Steven Leong’s Blog

It has been quite some time since I have last written anything because I was moved or touched but today is rather unusual if not special.

Last night, a friend commented, “Photography is no fun at all, because you always have to bring along so many things then go out early in the morning and come back at midnight” (quote modified from typical IM-style English) and not so long ago, I found a suitable reply for my friend’s comment in some stories I read.

These are stories that we (as photographers) never want to read about or hear but sadly (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) we tend to be involved in them.

The following was posted on the forum :

“I photographed a wedding last month in Philadelphia. it was small,
only about 20 people, in a hotel.

When the family showed up, the Father was sick with what everyone
thought was the Flu. He was probably about 55 yrs old.

He was my only contact for the wedding (as I had gotten the gig
through another photographer and the details were hard to come
by)

He didn’t respond to my emails in the last weeks, so I emailed the
wedding coordinator for the hotel, and was sad to learn that the
father had passed away the day after the wedding.

I now have what may be the last pictures of this girls father.” – jprezant

j…

“this is so true… I recently shot a family session for a single mom in our church – mother of 3 adult kids.. all in early 20′s. The Boys were twins and 1 younger daughter.

3 weeks after I shot the family photos – one of the twin boys was killed in a car accident near his home in south carolina.

the mom has been showing off the photos to everyone and anyone and so proud of her boy and my work of shooting those photos just weeks before his death. While I wasn’t at the funeral – mutual friends have told me that she publicly thanked me for taking the photos of her son – and how she’ll cherish those photos forever!

it really hits home…. what we do is important for sure.” – travis

And there are many more HERE.

Reading these stories really reminded me about how important photography can be. I am not going to go on about how “holy” or “noble” photographers are in “preserving memories for eternity” or anything similar but I have to say, when we perform a service for our customer especially wedding photographers, perform it with utmost care and respect for our photos one day may actually mean the world to another person.

Think that “It’s ok” to have just one more photo that clients won’t complain about but it isn’t up to the standard; STOP thinking like that~!

Always perform above all expectations and do your absolute best all the time. That is how we should operate all the time.

Going back to those stories… it also drives home a point that life is short again… one moment your loved ones may seem to always around you and the next, you might not be even be able hear their voices ever again.

Do remember to love and cherish everyone in your life.