Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:22 Okay. So welcome to the Frame Center podcast. Uh, we're back. And today I'm excited. We have Caitlin Litchfield here with us. Caitlin, since Covid. She
Speaker 2 00:00:32 Covid buddies. Covid
Speaker 1 00:00:33 Buddies. Yep. That's where the, uh, that's where the friendship started. And she is a very, very talented Oh, go on. Uh, very talented portrait photographer out of Marshfield. That's where I live. So that's, uh, we were, uh, fortunate enough to meet. Thanks for coming in, Caitlyn.
Speaker 2 00:00:50 Thanks for having me. I'm excited. This is fancy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:00:53 <laugh> pretty, yeah, it's pretty exciting actually. You saw last week we were, we were talking to Kelly, right? You
Speaker 2 00:00:59 Were with Kelly. Yeah. Not as fancy. I don't have the fancy studio. Like hell Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 You know. Good. I didn't you so, you know, you know Kel pretty well too.
Speaker 2 00:01:06 I do. I do. So we work together. We have a couple of clients that we work together with. Yep. And you know, we refer people like I saw he back and forth for Joe. He doesn't do weddings anymore. No, no. It was a big,
Speaker 1 00:01:14 It was
Speaker 2 00:01:15 A big No on the weddings. Yeah. So he's actually referred me, you know, it was a weddings and some,
Speaker 3 00:01:20 Oh, there you go. That's <laugh>. It's a little extra. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:23 Is this good? You know, am I these good people? Yeah. And then he'll send me some business and, you know, I refer people to him and just to, he's, you know, supported us and that's good. He's
Speaker 1 00:01:32 Great's. You need to have people that have working relationships.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Well, it's a little bit of a lonely profession. He
Speaker 3 00:01:36 Can be. Yeah. You
Speaker 2 00:01:37 Know, I go to the photo shoots. Yeah. Take the photos and then I go back home and I set, I edit and I don't have coffee breaks or colleagues.
Speaker 3 00:01:43 Yeah. Unless you have a crew with you. It's kinda a, a crew where you work
Speaker 2 00:01:46 For like a big studio or something. So Yeah. I've actually worked hard to like, build relationships with other photographers that we can bounce ideas off of and
Speaker 3 00:01:54 Which is good,
Speaker 2 00:01:54 You know, and have colleague, like actually have a colleague. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 3 00:01:57 And talk about, I know you've done something like this before. What did you do kind of situation like?
Speaker 2 00:02:01 Absolutely. Or like, kind of like talking about our favorite clients, <laugh> people that we love so much. <laugh> Yeah. All of the amazing awesome things that happened to us. Some
Speaker 1 00:02:12 Things that might not be as much fun. Right. Like stay away from this one. <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:16 Does this present email you too? <laugh>?
Speaker 1 00:02:18 Yeah. I imagine
Speaker 3 00:02:19 It is out there, unfortunately. Uh, exactly. But yeah, there's good things too though. So that's, like you said, being able to come together, like you said, during Covid. That must have been, uh,
Speaker 1 00:02:28 Yeah, I thought, I mean, so you were involved in that Front Steps project? Yes, yes. And you know, we were, I know that, uh, Jen, my wife had, uh, you know, reached out to you and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, we had the family portrait done. Exactly. Got that hanging by the door at, I think
Speaker 2 00:02:42 It's right as you walk in, right? Yes, it is. I was so proud
Speaker 3 00:02:45 That my picture was, it was this, the whole thing where everybody was doing pictures out in the front of their house. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:48 So during Covid, a photographer on the North Shore started the Front Stepss project. Yeah. And basically you came out of your house six feet or more away, and a photographer would pull up <laugh> and capture you in your moment with, you know, your, your hair that hadn't been colored and people had beards and
Speaker 3 00:03:05 You know, people, it's a totally different type of drive-by shooting. It was a different <laugh>. It's a good kind. Yeah, that's, I like that.
Speaker 2 00:03:11 Some people came out and they had on, you know, they were funny about it. They had on like, their, their business on top. Pajamas on the bottoms. Nice.
Speaker 3 00:03:17 They all zooming. Yes. Yeah. Everybody got their bunny slippers on. Yeah, exactly. Some
Speaker 2 00:03:20 People came out in their Sunday best, cuz it was Easter,
Speaker 3 00:03:23 Easter time. Oh, sure.
Speaker 2 00:03:24 Yeah. People came out like drinking Jack
Speaker 3 00:03:26 <laugh> <laugh> like at
Speaker 2 00:03:28 9:00 AM like, uh, and but most people just came out as they were at, with their family, with their dogs, with their pets,
Speaker 3 00:03:35 At their homes,
Speaker 2 00:03:36 At their homes. Cuz that's all it was. Yeah. So when I pulled up, I, you know, Dave and I live in the same neighborhood that helps <laugh>. Yep. So I did a whole day in our neighborhood. Yep. And Janet signed up. Yep. And I was far away because it was Covid and Dave stepped off the steps and I was like, whoa. <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:03:53 Breaking protocol. Back
Speaker 2 00:03:55 It up, back it up. And he was like, hi, I'm Dave. I'm like, okay. Yeah. Hi, <laugh> <laugh>. He's like, do you wanna work together? I'm like, what is
Speaker 3 00:04:03 Happening for you? And what is gonna get back from
Speaker 2 00:04:05 The front steps? Man,
Speaker 1 00:04:06 <laugh>, I guess I, I guess I took, I, I wasn't great about protocols, apparently. I,
Speaker 2 00:04:11 Well it was the best thing ever because I mean, we ended up, so we ended up doing Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:04:16 We did sometimes a ton of her
Speaker 2 00:04:17 Hundreds. Yeah. I, I mean, so basically Dave was like, I need quality photos. Yep. And I wanna do Free Frame Friday. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and do you wanna give me some pictures? I was like, yeah, <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Because as a photographer, I lost everything. Yeah. There was no weddings, there was no newborns. There was no events. There was nothing.
Speaker 3 00:04:37 Yeah. Good luck getting your hospital or a wedding venue at all. Yeah, yeah. Anything.
Speaker 2 00:04:41 Yeah. Anything. So, I mean, my entire business got wiped out. Yeah. And so I always say I had a good cry mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then the Front Steps project started. Yep. And I actually ended up doing 300 of those.
Speaker 3 00:04:52 I must
Speaker 1 00:04:52 Have, I was gonna ask how 303
Speaker 2 00:04:55 Just over 300. I call it the tour, the South Shore. Like
Speaker 3 00:04:58 I like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:58 Everywhere. Waymo, Plymouth, Kingston. Yeah. Marshfield situate. People are like, yo, I live in Rayham. I'm like, I, I can't Director. Random know <laugh>. Where is
Speaker 3 00:05:08 That? But the flea markets <laugh>. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:05:10 So were a lot of those people clients prior? No. Always something. Most of them.
Speaker 3 00:05:14 So that's good. You got general bunch of new clients out. I
Speaker 2 00:05:17 Ended up being 300 touches, 300 places where I found clients.
Speaker 3 00:05:22 Yeah. And I'm sure they told people they knew about how they got this and this was sounds absolutely so nice. And that word of mouth spread is the best kind of advertising you can hope for.
Speaker 2 00:05:31 And people said, you know, when we're allowed again. Yeah. I, I'll call you. And I was like, yeah. So that was early 2020. Yeah. March, April, may, October
Speaker 3 00:05:39 Was 30 years, three years ago now. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's hard to believe. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:42 I remember by like October people were like booking outdoor photo shoots. Yeah. And then again for the next year, you know, so some of those people have become my absolute best clients. Yeah. Uh, whether they got a free frame Friday or not <laugh>. Yeah. Um, but I loved it because during that we were thinking of themes like Yeah. Who we gonna give these frames to. Yep. And one week we did all first responders.
Speaker 3 00:06:03 Yeah. First responders. I remember that. Nurses. Cause I have a friend and a firefighter, nurses and things like that. Nurses still be on call no matter what doctors.
Speaker 2 00:06:10 Yep.
Speaker 3 00:06:10 And teens.
Speaker 2 00:06:11 Yep. And then one time we did all teachers.
Speaker 3 00:06:13 Yep. The teachers won there. Remember that.
Speaker 2 00:06:14 That was big one. And then we did all mums. Yep. And then we just did people that had a story mm-hmm. <affirmative> because you stand there and you're talking to them and Yeah. You know, they're like, I lost my job. Or I Yeah. You know, I don't have childcare anymore because my baby sort of got covid or can't come in or, so it was like just reaching those human Yeah. Humans.
Speaker 3 00:06:33 Yeah. We had some, unfortunately some from some losses too. Some people that were lost during it. So
Speaker 2 00:06:38 Yeah. We did, we had one, I remember this one I took, a little boy was standing out in front of this big heart in his front yard and the whole photo was black and white except for the red heart. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and his, his aunt or whatever had covid and they hung that in our hospital room. And it, so it was like really a powerful project. And they all saved my business. Yeah. Free frame Friday saved my business.
Speaker 1 00:06:57 Yeah. Well, I mean, I think,
Speaker 2 00:06:59 Nope, it did
Speaker 1 00:07:00 <laugh> I'd, I'd give more some of the credit to the front desk project. That's, I mean, which I, you know, I'd seen another photographer from CIU had, had been involved in it. I saw some of her posts. I think it was, uh, was it Katrina Bentley? Oh yeah. And then I remember seeing yours too. Yeah. And I just, you know, it just seemed like such a great fit to like, you
Speaker 2 00:07:18 Know, it made sense.
Speaker 1 00:07:19 Yeah. I mean, we we're still sending out frames every mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, every weekend. You know, it's still like a fun project. But that one seemed great cuz it like tied in with that.
Speaker 2 00:07:27 Uh, it just made sense.
Speaker 1 00:07:28 It seemed like a such a great, great thing. Yeah. Where did like the fundraising go to from there
Speaker 2 00:07:33 As well? Oh yeah. So I did them for basically no money. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I was like, you know what? Everyone's hurting. Yeah. But during Covid, what I realized was when the schools shut down mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there are people that students that don't get breakfast or lunch. Yeah. You know, they use schools for meals. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they're not really like, really shook me. I was like, wait a second. Yep.
Speaker 3 00:07:52 Like what? And numbers are staggering for that. It's,
Speaker 2 00:07:53 Yeah. It's staggering. So we donated the money to the marshal food pantry.
