In the beginning…

“You could make some money with this…” said Debbie, after helping me sort through and organize a couple hundred images of one of her friends’ gathering, a first birthday…and this, was the inception of Lenscapes Photography.

Anyone remember the movies “Mr. Mom” and “Three Men and a Baby”? …thank you, I resemble that…please let me explain:

I was a Project Manager tying up loose ends of a renovation at Hyatt Recency Waikiki when Debbie’s maternity leave was getting short, we quickly realized that we didn’t have a sitter (grandparents) to take care of Keri while we were at work. Debbie was doing well in her career and I was doing OK, but the thought of leaving Keri in someone else’s care was not something we looked forward to. Aunties and uncles already had grandkid care, so we weren’t going to add another infant to their schedule.

We thought about this for a while…perhaps one of us could stay home and start a business…Photography? The thought of staying home and starting a photography business looked financially manageable and would be a good move, career-wise, for Debbie.

…and the movies?

In the movie “Mr. Mom”, Michael Keaton leaves/is fired from his job and stays home to care for the kids while his upwardly mobile wife returns to the workforce. It’s a learning experience being the House Manager/Engineer; throw in an infant and 2 rambunctious toddlers’ care, yeesh…I was lucky to have only had an infant.

“Three Men and a Baby” had Ted Danson, as an actor, working his lines on stage with the baby strapped to his back in a backpack carrier; Tom Selleck, an architect, I think, carries the baby along with a satchel of blueprints to his worksite; Steve Guttenberg, a writer/an artist, again I think, ping-pongs between caring for the baby and “whatever”…he doesn’t get much “whatever” done.

Mash those two visions together and you got Lenscapes Photography…baby at consultations, baby at portrait shoots, baby at wedding rehearsals, baby at lunches and board meetings; baby and photographer on the road looking for photo opps…with diaper bag and camera bag.

There is an upside to having an infant as a sidekick…they get noticed and a lot of attention (hehe)…but that’s another story.