my time getting another B.S. This one in Business with a concentration in production and operations management. I hoped my loyalty, years of service, excellent performance, and good education would help me move up in the Fortune 500 corporation that owned the station I worked for. Alas, I was pigeonholed by management, I was making them too much money where I was. So, I decided to attempt something a bit crazy. I left. And I attempted to start a photography company. I had been dreaming about and preparing for  having my own company. But it was folly. The demand for photography and the supply of photographers makes it difficult to give away services in this area, let alone make a living from it. I had to take jobs unrelated to photography to feed myself. I have such a job now, but I still dream of making great photography.