Speaker 1 00:07:57 Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Mean now what? All the, the different photographers that took part and they, they basically picked their own like a charity that they were Yep. Working with.
Speaker 2 00:08:06 So some people did it a little differently. So what I did was I collected the money Yeah. And then gave it out. Yep. Some photographers left it to the person. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:08:15 Sure. Where they wanted,
Speaker 2 00:08:16 You know, you send it wherever you want, but I wanted the most bang for your buck. I, right. Yeah. I didn't want 25 bucks here and 25 bucks. I wanted like $3,000 going to one place. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's what we did. And you know, Marshfield, there's a lot of kids in our school district Yeah. Where we live that, you know, they just need food pantry mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they need help and, you know, they need services. So that felt good to kind of, you know, even though I was struggling, you know, through keeping my business alive Yeah. It has come back tenfold. Kind of pay it forward thing.
Speaker 1 00:08:44 Yeah. I feel the same way. I mean, but I was just here bored is like sending the thing out. <laugh>. I mean, like, I, I literally wasn't doing it. I mean, it was, it was fun. And the responses that I got and like the thank yous, I mean mean, I mean those are, and still like, still to this day, like Yes. Some of the ones that I send out that I don't even like, find significance in or it's just like a cute picture and like mm-hmm. <affirmative> people are just blown, you know, seem to be blown away by it.
Speaker 2 00:09:06 Well, I remember I got a free frame Friday. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:09:09 <laugh>. I was, we waited
Speaker 2 00:09:11 Script on me. Yeah. I was like, what is this? I'm like, oh shoot, did I forget to pick one up? Did Dave, like, did he send it to me? Like open it up? And it was a picture of me and my little boy on the back of a fire truck. Yeah. He stole it from my Facebook mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 00:09:25 <affirmative> because I'm not on Yeah. Not Facebook stalker. Yeah. We call not in a lot of photos.
Speaker 2 00:09:28 Yeah. Because
Speaker 3 00:09:29 I'm the photographer. Right, exactly. You're always the one behind the camera now in front of the camera. And
Speaker 2 00:09:32 Then the other one is a picture of my, the four of us, my little family. And those photos never get taken down. Yeah. They're always up, you know, never
Speaker 3 00:09:39 Wanna take them through. That was the other thing with Davies is like, you know, so many people keep these things on their phones or they keep them on their computers. They don't have them up, you know, readily available anymore that people can come into your house and walk by and say, oh, that's a great photo. Or When was this? Or, you know, and it was such a, it was a crazy time. Something. Exactly. You
Speaker 2 00:09:55 Know, like what made me actually do the project. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, a woman named Caitlin texted me, she's like, are you doing the, uh, front steps project? And I was like, uh, no. I was like, I'm not doing it. I, I whatever. Then I was like, you know what, I'll just pop by. Yeah. And she came out and she was pregnant. Oh. And she had her two little kids. Yeah. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this project. Nice. Yeah. So I called my sister-in-law mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I was like, I'm up the street from your house. Come outside <laugh>. And she's like, no. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I'm like, I go, yeah. Yeah. She's like, I just dropped a blender on my foot. I broke my toe. I can't go to the hospital cause it's covid, I'm a mess. Cause kids don't have shoes on. I go, come out outside.
Speaker 3 00:10:36 Perfect <laugh> guys like
Speaker 2 00:10:37 Come outside. So she sat on her front steps and she said, but the rule is you can't post those anywhere. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I said, fine. Yeah. This is just for you. Yeah. So I edited her photos and I sent them to her and she's like, I will never forget. She said, I don't remember laughing. You can post them. Yeah. And I was like, oh my God. Because it was such a heavy time
Speaker 3 00:10:57 For people. It,
Speaker 2 00:10:58 Yeah. And she came out and her photos are my favorite. She's laughing. The kids don't have shoes on. Their hair is a mess. Yeah. She clearly has a broken toe.
Speaker 3 00:11:05 <laugh>. Yeah. It's not the staged, uh, portrait shot of, you know, a setup where it takes 10, 15 minutes, get everything figured out. Turn this way, do this way. You know, it's
Speaker 2 00:11:13 Just sort of, shoot was just a minute or two. Yeah. I just remember her saying, I don't remember laughing. I don't remember smiling. Yeah. And I thought that
Speaker 3 00:11:20 Is so Yeah. It was a rare time to be doing that at home. <laugh>, everybody was a little Exactly. Stressed. I remember we were at home working from home and you were giving us projects. Like find these people, find things about them. Yeah. <laugh>, see some stuff around your own house that you think might need change and we can shoot some videos on it. Oh my gosh. Make some stuff. And it was,
Speaker 2 00:11:36 And then get some hockey pucks and some hockey Six. We'll shoot, shoot some hockey pucks and
Speaker 3 00:11:40 People, I remember the Zoom calls. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:41 Oh, I gotta see it. I can see it. I show hockey pucks. I show hockey pucks. So I'm like, I'm a lefty. He's like, ah, don't worry. We'll
Speaker 3 00:11:47 Take, he's got six for everybody out there. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:11:50 So, yeah. Yeah. No. And those friends, like, actually just the other day I was looking through Facebook and then I, I see somebody's post and then I see a frame. You know, it's like, it's, it's, it's cool. It's nice to like see that those things mean enough to people that they're hanging around. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:12:04 In the frames. I
Speaker 1 00:12:04 Mean, some of the ones we did, we went over the top on. You did a great job. Well, thanks. You did a great job promoting it too. I think people liked your videos a lot better
Speaker 2 00:12:12 Than mine. No, you're the king of, you're the king of what's a
Speaker 3 00:12:15 Facebook Live? Oh yeah. No, my kids hear that and they, they instantly were like sitting there watching, you know. So
Speaker 2 00:12:21 I had a cousin texted me and she was like, you didn't do Free Frame Friday this week. And I was like, what? She's like, well, I look forward to it every week. It's like kind of, we like watch you do Free Frame Friday. And I realized like people were listening and people were watching and, and I was, there were days where I was like so moved and it was so emotional because people would tell me stories. Yeah. Like they were like, Ooh, a human from the outside. <laugh>. Yeah. Well, could you have a minute to talk? You know, we would talk and they would tell me their stories and nobody was telling me a story to get a free frame. They just were looking for people to talk to. And some of those people, you know, I just, I felt so emotional about it or I would cry or whatever because it was, nobody got a frame just to get a frame. Like they had a story.
Speaker 3 00:13:00 Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:01 You know, they had to like mean something to
Speaker 3 00:13:03 Them. Yeah. People forget about the social and until they get locked inside doors and can't come out for, uh, <laugh> several months. Exactly. Forget what it's like. Even stand in line with somebody at the checkout. <laugh>. Oh right. I'm socially
Speaker 2 00:13:14 Awkward <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:13:14 Nobody knows what to do. Do I stand back? Si. No. Do I get close? I a basket in front. Okay. Yeah. It's like <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:13:20 No, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:13:21 So now do you mainly doing portraits these days? Yeah. Or like, just like family portraits. Portrait
Speaker 2 00:13:27 Is a kids, you know, in the biz. October's a nightmare. Yeah. It's a nightmare of time for photographers, so mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So October was the month that took me down this year I had, I had like 80 photo shoots or
Speaker 3 00:13:38 Something.
Speaker 1 00:13:38 Geez. Little people's Christmas cards. Is
Speaker 2 00:13:40 That Christmas cards? Yep. Yeah. Christmas cards and portraits. And
Speaker 3 00:13:43 Say people want those autumn outdoor shots with the uh, the fall foliage. Exactly. Just before they're all gone. Next week or two. Maybe
Speaker 2 00:13:48 It's
Speaker 3 00:13:49 Like one week. Yeah, exactly. You have a slim time period and
Speaker 2 00:13:52 Cherry blossoms in DC Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:13:53 They're
Speaker 2 00:13:54 There and then they're
Speaker 3 00:13:54 Gone. And of course the weather barely ever cooperates with those days. So Barely
Speaker 2 00:13:58 Ever <laugh>. Barely ever. So I actually took a little bit of time off December, January, February regrouped. Yeah. Got my bearings back in mm-hmm. <affirmative> and now I'm gearing back up
Speaker 3 00:14:07 Ready for the spring. Yep. Those outdoor. Yep. <laugh> outdoor photo shoots. Wedding. What's
Speaker 2 00:14:12 Really cool is that events are back. Yeah. And I know that we're three years post covid, but that stuff has really been slow to come back. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:14:20 Well we were just at, uh, north River last week and I think that they said that that was the first
Speaker 3 00:14:25 Uh, yeah. The in person event
Speaker 1 00:14:27 That they, you know, they'd had in person there.
Speaker 3 00:14:29 Yeah. They'd gone to so
Speaker 2 00:14:30 Many a year ago. I think the kids were still in mass.
Speaker 3 00:14:31 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:32 Pretty much. Yeah. At school.
Speaker 3 00:14:34 Um, that was funny cuz today, St. Patty's day I was Yep. Remember driving my kid to school and having to remember and he forgot his mask. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, cause we were listening to different Irish songs and step step songs and things like that in the car. And again, so Yeah. I remember exactly that. Just year. Were still wearing a mask at that time. So, but people
Speaker 2 00:14:51 Are starting to like say, okay, you know, we can have events, we can have the bigger weddings. Although I do love a Covid wedding. It's like 10 people. Right. No pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Love me. A good micro wedding.
Speaker 3 00:14:59 You're all the pick of the litter, the pick of the people.
Speaker 1 00:15:02 Where's that tropical place you were going to show? I
Speaker 2 00:15:04 Oh, for all the people listening, I will go to any tropical destination issue
Speaker 3 00:15:08 Your wedding.
Speaker 2 00:15:09 Everybody else there.
Speaker 1 00:15:10 If you, if you can't find someone to travel to,
Speaker 2 00:15:12 Uh, I will go. So actually I love to travel, but it was St. Martin.
Speaker 3 00:15:16 Oh, very
Speaker 2 00:15:17 Nice. So that was an interesting one time.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 That was a tough one.
Speaker 2 00:15:19 That was tough. Oh, it was so hard. Yeah. Boohoo. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:15:22 They, 73
Speaker 2 00:15:23 Days they called
Speaker 3 00:15:24 Their wedding. It was beautiful weather.
