It’s August, and it means we’re turning ONE! I can’t believe it really — a whole year of turning what were our hobbies into a real, full fledged business. We started Perfect Shutter last August and it’s been such a wild, humbling, crazy, exciting ride over the past 365 days.

As I sit here and reflect on what transpired over the past year, I can’t help but smile when I think about all the great people we’ve met and how much we’ve learned. We’re so lucky to have met so many great people, both brides and grooms from all over Windsor, Hamilton, Toronto, Detroit, Michigan, and our colleagues in the wedding scene (wedding photographers, planners, venue hosts) and business world. It makes me smile even more, with optimism, thinking about all the great projects we want to put together for next year and beyond.

So here’s a quick timeline and recap of how three friends came together to form Perfect Shutter, become wedding videographers, and grow to a staff of over 7 people!

From hobbyists to professionals

None of us ever had any formal training in photography or videography. Everything we have ever learned was self taught, or learned from helpful people and resources on the internet. This in itself is something I’m extremely proud of — I have never really been an ‘artistic’ person, being more of a geeky science kind of guy. I’d always wanted to do something like paint, or photography, or learn an instrument, but had never really jumped right in to do it.

Last July, I remember seeing on Facebook many of my friends’ professional wedding photographer photos and being pretty awed and impressed with them. There was just a certain way their photographer was able to capture the moment, and show off just how beautiful everything and everyone was on their wedding day. It was almost magical. I had been dabbling with photography as a hobby up until that point, and was slowly, but steadily learning the ins and outs of photography. I began chatting with my friend Samson, who like myself, was an amateur photographer and also had a thirst for technology and drooling over the latest and greatest cameras and gear. We found that we had another thing in common — that our friends had suggested on multiple times that we should consider doing this professionally!

We weren’t too keen on it initially, considering both of us had other full time careers unrelated to photography or even the arts. But the more we looked at some of the Windsor wedding photographers’ work, the more inspired we became. We wanted to capture and create gorgeous, memorable photos just like them.

And then there was the concern: would going pro hurt ourselves in anyway? What if we tried it and just totally failed?

After some deliberation, we made the pact: the time was right for us to go professional, but to always remember to not get too wrapped in the business side of things. The arts and photography of it will have to be first and foremost, something that we loved to do as a form of artistic expression. Whether we actually could become successful professionals and have people hire us would come second to this.

It was at this same time that I was also chatting on Facebook with John. I had saw that he had purchased a brand new camera, the Canon 5d Mark II. It’s one fine piece of equipment. I had asked him if he was interested in learning photography with Samson and I and becoming professional photographers. He was excited about his new Canon, and mentioned that he really wanted to tinker with the video recording capabilities it had. We agreed that at some point we would all have to get together and share with each other all the things we learned.

Coming soon — how we carved our own unique style, getting our hands dirty with the photo booth, transitioning to videography, we meet some great people who have since become great friends, and Perfect Shutter picks up momentum with fun and unexpected surprises!