Speaker 2 00:15:25 Three or four times. Really? Yeah. It was supposed to be here. And then we just did like a photo shoot up in Salem, just the two of them. And then it got rescheduled I think twice. JetBlue was like, really lady, you're rescheduling this again. Yeah. But we finally made it. That's a real though, Jesse and Robbie Barletta, they're like just special to me because it kind of went through that together. Yeah. And they were like, I remember the weeks leading up to their wedding. I'm like, I can't be near people cuz it's Yeah. If I can't get to St. Martin.
Speaker 3 00:15:52 Oh my god. Yeah. You're
Speaker 2 00:15:52 They're not gonna have a photographer.
Speaker 3 00:15:54 Exactly. And
Speaker 2 00:15:54 I'm like, so I was masked and I like
Speaker 3 00:15:56 <laugh> full hazmat suit. Yeah. Literally. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:15:58 I'm like, I can't get sick. Cause you then you were testing in and out of the country. Yeah. I'm like, I'll get stuck in St. Martin. That's fine.
Speaker 1 00:16:05 That's right. Yeah. Don't worry. Darn
Speaker 2 00:16:06 <laugh>. I'll get Covid while
Speaker 3 00:16:07 I'm there. We knew a few people had that happen until the Yeah. <laugh>, uh, we're in Bermuda for 36 months. Oh. You know,
Speaker 2 00:16:14 But they, um, that was a really fun wedding. And I just, you know, I love to travel and I, you know, couple was really special to me. Yep. But I'll, I'll go anywhere. Yep. Yeah. I'll go anywhere.
Speaker 3 00:16:23 I destination weddings.
Speaker 2 00:16:24 Yeah. Destination anything. Yeah. <laugh> a colleague of mine, uh, he does videos, name's Tom. And he was supposed to go to the island like, oh, it's so weird. Tommy didn't get my invite. Yeah. It's weird. You know, you're video, I'm photo like, yeah, come on. You're
Speaker 1 00:16:37 Supposed to be partners,
Speaker 2 00:16:37 Right? Yes, exactly. We're supposed to help each other out. I'll give you the good stuff. You give me
Speaker 3 00:16:41 <laugh>, you know, <laugh> help somebody out. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:16:43 Exactly. Exactly. And now you also shoot for NDA too. I do. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 2 00:16:48 I love n d You're speaking
Speaker 1 00:16:49 Like of events that you're uh mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:16:52 <affirmative>. So I graduated from Notre Dame a couple years ago. Yeah. A few <laugh>, oh God. 21 years ago. So they're one of my clients now. Nice. Which I actually, I love, I love Notre Dame. I love the school. I love, I love the girls. Yeah. I love, I even go back there and I did, I just did like a TED talk there. Oh, no kidding. About the secret lessons. You don't know your learning while you're there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause someone's like, oh, you're learning all these like Mandarin, you're learning all these Yeah. But there are things that you don't know you're learning. Mm-hmm. Like confidence or poise or, you know, all these awesome things. So I actually, this year I've shifted my business model a little bit more towards like corporate stuff. Yeah. You know, my kids are young and Yeah. You know, I wanna work like nine to five. Yeah. And, you know, not be out every weekend. Yeah. And I would've
Speaker 1 00:17:33 Imagine chew that's like Cal said, he like gave up on the weddings. Right. Because he, it's too
Speaker 3 00:17:37 Much. He was missing on everything. A single thing. They were going to all the dances and hockey and anything else that they had, so Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:42 Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you're at their whim like, yeah, well I can only do July 4th. I'm like, oh my God. Yeah. Like no <laugh>, like that's July 4th.
Speaker 3 00:17:51 Yeah. Or our big corporate events on the 4th of July. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:17:55 Well I will say I did do a wedding last year. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> on July 4th weekend. But it's only cuz this woman's amazing and she's been with me forever and Yep. And she's Irish and, you know, I gotta, you know, <laugh> gotta support them and she's like my favorite human. But I've shifted my business model just a little bit. Yeah. You know, kind of doing more like Notre Dame and Yep. Like I just drove down to Rhode Island and did headshots for Pepsi and things
Speaker 3 00:18:16 Like that. Oh cool.
Speaker 2 00:18:17 Yeah. It's cool. Like, those are the kind of things I, I like to
Speaker 3 00:18:19 Do. Yeah. It's good to have on a portfolio too, for everything to say that, you know, <laugh>. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:18:23 Exactly. Yeah. That is a good portfolio.
Speaker 3 00:18:25 Yeah. This new, it's just a major corporation. It's
Speaker 2 00:18:28 Just a major's fine. But I still, I still love, you know, my families and my babies and all that. But just like hell said, it's, it's a lot. It is. You know, I'm one person, you guys know, like you're, I answer the emails and do the social media and update the website and take the photos and edit them and do all the marketing and do all that. I'm just one person. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:18:45 Yeah. It's a lot. Try to do that even in a single day is, is impossible. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I mean
Speaker 2 00:18:49 Mean and the increase never stopped. No. Which is, I am not complaining, you know, it's like
Speaker 3 00:18:52 No. Exactly. It wasn't the best thing. We've been busier than ever. Actually we were one of those businesses that happened to be the place that people needed to go during, after Covid and everything. Cause it's crazy. People weren't going vacation, so the money had to go somewhere. They were fixing up homes. Redecorating. Yeah. So like interior, anything that had to do with the interior or exterior of the house, you know, those businesses all kind of thrived and we had so many new faces coming in the door, people had never, they go, oh, I've driven by the business a thousand times.
Speaker 2 00:19:19 Oh,
Speaker 3 00:19:19 I heard
Speaker 2 00:19:20 Caitlin's free frame Friday. Oh
Speaker 3 00:19:21 Yes, yes, yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 00:19:23 You're right. Um, you forgot about that
Speaker 3 00:19:25 <laugh>. But just having all those new people come in because the, you know, quick Google search and we were the only, you know, well you guys were so active people in the game, you know?
Speaker 2 00:19:32 Yeah. You guys were so active on social mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that stuff
Speaker 3 00:19:35 Helps. And that's how it all started because we had nothing else we could do. We're like, all right, well we're gonna post stuff so people can still keep our name in their minds and you know, that's exactly it. Get some new ideas on, maybe on what to do with their homes while they're stuck there, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it really played, it paid off. And then this, and then this came at the tail end of it is was, you know, Dave being able to listen to all the new podcasts that had started up and given the idea podcast
Speaker 2 00:19:58 A couple minutes. So you might as well, you
Speaker 3 00:20:00 Might as well Exactly. Start doing our own. But it, it works out well for us. Cuz then we get to, you know, sit down, talk with everybody individually, sometimes more than you can get in the 15 to 20 minutes you're downstairs putting a frame order together. Exactly. I mean, you've talked to these people dozens of times, but I'm not gonna get the in-depth stories that I'm gonna get from while they're bringing in the photograph or the mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the pastel that they created or things like,
Speaker 2 00:20:19 Oh, it's really like a personal thing too for you guys. Yeah. Like when I brought in my Rolling Stone. Yeah. So have my Rolling Stone from 1980 and I was like, nobody's ever touched it. <laugh>. Yeah. And I was like, but it's also, I can't just be in this clear plastic sleeve anymore. Like Yeah. Uh, I'm gonna leave it. Right. Nobody's gonna touch it. Right Dave? Because it's like, it's, yeah. I've seen one of them at the um, rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh, okay. And it's in horrible condition. Yeah. Mine's in really good condition. So I'm like, I
Speaker 3 00:20:47 Take that rock roll. You guys were
Speaker 2 00:20:48 So good with it. That was like an in an interior thing. I'm like, you know, this is the air I'm finally gonna frame my John Lennon. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:53 Well that's thing people finally had the free time. Oh
Speaker 2 00:20:56 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:56 Yeah. People didn't have the free time until then either. Cuz again, you go to work, you come home, you cook dinner, by the time you get the kids and stuff done to commute, you commute. Ugh. You're, it's all right. It's nine o'clock time to lay in bed for half an hour and fall asleep watching TV while I have a ball. Popcorn man. Exactly. <laugh>. You know, it's like, there's nothing else to do. And it's like, again, so with no time off, nothing else. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> people were able to, they started watching shows. I saw, I watched a lot of reaction stuff on YouTube for people watching shows or movies or things they've never seen. And a whole bunch of people started up that. So I was like watching a lot of those people. And you know, it's funny, same idea as like seeing a picture frame. Same idea as watching a movie that I haven't seen in 20 years being reacted to someone who's never even heard of the movie before. Yeah. Yeah. And seeing when someone from like now thinks of it, it's like, same idea. Yeah. You know, it's just, it was a whole bunch of new stuff being generated. So it was, it was nice to have. Yeah. You
Speaker 2 00:21:43 Know? I agree. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:21:44 So weddings and Notre Dame giving, get some good pictures of mine at
Speaker 2 00:21:48 Some point, I think. Well yeah. Cause I'm already, I already like cornered her at the barbecue. Oh, that <laugh>. I was like, Hey listen, I need your help. You need to go over there, stand there look good, but don't look at me. And she's like, okay <laugh>. She's so cute. She's
Speaker 3 00:22:02 Such a pay no attention to the person holding the camera. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:22:04 Exactly. Well that's the worst when you're like doing, I'm really good at doing candids. So I'm, I'm good at catching people, but not like their mouth open and like, you know, scallop wrapped and bacon hanging out or whatever. <laugh> and
Speaker 3 00:22:13 Uh, mid pop of the food, mid
Speaker 2 00:22:15 Pop of the food. Right. And, but when people catch me, yeah. I don't take the photo, I walk away. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, sorry,
Speaker 3 00:22:20 You know, here, sorry you saw me.
Speaker 2 00:22:22 You ruined my good candid
Speaker 3 00:22:23 Moment. No, it's kinda hard to do with the know, holding the little shrub walking around and try to the camera camouflage mask wearing the full Gilly suit, you know, with the camera. It's a little tough to people not to notice you, but like you said, it's tough. Candid moments are the best one. So ones that people on post for the most.
Speaker 2 00:22:36 That's what I'm good at
Speaker 3 00:22:37 Actually. What, what do people really bring out themselves in those photos? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, anything you have to stage. Like I hate my own personal shots being taken. I know. You know, it's like say cheese. I'm
Speaker 2 00:22:45 Like, hey, about the other side of it for me, I'm like, say cheese. I'm like, this guy doesn't wanna do this.
Speaker 3 00:22:49 Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Awkward. But if you catch me in mid conversation with somebody, I'm having, you know, my genuine, you know, movements are gonna come out. Right. My normal stance pose how I am is gonna show up. And those ones always look better than anything you can stage.
Speaker 2 00:23:03 Exactly. Exactly. But you gotta get creative. You're like, I'm always shooting no matter what. If I'm even during downtime or people say, oh no, no matter what, like go sit down and no <laugh>. No. Cause that's the one time the
Speaker 3 00:23:15 Little, you know, if something's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:23:16 The little uh, flower girl's gonna fall asleep in the middle, the dance floor not
Speaker 3 00:23:19 Gonna miss it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:23:20 Yeah. You're right. You know, it's like you're, it's truly is like that's why I totally get why hell is like, uh, yeah, no, because it's a lot of pressure. It's really 10 plus hours.
Speaker 3 00:23:29 Oh yeah. On your feet the whole time moving constant, constantly
Speaker 2 00:23:31 Moving. It's a lot.
Speaker 3 00:23:33 So I was, it's the one time you try to go to the snack table to get something to keep going is when something's gonna happen. Yeah. <laugh>. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:23:38 Um, but I started, I do a lot of second shootings for weddings. Got Cause I love that. Yeah. It's like half the time you don't have to edit the photos. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 1 00:23:45 Yeah. Just work with somebody
Speaker 2 00:23:46 Else. Work with a partner, work a lot with Abby. Abby Dinor or Vanessa Falcon. Yep. Again, this little network of photographers that have like built up where we can refer.
Speaker 3 00:23:55 It's good that there, that many in the area. There's so many photographers in, in that way, you know? Yeah. That you're like having a struggle for <laugh> who gets one job. But the fact that leaky said you can play off each other for information on how things are done, but also that you can split up jobs that are huge. That would be, yeah. Or there's like not able for you to handle on your own.
Speaker 2 00:24:12 Yeah. And you don't wanna, like, you know, if you can't fulfill the job, you don't wanna say sorry. Yeah. Yeah. You wanna say, well I, here's a trusted colleague or you know, here's a friend and she might be available. I actually just did it for, um, Sasha Hospital. Yeah. Oh, okay. Actually I think Ke might be doing, they they have a huge golf
Speaker 1 00:24:26 Tournament. Yeah. He said he should some sort of, was it the walk or something? Something? It was up near where you live. Cuz he was talking about, is it a gala or something like that? Oh
Speaker 2 00:24:34 Yeah. But they, why they do, um, a huge golf tournament.
Speaker 3 00:24:37 Oh, the one out on the air base? Yeah. Yeah. They have the, the big popup tents they put up, they the blue light stream and I can see 'em from my backyard of my house when I take the dog outta night and just, it's called crisscross. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:24:48 I think it's, yeah,
Speaker 3 00:24:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't miss it. It's this giant white tent in the middle of a field it looks like. It just kind of just, it's kinda cool. Popped up outta nowhere. But it's an awesome event for work.
Speaker 2 00:24:57 Yeah. We're, so Cal and I will work together on some social hospital things. And you
Speaker 1 00:25:00 Do the golf tournament?
Speaker 2 00:25:01 I'll do the golf tournament, but they do have at three courses. So they do Pine Hills both courses and then like Plymouth Country Club.
Speaker 3 00:25:07 Oh, okay. So for love,
Speaker 2 00:25:08 Huh? Yeah. And so I referred my colleague Vanessa. I was like, oh no, Vanessa is great. So you don't wanna just say, Hmm, sorry. Yeah. You know, good luck. I don't know. And it,
Speaker 1 00:25:16 Well, I mean like, look at something like that and I think with a lot of stuff too with photographers as like, just find me like the right mesh of personalities. Like Yeah. You know, like when Michael asked me about, he is like, oh, you know, I mean obviously I had know tons of no, lots of right. Lots of photographers, but like, oh yeah, Michael and Michael, I mean, and he's an artist so he's like, he's great. Like, it was important to him that like, it'd be like a good match and like, so that the photographer, you know, I just automatically I thought that you'd be the perfect one to
Speaker 2 00:25:42 Well thank you. Yeah. He'd,
Speaker 1 00:25:44 He was just like, ah, he was great. But he also, he wanted like somebody that would mesh with his daughter's, with his daughter personality and like be able to like draw out like the pictures that he want, you know, that he wanted and like to capture
Speaker 3 00:25:55 Her. Not in all business, no nonsense kind of thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:58 Yeah. Not just like, you know, I mean, it's not like smile like some, you know,
Speaker 3 00:26:02 Next. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:26:03 Next,
Speaker 3 00:26:05 The
Speaker 1 00:26:06 Next when you're, when you're in scroll
Speaker 3 00:26:09 30 seconds
Speaker 1 00:26:11 Watching your main one after the next. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 2 00:26:13 Well he was, that was really cool because with ta he had a photo of her on that same beach, but when she was like five years old. Oh, cool. And we recreated the photo, which is one of my favorite weird things to do. I love taking the same photo year after year, like, or after 10 years or five years or whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And she's sitting there like this and she's got the cutest little smile and she even wore the same necklace. Oh, that's cute. I was like, oh my God, I love this. Like, I love everything. And she, that was like, that's what's so cool about photography is that, you know, you have a style but you also have like a, a definite personality behind mm-hmm. <affirmative> you where you can say, say like, oh, you know, I think they'll mi mix well or whatever. Yeah. And, and I've, I've turned clients away. Yeah. Cause they've asked me for something and I'm like, you know what? I just don't think I'm your perfect fit. Yeah. You know, you're asking
Speaker 3 00:26:53 Me to, I want this dramatic shot with the wind blowing. It's not my style behind me with the Yeah. No. Can I do it? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:26:59 Are you, I'm just not my style.
Speaker 1 00:27:01 Yeah. No, I feel the same way here. I mean, we try not to turn people away. I know, right. But there's, but there's also like, you know, there's the same thing. It's like if you're gonna have a better experience somewhere else, cuz your personality and I think we're fortunate cause we have so many different personalities that work here. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So like somebody might, you know, wanna work with Scott and like, you know, but somebody else might not really jello with Right. His tastes. Yeah. And then they can work with somebody else that works here, you know? But
Speaker 2 00:27:25 When it's a one person show Yeah. It's, you're like, you either like me or you
Speaker 1 00:27:28 Don't. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it's, I think it's so important. Like you want it to be a good experience, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like you don't want, you know, even if the p photographs come out well if it was like pulling teeth to get those photographs Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 00:27:38 Flashing you wanna do,
Speaker 1 00:27:39 Getting your frame job done. Like it's so, so much more than the final product. It's like that day getting the pictures taken mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I'm sure like, you know, for Maya, especially like Jen, like, you know, part of the production is like the picking out the outfit and like Yes. Talking to the photographer. And,
Speaker 2 00:27:55 And that's a huge part of my job that people forget about or don't, or maybe they don't even know. But I get emails on emails, on emails. Um, should I wear an Navy or dark blue or cobalt or I'm like, I don't know. But blue blue's
Speaker 3 00:28:08 Fine. Yeah. I'm supposed to bring a second outfit. What, <laugh>?
Speaker 2 00:28:10 Yeah. Or even just like, you know, I did bring a second outfit, which one should I wear? And then we're in the parking lot choosing,
Speaker 3 00:28:15 Oh God. Yeah. Well there's nowhere to change around here. So
Speaker 2 00:28:18 I actually wrote a blog about it and I have one blog and it's my most, I wrote one thing about it and it like, what do I wear? Yeah. It is my most asked question as a photographer, what do I wear? What should I do? How do I dress boo?
Speaker 1 00:28:29 I'm like, producer Elizabeth, take note of that. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:28:32 We're
Speaker 1 00:28:33 We, we might be reposting your blog to us.
Speaker 3 00:28:36 We see you got a lot of FAQs, we gotta fill in there. So, uh, and if that would help somebody out, I'm sure that would be great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:28:42 It's a, it's a major, major question. And so my biggest tip is dress the hardest person first. Yeah. It's always the mother by the way. Yeah. It's always the mom because the mom waits
Speaker 3 00:28:52 To last minute. The one who does everybody else's stuff. The
Speaker 2 00:28:54 Mom who does everything else. So once you dress the mom, build everybody else around
Speaker 3 00:28:58 Her. Around the mom. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:28:59 Because kids are whatever they can wear playing. The husband's only just put on whatever.
Speaker 3 00:29:03 They only gonna wear it for the shoot. Anyway. I'm wait for the shoot tuck tag.
Speaker 2 00:29:06 It's fine. Um, but I always say dress the mum first and then it's always this rule of color pattern neutral. Yeah. So we would be pretty good. I'm a neutral. You're a color, you're a pattern. We, we look good together.
Speaker 3 00:29:16 So you Exactly. It's not all pla across the board. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 00:29:18 And you wanna be, um, coordinated not matchy matching.
Speaker 1 00:29:21 Yeah. Yeah. And you get, and people
Speaker 2 00:29:22 Get that. They're like, oh look at, look what I did. I did color pattern neutral. I'm like very good. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:29:27 <affirmative>. Perfect. You did write a blog about
Speaker 2 00:29:29 That? I did. It's on my website.
Speaker 1 00:29:30 It's on the website. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:29:31 Nice. Yep. I have, I have one
Speaker 1 00:29:32 Vlog. Kate. Kate, it's on there.
Speaker 2 00:29:34 Yeah. Uh, so it's kate lich photo.com and Kate is spelled k a i t just to make it really complicated. Sure.
Speaker 3 00:29:40 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:29:41 And there's a little tab that called that's called blog. It is super easy to find cuz it is the only one on there. Yeah. Because I was tired of answering the same question on the ground. I'm just gonna write this wrong 30 minutes and
Speaker 3 00:29:50 Write this. That's what those are made for. It's like a frequently asked question. All right.
Speaker 1 00:29:53 You gonna write more blogs when you find the time? I
Speaker 2 00:29:55 Think so. So I would love to write up blog about like a newborn photo shoot. Oh yeah, yeah. Merits come in and are very apologetic.
Speaker 3 00:30:01 The dos and don'ts, the things you need, the things
Speaker 2 00:30:03 You don't Yeah. Or like they'll say, oh, I'm, I'm so sorry they're awake. I'm like, they're seven days old. Is it okay? Or I'm so sorry this is taking so long. I'm like, an newborn photo shoot takes
Speaker 3 00:30:12 Hours for especially if it's their first.
Speaker 2 00:30:13 Especially if it's their first.
Speaker 3 00:30:14 Yeah. Yeah. Cause that, that hood's a whole other ball of wax compared they have either everything or they are like so scattered they have nothing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And
Speaker 2 00:30:22 I think too, like I'll probably write a blog about like what actually goes into my side of the prep for a photo shoot. People think, oh, I just show up, take the pictures and edit. There's so much prep that goes into it that you value your time. That way. I might have 14 emails back and forth with a client that is gonna make your photo shoot successful. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And if you have, you know, a dozen emails back and forth and then like, mm. We're actually not gonna do the photo shoot. It's like,
Speaker 1 00:30:48 Okay, <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:30:49 Okay. That's all right. You
Speaker 3 00:30:50 Know, <laugh>. Yeah. I'm working with a group right now where they've started off the said, we're looking between this, this, and this. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I need this color, this color or this color. I've been sending 'em back and forth samples so that when they send their person in, they go, you have these three to pick in which one looks best in person versus having to go through, through
Speaker 1 00:31:04 This
Speaker 2 00:31:05 Whole
Speaker 3 00:31:05 Place whole, you know, it's like, oh, we could go through 3000 frames and combinations and that's the thing. That's all your
Speaker 2 00:31:10 Time. And it's like pe you know, you have to, I think I wanna just educate people about that. When you're in a service industry, like what goes into that? You don't just show up and pop your picture in a frame. Yep. Like I don't just show up with the camera. I had to charge those batteries and update the, the firmware and you know, do do all these things just to make sure it, it just goes when I get there.
Speaker 1 00:31:26 I I get that completely. So like when we do the installs, which Oh yeah. That's why we're trying to do the whole educational videos on installing pictures and installing stuff just to make it easier so people can do it themselves. Cause mm-hmm. <affirmative> someone asks, you know, what's gonna cost to, you know, hang this picture and it's like, well I gotta, I gotta charge $200 cuz I gotta like load up the van. I gotta drive to you. It's gonna take me five minutes when I get there. But
Speaker 3 00:31:48 You gotta be away from
Speaker 1 00:31:49 Here so much in Yeah. And again, like I'll miss two hours from the store. I'm like at 200 I don't even want like Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:31:55 Yeah. Like really can be something as simple as this. Just two pictures side by side with six inch, uh, eight inch gap in between. Yeah. That's hard though. People just want, it's
Speaker 2 00:32:01 Hard for people.
Speaker 1 00:32:02 It's hard for Yeah. That's what you haven't done it. That's why I'm trying to do all the videos. Cuz I feel like if the videos are there, I mean obviously like people need to hang pictures on the wall for us to sell more pictures, you know, <laugh> and, you know, but having that educational piece I think is important. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> because like I'm not looking, I'm not looking for that 200. It's like, it's not even enough. It's, and it's uh, it's a time suck. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it is and it's like, and then the like
Speaker 3 00:32:25 Yeah. It's a lot
Speaker 1 00:32:25 To them. I'm going back and forth like, how many emails do I have to have you send to line it up so that there's like a date that works for both me and the person whose house we're going to. And it's generally like if it's something big, I end up having to bring somebody else with me. So it's now there's tour of us and there's
Speaker 3 00:32:39 Two people I'm coordinating with you, you're coordinating with somebody else that's gonna help you. Then I'm coordinating back with the person and,
Speaker 2 00:32:43 And then stop at Starbucks. That's 38 bucks.
Speaker 1 00:32:45 You know, like Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:32:47 Not to mention the gas it takes to get to there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole start
Speaker 2 00:32:51 Cut not outta your business. That's not a good business.
Speaker 1 00:32:53 I mean it's, I mean it's a fun,
Speaker 3 00:32:54 We want to help. It's just, it's
Speaker 1 00:32:56 A fun service in, in a lot of circumstances. But then like someone calls up and they're like, you know, they didn't even get the frame from me. Yeah. And they just want me to come to the
Speaker 3 00:33:03 House. I haven't eaten by 10. You wanna
Speaker 1 00:33:04 Pay and be like, I'm like, just find a kid down the street like this mowing a lawn man. Right. Like I don't, I'm so you sorry, I can't help you.
Speaker 3 00:33:12 You don't have a son-in-law or something. They come in. Right. I've
Speaker 2 00:33:14 Had people do that. They'll say, you know, another photographer took this photo, can you edit it? And I'm like, uh, no. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:33:20 It's a new
Speaker 2 00:33:20 New's. So taboo. Like if a photographer comes to me and said, I took this. I can't figure out how to do X, y, z, that's one thing. But a client or some, well you know, she didn't really do X this or that. I'm like, uh, I can't touch that. You can
Speaker 3 00:33:34 Ask them. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:33:34 Yeah. Ask permission. I
Speaker 3 00:33:36 Was gonna say, you reach out, you gave a written letter and permission with their letter. But I'm not touching that Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:33:40 No way. Like that. Hey, can you frame this other guy's frame <laugh> Are you hang those other guy's frame. You're like, eh,
Speaker 1 00:33:46 In some circumstances it's all right. But it's, you know, it's, it's a little funny. It's, it's weird, you know? Yeah. But it is, people just don't understand those things that go into it. The
Speaker 2 00:33:54 Little nuances of a business that, you know, there's so much time that that is just not what people think you
Speaker 1 00:34:01 Do. So I think that the educational piece is like the blogs, like videos. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. You should do some videos explaining these things. Oh geez. Actually mean what are those, are those blogs? Are they, is
Speaker 2 00:34:09 That not that we're, not that we're talking so much about Covid, but I did that during Covid. Yeah. I did newborn photo shoots. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in my driveway. Yeah. No. On Wicked Hot Days. Mm-hmm. Because the baby has to be warm. Yep. Yep. And I bought a baby doll, a little toy doll. Yep. And I would show parents how to swaddle the babies
Speaker 3 00:34:27 To get them wrapped up. So would next to
Speaker 2 00:34:29 Me. Yeah. Yeah. And we would swaddle up the babies and I was Okay, now loop it around. Okay. Yep. Good. And then loop it around. Okay, good. And then they would put the baby in the basket and then I would step back and I was like, okay, can you adjust our hand up a little or move this? And so I have one
Speaker 3 00:34:42 Video <laugh>. So you create Yeah. You had to have
Speaker 2 00:34:44 Of me showing how to swaddle a baby and, but yeah, I think I should write some more blogs and I, cuz I have a lot of things that people ask.
Speaker 3 00:34:52 I'm
Speaker 1 00:34:52 Sure. Well I think the educational piece is important. Cause it also, it explain, you know, I think people get, the consumer gets a little bit of an understanding of what the va what
Speaker 3 00:35:00 They're getting.
Speaker 2 00:35:00 Why are you priced this way? Yeah. Well I've been in business almost a decade. <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. You know the equipment. Yeah. And actually it's funny, I was shooting about mitzvah last week and the rabbi said to me, yeah, your camera can't make any noise. Yeah. And I was like, Hmm. Oh well it's a good thing I just bought pr two brand new cameras. Yeah. That I could turn all the sound off.
Speaker 3 00:35:20 You have to click button disabled. Yeah. <laugh> total.
Speaker 2 00:35:23 Total cent. Now for me, I love to hear that click. Yeah. Uh, that's,
Speaker 3 00:35:27 That's, that's your reassurance that this photo got taken. That's Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:35:31 But I thought, wow, there's a value that I can do that. Yep. You know, another
Speaker 3 00:35:34 Having the
Speaker 2 00:35:35 Yeah. Because I have all brand new, new equipment, which, you know, there's value there. There's value in knowing which beaches are good Yeah. Or what light is Right. Or
Speaker 3 00:35:43 Yeah. That's why we try to have as many frame options available for every price point that somebody's trying to come in here. Mm-hmm. For just, we don't want people being, having to feel like they came here for nothing that they can Yeah. They came,
Speaker 2 00:35:51 Came way over here. Or like if you book a photo shoot with me and you to go through the whole thing and then I'm like, Hmm. I don't really, I don't know. This location's not great. Like, I literally know every location. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And if I don't know, I go there before. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:36:04 Yeah. You, you
Speaker 2 00:36:05 Should be like, oh, okay, let's, yeah. I showed up to this bomb mizvah early cuz I was like, alright, we might do some outside. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it was rainy. Let's find some coverage. Yep. There's value there. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1 00:36:15 That. There's, it's experience, right. Like so I I I think I've heard something, you know, it's like when you're learning people, they want to give you more and then when you master it and you can go in and do it in no time, they wanna less do less. You know,
Speaker 2 00:36:26 It's, it's bizarre. It's true. It's so bizarre. Like, oh, let's help them. They're just starting out. It's like, yeah, but what about me? I, you know, do my education and you know, I I am always like, I call myself like a photography nerd. I'm always like learning how to do things and googling things and what's the equipment and what's this? And just always
Speaker 3 00:36:41 Teaching myself. Yeah. The guy that gets paid $50 an hour and takes, you know, 20 hours to do the job. Or the guy that can gets paid $500 an hour I can get doing in one hour and be done. Exactly. You're not paying for, it's not that I'm more expensive, it's that I, I know all that time knowing what I'm doing to get to job, job took me 10 years to figure out how to do. Exactly. You're paying the experience. Yeah. So it's
Speaker 2 00:37:00 Really important. It's amazing. It's amazing just the education on people. But you know, then you also have to be a human. Yeah. Yep. You know, you have to still be kind
Speaker 3 00:37:07 <laugh>. Yeah. I mean we know everybody's got situations and things that they come into and we'll price out the thing that's gonna look the best for someone. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, we're gonna like, the way that I see this one looking, that's gonna bring out the most teen picture. And then if we have to work down, we'll scale back. We'll play around, we'll put things on hold until if they want to think about it, you know, we'll save everything for them. We're never gonna pressure somebody into like, yep, no, if you don't wanna do that, just get out of the store. You, you just wanna a black frame. Get outta no. Whatever. Yeah. No. That's not how you do this. No
Speaker 2 00:37:35 Museum blast. Oh.
Speaker 3 00:37:36 Oh my god. Well if you wanna see your picture, you know, it'd be nice.
Speaker 2 00:37:40 I remember saying that with on free frame Fridays, I would turn it around. I'm like, guys, this is legit. Yeah. I'm like, look, it's not like you push those little buttons and the back comes off <laugh> like this is real. People like Yeah. <laugh> and actually your frames are all over the world, are all over the country. Um, cuz a lot of my clients moved. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:37:57 Oh, so the move. Yeah. Yeah. There you go.
Speaker 2 00:38:00 Or like they say, oh, that's the front steps that, you know, during the pandemic or whatever. So like that there is a something to be said about in preserving the image. Yeah. Like you spend $700 on a photo shoot, you wanna preserve the image.
Speaker 3 00:38:11 Yeah. It's not something you can leave behind in the house when you go <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:38:14 Right. And you want, you know, you want the best glass and the best frame and the best whatever that's gonna fit in the space that it
Speaker 3 00:38:19 Belong song. Yeah. So many people have brought in pictures that have just faded out from, you know, again, back in seventies and eighties, people weren't, weren't thinking about preserving a photograph or a new print or think
Speaker 2 00:38:27 Can you get a picture off of a glass?
Speaker 1 00:38:29 Uh, sometimes you just scan and re you know, we have to reprint stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> take a look. Sometimes they can come off, but
Speaker 3 00:38:36 Not all. It all depends. Yeah. I
Speaker 2 00:38:38 Think a kid spillt of juice on it and it got all stuck in there and maybe we'll just keep it out. Have
Speaker 3 00:38:42 You've seen that? What it's sounds like it's part of the memory.
Speaker 1 00:38:44 Sounds like it has some character now. It
Speaker 2 00:38:45 Just, it's got some character. The frame is like, you know, from Target or something, I don't know. Oh yeah. It's old frame that somebody gave me and I was like, oh, I'd love to switch this out. Stuck. Yeah. Stuck. We're just gonna keep that one in. That's
Speaker 3 00:38:55 Fine. We, we got people that we know we can take care of that. That's not a problem if we have to. So <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:38:59 So so the new project is, uh, raising Hearts.
Speaker 2 00:39:02 Yes. I'm so excited about this. So, you know, we talk about your, you know, your job that pays you and then you've got your passion projects. Yeah. And I joined Raising Hearts last year mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it's been amazing. So we're a nonprofit that supports families with autistic and neurodiverse children. Yeah. Through programming and mentorship. So my oldest boy is autistic and we went to a sailing event last year. Yep. And we had had a, I would call it an unsuccessful summer and then we went to this event Yes. And they had like an A frame tent out front and it's, uh, welcome Autism Families mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he said, look mom, we can go there. And I was like, oh, that is so shocking to me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that he maybe thought we couldn't go other places or he, you know, it was a very, it was, it was a literally a sign and also a sign. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I said, you know, I'm here, I'm going to join this organization. Yeah. You know, what do you guys need? And we have grown an insane amount. Like we had a Halloween event in October and like 700 people came through <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:40:00 <laugh>. It's a lot. I mean it's, uh, we're like,
Speaker 2 00:40:02 Oh my God, what's happening? And you know, there's just such a need for it. Yeah. And it's not that we want programs for kids. You, if you're autistic, you can go to this program. It's like, we want kids that are autistic to be able to participate in
Speaker 3 00:40:13 These everything. Yeah. Existing programs. It's, it's a be there. It's at least becoming much more, I would say not well received, but known about like, you know, before it was, you said there was a lot of the, that, you know, they're ostracized putting their own separate little situations. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I was reading a study that it was like one in 44 Americans who have autism. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:40:31 So this is funny cuz I just had the same conversation last week, last night with my partner and it's, that's old. That's
Speaker 3 00:40:36 An old fact. Oh, it's an old fact. What is it?
Speaker 2 00:40:37 So it's not one in 44, it's one in four families.
Speaker 3 00:40:41 Oh, one in four families now, huh. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:40:42 Which is
Speaker 3 00:40:43 Insane. I have family members with it, so. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:40:45 Yeah. So, and actually just last year they changed it from Autism Awareness Month. Yeah. Which is April mm-hmm. <affirmative> to Autism Acceptance Month.
Speaker 3 00:40:53 Nice. I like that.
Speaker 2 00:40:53 Which I thought that was so forward thinking. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> because we're all aware. Yep. You know, we we're all aware, but what are we gonna do about it? Yeah. You know, how are we gonna make people feel included? Yep. And that's what's cool about raising hearts. Even if you don't have autism, you're welcome. Yep. Because how can we say we're inclusive and then be experts.
Speaker 3 00:41:10 Yeah, exactly. No,
Speaker 2 00:41:11 I'm sorry. You don't have autism, you can't come in. You
Speaker 3 00:41:13 Know what I mean? Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:41:14 And it's also cool to have, you know, you know, mentorship for the other children. Mm-hmm <affirmative> your peers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and Yep. I mean it's great to, you know, have the parents, you know, have be colleagues, not colleagues, but you know, peers to each other as
Speaker 3 00:41:24 Well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:41:25 So it has, it's an sailing base or is
Speaker 2 00:41:27 It? So we do all different programs. So that was one of them. We do sailing, we do, um, inclusive kicks soccer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we <affirmative> we have, we actually just started a super siblings group. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So if you have an autistic brother or sister and you're what's called neurotypical mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's a support group for that. Yeah. Because that's a little lost population. Yeah. A little forgotten population. Like my little boy is neurotypical and so obviously his brother is autistic and he struggles. Yeah. Maybe he struggles with having a brother with autism. Yeah. And then we have
Speaker 3 00:41:55 Finding that common ground of
Speaker 2 00:41:56 Kind of Yeah. Like, you know, they have a different
Speaker 3 00:41:59 Relationship. One rules for one, one rules for the average kind. Kind
Speaker 2 00:42:01 Of.
Speaker 3 00:42:01 Yeah. And like why is this rules for everybody?
Speaker 2 00:42:03 Yeah. Yeah. He said to me, Cam's using his autism again. I was like, Ooh, that's funny. Yeah. That's the funny little word. We gotta talk about that. Put that on the, put that on the back burn and we'll talk about that later. Yeah. But no, we do all sorts of different programs for kids. We have sensory play up a cheer factor in Hanover. Yeah. We're working on hockey and you all these things. But really a huge component of it is our mentorship program for parents. Yeah. Because you know, when your child is diagnosed with autism, you are told he or she is autistic and then you go home. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, oh yeah, now what do I do? And then Google is such a dangerous and scary dark hole.
Speaker 3 00:42:33 You spend two years going through all the testing and everything and then what do you do afterwards?
Speaker 2 00:42:36 And that's actually a, God, we're talking a lot about Covid, but like that's a Covid problem too. Yeah. Yep. You know, there's so many families that are backlogged mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's gonna take them, you know, 18 months, two years to get a diagnosis. Now their kids two years behind on therapy and then therapists, you can't find therapists. Yeah. Now they're two years behind on that. So it's like your kid could be eight years old before they get anything done or whatever. Yep. But we are just, you know, we're hustling, we're out there, we're working and we're southshore based to start, but always looking to grow and, and go forward and
Speaker 3 00:43:05 Collaborative efforts between other groups. Instincts other groups.
Speaker 2 00:43:08 Sure. Yeah. You know, the founder Candace is from California, so that's always where her heart, you know, looks to grow. Yeah. Grow and go. And you know, it's just been such a passion project for me. And I, I feel very fulfilled. Like, you know, October killed me as a photographer and then raising hearts, you know, fills my bucket
Speaker 3 00:43:23 Back, brings my bucket back up. The time of hope coming back again.
Speaker 1 00:43:26 I'm guessing we might have some free, you know, some, some content for Free Frame Friday, the next few months.
Speaker 2 00:43:31 Yes, we will. So we have, so Dave, you know, you guys are the best and one of our silent auction items is a photo shoot with me. Yeah. And then one of our images from our photo shoot will be framed by you guys, which is such a cool prize. I mean, cuz a lot of people, like you said, they get their photos and then they don't print. What do I do anything? Yeah. Or they, you know, they just don't know
Speaker 3 00:43:49 How we'll do this one together. <laugh>. Yeah. It goes behind the bureaus the next 20 years. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:43:53 Exactly. Or if it's, you know, an auction item that they win and then they can come here and do that. And then I'm also,
Speaker 3 00:43:58 Which is much more personal too, because then it's personal. Like okay, I can give it to you framed, but what if that frame doesn't go with your home or you don't like it? Especially
Speaker 2 00:44:05 Framed. I'm like, I'm sure you guys reframe a lot of things occasionally. Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:44:10 What's in a day or, so we,
Speaker 2 00:44:11 Um, I'm working on a project, it's called Faces of Autism and basically it's showing that you don't know what autism looks like mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so it'll, it'll be a whole black and white series. Yep. And I've already started it. Yep. Um, so if anybody out there has a child with autism and they want Yeah. Them photographed, I would love the opportunity because one of the things that is so hurtful and gets said to me all the time is Yeah. But he doesn't look autistic. Yeah. And that is so ugh.
Speaker 3 00:44:39 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:44:40 Yes. Awful. Yeah. So, um, Dawn that works for us, she did a, I'm trying to remember what she called it. She did a project, it was, you know, similar, not with the autism but with addiction.
Speaker 3 00:44:49 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Pieces of
Speaker 1 00:44:50 Addiction. Yeah. Yeah. Her faces. And she basically did a black and white photo series and it was all people that were, you know, either recovered or like, you know, were touched by addiction. You don't know. And it was, you know, it was, it's powerful. Yeah. It is. It is. And you know, I think, I think it's powerful cause you look at the, the collection of photographs need just, you see people that you relate to and you realize that yes,
Speaker 2 00:45:11 They look like me, they look like my sister, they look like my dad, they look like my neighbor. They, they're every walk of life. And that's really true with autism too, because you don't have to only live on our street in Marshfield to have autism. Like you can be rich or poor or black or white or live in South America or mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, Africa or Canada. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter if you're educated or not educated. Yeah. It's all, you know, autism,
Speaker 3 00:45:38 It's such sentences are such a wide variety of, of different variations of what falls under what part of that Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:45:45 Spectrum. That it's Exactly. It's, and it people think, you know, the spectrum is being linear, you know? Yeah. I'm either left or right. You're in the middle. It's just this circle and you might have these functions and these functions and you know, it's just kind of this scatter chart
Speaker 1 00:45:56 Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:45:57 Yeah. Of things and you, you know, you might not know. Well, like my son is really, really smart. Yeah. And so like Yeah. But he Yeah, he's smart. He can read. I'm like, ah, but <laugh> Yeah. That doesn't mean anything. You know?
Speaker 3 00:46:08 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:46:09 And so he kind of can slip through the cracks a little bit mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you know, just cuz he doesn't just cause he's
Speaker 1 00:46:14 Verbal. Your problem's not big
Speaker 3 00:46:15 Enough. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:46:16 Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:46:17 Yeah. There's non-verbal verbal there. I mean it's just so it, there's a whole thing
Speaker 2 00:46:21 Of it. Yeah. Um, so, you know, raising hearts has just been such a huge project for me. And I, and I love that I can incorporate my photography into it. Yep. So even our website, which is raising hearts.org, that's all my, those are all my photos on. Oh. Which feels good. You know, like I get to photograph, like that's something I want to photograph mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I love that. And it's so cool to be able to, you know, kind of blend my passions that way. Which
Speaker 1 00:46:44 Is fun. Well it seems like a, do you have a home or like somewhere where you're gonna display the show at, at a certain point.
Speaker 2 00:46:49 So I don't know Dave, <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:46:51 Wink, wink. Nudge,
Speaker 2 00:46:52 Nudge, nudge. Dave actually, I would love to display them and just bring awareness. Bring awareness. Yeah. And do, do a fundraiser or just, it doesn't even have to be that just, you know, an awareness raiser Yeah. To people and you know, I want people to look at the photos and I want people to say I did, I would never have known mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Because you don't, and it's, people used to think, oh, it's just boys, or it's mostly boys. It is not, no, it is boys and girls. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you know, old kids and young kids and you know, I actually just took this really beautiful photo we were up with explore pediatric therapy. Yeah. They do all outdoor therapy.
Speaker 3 00:47:27 Oh, nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:47:28 Rain or shine snow doesn't matter. Yep. So we were up at we river farm and uh, one of the older girls just was hugging her mom mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And she saw the photo later and she, she started to cry mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And she's like, that's my special girl. Like, that's my girl. And you know, like that to me is
Speaker 3 00:47:43 So rewarding. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:47:44 That is so rewarding. Yeah. Not only as an autism mom, but as a photographer. Yeah. Yeah. That I was able to capture. Like I saw it in real life. Yeah. But then I was able to capture it and then the mother, I have the chills. <laugh>. <laugh> then, then the mother felt it too. Yeah. Yeah. So the whole thing came full circle for me. Yeah. And that to me is where I want to push my business
Speaker 3 00:48:03 To. Yeah. Well like you said, even when your friend came out and wasn't expecting to laugh, you know, it's the same idea. Just Yep.
Speaker 2 00:48:07 She's like, oh my God, I can't believe I laughed. Or this moment's like, I can't
Speaker 3 00:48:10 Believe I can never capture those kind of moments at that time when that mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, cause it's sometimes,
Speaker 2 00:48:15 Or like if a child, you know, doesn't have great eye contact, but then they Yes. I catch them looking out. I'm like, oh yeah. She's like, look, oh look, she looked at me. You are. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:48:22 Majority of the time your head down tilting
Speaker 2 00:48:24 Whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:48:24 They just engaging. Yeah. So when you catch that engagement moment, it's,
Speaker 2 00:48:27 It's really cool. It's very, very special. It's
Speaker 1 00:48:30 Very special. Yeah. Well I was hop we were gonna plug the event, but it's already sold out.
Speaker 2 00:48:33 It is. Yeah. Well we can still plug it, people can still sponsor or donate or
Speaker 3 00:48:39 Just always great to hear, always,
Speaker 2 00:48:41 You
Speaker 1 00:48:41 Know, follow up. Just be aware, be
Speaker 2 00:48:42 Aware of it. Yeah. It's called, um, hearts for Autism and it's at BlackRock Country Club on April 1st. It is sold out. Yeah. And what's really cool about this is I think this might have been, you know, a vehicle of Covid that we are able to do the silent auction all online. Yeah. So even if you can't make it Yep. You can still participate and support and donate and, and all of those things.
Speaker 3 00:49:05 Which is what sometimes keeps people from donating to those things. Cuz if they can't be there the whole night and things he had called, they get passed over. The next person win. Yeah. What's the point of me putting anything in? And then mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, even if it's for a great cause it's, you know, it's
Speaker 2 00:49:17 Like, well I can't, I'm not gonna win. But yeah, you can do this right from the comfort of your house and we'll put a link out on our Yeah. What's
Speaker 1 00:49:22 The website
Speaker 2 00:49:22 For that one? So raising hearts.com and it's hearts
Speaker 1 00:49:25 Every the,
Speaker 2 00:49:26 Oh excuse me, raising hearts.org. Dot org. There'll be, there's a link. Link to um, so under the events tab it says Hearts for Autism Gala. And it's, that's Raising Hearts and Hearts is spelled H a R t s mm-hmm. <affirmative> because our founder's last name is
Speaker 3 00:49:39 Hart. Hart. Nice. Yeah. No, we sure put
Speaker 1 00:49:41 That in the first, the first annual gala.
Speaker 2 00:49:43 It's the first annual. Um,
Speaker 3 00:49:45 It's great that it's the first one and it's sold out right off the gala.
Speaker 2 00:49:47 Couldn't believe it. Cuz we were like, at first we were like, oh, we'll do it, you know, with this little venue. Maybe it'll just be the two of us. Yeah. And then we were like, oh my God. Yeah. I remember when we sold the first two tickets, it happened to be to a client. Oh, okay. Yeah. And I called my partner, I was like, we sold two tickets. Oh my God, I can't believe we sold the two tickets. Oh my God, what's happening? And then all of a sudden I called her, I'm like, we just sold 70 tickets. Yeah. Wait a second. Stop selling the tickets. We sold out.
Speaker 3 00:50:11 We can't do anymore.
Speaker 2 00:50:12 And it wasn't like we sold out for 50 people. There's 200 people coming.
Speaker 3 00:50:15 That's awesome.
Speaker 2 00:50:15 Yeah. And actually I'm psyched. We have the smoking jackets playing. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. I love them. They're, they're great. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1 00:50:21 Andy Andrew, I went to school. I Oh, did you Was a Newell High
Speaker 2 00:50:25 School with me. So we ran into each other, the me but, but maybe no <laugh>. We ran into each other at an event. I was photographing it. He's like, how do I know you? Yeah. And we went back and forth the entire event, all the places we might have been. We finally figured out we used to drop our kids off at the same daycare <laugh>. So
Speaker 3 00:50:40 I was like, oh, that's of all the places. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:50:42 Exactly. Oh remember camp with this curly hair. But yeah, it's, it's kinda, it's gonna be awesome. We have, we also have a live auction and Candy o Terry from Magic 1 0 6 7, she's hosting, she's amazing and so supportive of racing hearts and it's just, it's really exciting just to see, like, we looked at a bunch of the tickets, I'm like, do you know this person? She's like, I don't know that person. Yeah. Random people buying tickets we're like, oh, this is great. It's not just our friends and
Speaker 3 00:51:04 The Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna be a room you that you already know.
Speaker 1 00:51:06 Find somebody to take photos
Speaker 2 00:51:08 For you. Okay. So this is so awkward. Yeah. I posted on my social media the other day, I was like, well this is awkward. Yeah. I'm in search of a photographer. <laugh>. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:51:16 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:51:17 <laugh>. And I was like, well this, I have a whole new respect for my clients mm-hmm. <affirmative> that are looking for photographers. Yes. So ended up finding somebody through, um, my videographer friend was like, you know, you can hire Chris and Yep.
Speaker 1 00:51:29 You gonna take a couple pictures still.
Speaker 2 00:51:31 Well, here's the thing, I made a deal with the photographer. I said, listen, you don't even have to edit them. He's like, I'm in, I'm
Speaker 3 00:51:37 In <laugh>. Oh, okay. I got you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:51:39 Yeah. So I was like, just, I need literally 50 photos. Yeah. It's 50 photos. Grab the night and then come in and enjoy and sit and you know, and have a good time. And he was like, you really don't want me to edit these. I go, do not edit them. Yeah. Just send them to me. I'll edit them because that's what takes the time. Yeah. Again, the education p you know, he's a photographer so he knows, he's like, oh my God, I'm totally, he's done. He's like, I'm totally
Speaker 3 00:51:59 In. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:51:59 <laugh>. And I said, and going forward, if you want me to just photograph things and not edit them, you hire me. But you know, editing is the most daunting part of the whole process. Exactly. But it is so hard to find a photographer. Yeah. I was like, well if I could hire myself and then
Speaker 3 00:52:12 Well that's good. Least you'll be able to enjoy the event for the first, you know, this first inaugural event.
Speaker 2 00:52:16 Yeah. It's funny cuz some
Speaker 3 00:52:18 A phone of the camera.
Speaker 2 00:52:18 Yeah. I, oh God. <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:52:20 Oh God. Oh, there we go. Not
Speaker 2 00:52:22 Great. Not great. I, um, when I did that sailing event, there was a photographer there and I finally got a photo of me and my little boy and I was like, oh my God, this is how people feel. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, there's never any photos of me. I have to hire a photographer, which is hard to find. Yeah. Set the timer. It's, I was gonna say it's usually a tripod and a timer. Yeah. <laugh>. And then every in a lives are threatened. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:52:44 <laugh> don't move, come back. Don't even <laugh>. Exactly. Don't touch your hair. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:52:48 Exactly. No, we're, we're really excited. It's gonna be an awesome event and you know, you can follow us on social and
Speaker 3 00:52:53 Oh, that'd be great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:52:55 Actually there's actually one auction item up so far and it's me and you. Nice. Because I had to test it. Yeah. Me and Dave's auction item up there. So that, that's gonna go for a million. I think Dave, we are invaluable people here.
Speaker 3 00:53:06 Big, big money. I'm sure. Big money up chair. Big names on the South Shore.
Speaker 2 00:53:10 Exactly. Awesome.
Speaker 1 00:53:11 Well I think Scott will put everything up.
Speaker 3 00:53:13 We'll get. Yeah, we'll get with our social media people'll, make sure we get those when we've got the posts up to get some people to link right over to the, this site. That'd be great. And
Speaker 1 00:53:21 I love the, uh, the idea of the show The faces. I we'll see. Excited. See what we can do. Yeah. Do a
Speaker 2 00:53:27 Show or do do an event.
Speaker 1 00:53:28 I think, I think we can figure something out for that. Yeah. That seems like a project that would be fun to work on and Yeah, I'm sure, like I said, well, I mean, I get the feeling that there might be some good content, uh, for some Fridays in the future.
Speaker 2 00:53:40 Watch out for Free Frame Friday. Dave and Caitlin are
Speaker 1 00:53:42 Back. Yeah. Nice.
Speaker 3 00:53:44 The second coming. I came off the front step table <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:53:47 Yeah. Freak you out. And now freaks me out. I No, it's, you know, an interesting way that you, you know, like everything, um, you know, we always, we actually gotta still ask one question is
Speaker 3 00:53:58 Do you, one
Speaker 1 00:53:58 Question we, uh, I'm nervous we go to this, but everything that's in people's houses is always like a story behind it. And you know, I, we have that picture that you took that you know's hanging at the house and there's like the whole story behind it and there's like that whole like relationship too now that like that's where I'm, you know, that picture was where I met you and like Yeah. You know, they're kind of like a, you know, good working relationship. Good. Yeah. You know, and you love we are, you know, lining up the next photo shoot. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:54:24 I know Jen.
Speaker 3 00:54:25 Just coffee. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think I heard stuff from Dazzling right.
Speaker 2 00:54:28 Saturday in October. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3 00:54:29 Okay. You're like, this is book dad's book this month is book this. How about
Speaker 2 00:54:32 July stinks. What are you guys doing in 24?
Speaker 3 00:54:34 Well, I was gonna say what's 2024 looking like. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:54:36 <laugh>. But we always like to, we like to ask everyone about you. You might have already touched on this one, but what's something you have in your house is framed and what's the story behind that?
Speaker 2 00:54:45 Well, I have two. Yeah. You know my John Lennon? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:54:49 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:54:49 Yes. I mean, it's older than me. Yeah. I mean it's amazing. Yeah. But I actually have something else that's special.
Speaker 1 00:54:55 What do you got?
Speaker 2 00:54:56 So it is a double rainbow.
Speaker 1 00:54:58 Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 00:54:59 In my double rainbow that I caught over Rex Ham Beach. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, no, excuse me, over Burkes Beach. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it was during Covid and the rain rolled in Yep. And the family we were shooting and they're like, oh look a rainbow. Yeah. And so they ran back to their car and I ran back to the beach to catch the rainbow. Yeah. And it ended up being a double rainbow.
Speaker 3 00:55:21 Oh, neat. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:55:22 Yeah. And it was really powerful for me because Danny Sheen Yep. Had just passed and I was one of his photographers. Yes. And part of his thing was, you know, rainbows and butterflies and ladybugs and french fries and Doritos and ketchup and, you know, all these things. And so I named that photo Danny's Double Rainbow. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:55:39 We, I remember that one. We did pretty
Speaker 1 00:55:41 Well. You guys
Speaker 2 00:55:41 Had helped me with that framed that, that was one of my frames. And we ended up raising $3,500 for uh, Tommy's Place. Yep. And so every time I sell that print Yeah. A portion of it goes to Tommy's place. Yep. And, uh, in Falmouth. And I have a little corner of my house that has my little desk and Yep. That's the photo that's hanging above my
Speaker 3 00:56:02 Desk. Yeah. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:56:03 So yeah, I mean it's a, and it's just such a hopeful photo and there's some birds and the way just, it's the story. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:56:10 Well, I mean, more so than the photo. I mean more than the photo. I mean I'm sure every time you look at it just
Speaker 3 00:56:15 What is the image that evokes the memory and that's never him. It's just like a certain smell can ring back. So can I
Speaker 2 00:56:20 Yeah, yeah. That photo. And I just, you know, it's funny, funny cuz I was at Fenway Park photographing an event and a lady book landed on me. Yeah. Mm. At Fenway Park,
Speaker 3 00:56:28 Right? Yeah. Of all places. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:56:30 So I quickly took the photo and I sent it and I said, look, I got a sign from Danny. Yeah. And, you know, I just kind of thought that that was so cool. And the fact that I, it was raining and I ran back and this double rainbow came. And so I called that Danny's double, Danny's double rainbow. Which I,
Speaker 1 00:56:43 I mean that's, I mean that's like the type of things that we, you know, I keep trying to touch on with people. It's like, you know, someone might look at it, they might be like, oh that's a nice photograph, but oh, I like that photograph. But then there's just so much more to it, you know, especially for, you know, for yourself. Yeah. You know, for
Speaker 3 00:56:58 Yourself. That's one of the things I love about the jobs. I hear so many different things from so many people when they bring stuff in. I like to hear the story behind the piece of like Yeah. And it could be something stupid. Yeah. It could be just something as simple as Oh yeah. A movie ticket. Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:57:09 It doesn't have to be a picture, you know, it can be something
Speaker 3 00:57:11 So cool. I had a lady bring me like a whole bunch of these just old ticket stubs all just wrapped in rubber bands. She's like, I'm like, what are these from? She's like, oh, these are my husbands. He doesn't know I have these. Don't tell em like, uh oh. Oh. So we're doing that. So we're doing that. She goes just kind of mix 'em up on the, just like they, like somebody threw 'em on the floor. I'm like, or,
Speaker 2 00:57:29 Or Hear
Speaker 3 00:57:30 Me out, let's make it so we can read every single ticket so that if he ever wants to see it, but they'll be behind the glass and we can send him by Dave, we can send 'em by area, we can send 'em by genre music. Yeah. What do you wanna do? And then we finally just came up with just like doing the colors. So we went from like, like a gradient. Exactly. A gradient of color. Just cause some tickets were purple, some were orange, a yellow and they're, you know, they're printed from end to end. So we just, and they're torn in half in some places. That's cool. But we just did it and it just came, it was, you know, we fit tickets here and there to kind of, you know, like Tetris, you know, putting it all together and it just became these cool pieces and he loved it. He, he goes of the time they were in me, they were wrapped in a rubber band in a sock drawer. But you know, I was like, and then when he came in to pick 'em up with her, he is like, oh, this was from one. And then I'm hearing all the stories from all the things you look at
Speaker 2 00:58:12 That somebody comes into your house and they're like, oh what is it exactly?
Speaker 3 00:58:15 They that concert otherwise I love colons or whatever. Exactly. That was one of 'em. I
Speaker 2 00:58:20 Loves why I said that. I love
Speaker 3 00:58:22 Somebody would've just had them again in his sock drawer with a rubber band. Nobody's ever gonna see 'em. And then if something ever happened they'd probably get tossed. Yep. Exactly. Now they know if it's framed, somebody meant something to somebody. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's a great way to show, I
Speaker 2 00:58:33 Love that you can frame anything. Like, that's what's so cool. You can put anything in a
Speaker 3 00:58:37 Frame and every time we think we've seen everything there is, somebody throws us a curve ball. You know,
Speaker 2 00:58:42 I actually took a picture, this will be my second thing that Yeah. Will eventually be my prize possession. My grandmother lived in Southeast for nearly a hundred years. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And after she passed to sold her home. But I happened to be driving by and I stopped and I took a picture of her front door. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I have that picture, but my family doesn't know I have it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I'm gonna gift it to each one of them. Oh. It has our ma it has my name name it has our, our name on the door and it's Graham's door. Yeah, yeah. You know, and she, you know, is Irish and you know the door is Ireland as a thing.
Speaker 3 00:59:14 Yes it is. This is,
Speaker 2 00:59:15 This is our
Speaker 3 00:59:15 Door. There you go. You know, this is, no, it's a great idea. This is
Speaker 2 00:59:18 An important door and it's this blue and it's all dirty and Yep. But it says uh, our maiden name across the front of it, uh, across the door. And it's just, it's just such a cool photo. That's
Speaker 3 00:59:28 A great idea.
Speaker 2 00:59:28 And our family, I, nobody knows I have it. Yeah. Cause the door's gone now. Well now they'll know. Listen to this. Yeah. Yeah. They'll listen. They'll know <laugh> and they'll say, I dunno what you talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:59:37 Just stop listening at one minute.
Speaker 1 00:59:38 Yeah, exactly. On this project. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:59:41 I got, I got the picture in the car. <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:59:44 Well that's great. Awesome. Wanna thank you for coming in and you know, sharing all this with us. It's always some great information and like I said, we'll be sure to make sure to get uh, everybody in touch with you. Yeah. We'll get links to make sure that people get right to it. Yeah. Thank
Speaker 1 00:59:57 You. I think maybe we'll lift your blog post it repost You'll
Speaker 2 01:00:00 Get repost
Speaker 3 01:00:01 My love. Oh yeah, exactly. It'll go
Speaker 1 01:00:02 Viral. Get these future blogs up. I think that we, I think we have a photography blogger that we Oh, I love that. This blog so we can start putting up
Speaker 3 01:00:09 Exactly.
Speaker 1 01:00:10 Love it and inspire
Speaker 3 01:00:11 Adding onto the, uh, the artist page on the, on the website there. It'd be great. So, well
Speaker 2 01:00:15 Thank you guys for having me. This is awesome.
Speaker 3 01:00:17 Pleasure. Thank you for coming in
Speaker 1 01:00:19 Plenty to talk about. I think. We'll, you know, I think we can find, probably get you back like, you know, like a lot of these
Speaker 3 01:00:24 <crosstalk>. Yeah. Actually after the event, it would be great to hear about what happened for the event. Even just a follow up, even if it's just a short one that we could put up just a little, you know, thing. It would be great to hear about.
Speaker 2 01:00:32 Well let we sell your <inaudible> for a million bucks. That's
Speaker 3 01:00:34 True. Gonna be, that's a great way we see how well that goes post
Speaker 2 01:00:37 In itself. Yeah,
Speaker 3 01:00:38 We can talk about that for hours, Dick. Right. So No, that'll be great. Thank you so much. Well thank you for joining us and I wanna thank everybody else for listening at home and we'll see you next time. See ya.
