“The past is prologue”
February 22 marked 9 years of having my own photography business. Along the way we bought a cigar box factory & turned it into a studio and co- working community. Tho we sold that space to close friends of ours a year and a half ago I still spend my days taking photos, telling stories & building creative community.
Hingework is home to the commercial photography that I have been doing for clients over most of the last decade.
My friend @jedburkholder wrote these words inside of a Johnny Cash biography that he gave me for my 40th birthday.
Grateful for all that has unfolded & all that is to come. Looking forward to sharing my storytelling again.
one of my favorite things about being a dad is how my kids help me to see the world. @mosesbuckwalter started shooting film a couple of years ago and watching him inspired me to track down an old Nikon f3 and start shooting. (He also fixed it for me:))
Last week I took it out at sunrise on Walnut Hill.
Thanks for the help Moses, I appreciate you.
When Mark and I and a couple friends bought this building in 2015 it was a dream come true. We had talked about finding a sweet building that we could make into a home for our businesses but we didn’t exactly have thousands of dollars sitting around, and we weren’t even sure how we would pull off all the renovations that needed to be done. But God provided in miraculous and unexpected ways! I remember shortly after we opened Hingework a friend of ours suggested I touch the walls of the building and feel with my hands the fulfillment of our dream. It was real and it was good.
Today as I was in the building cleaning and watering the plants I could feel sadness on the surface. Normally the building is full of life and creativity, connections and community and today it was empty and quiet. I paused at the steps to put my hand on the wall.
This is not the end.
This building will still hold dreams and creativity and life once more.
God provided before and He will do it again.
this is my friend @kentmast .
he is a gifted filmmaker and storyteller. I love this photo of him because it shows him doing what he loves to do while serving his clients & experiencing great joy & bringing his infamous laugh to everyone within earshot:) what you don’t see or know about this photo is how it came to be.
earlier this month all of my photo sessions had been cancelled and my business coaching sessions postponed. I was battling fear and discouragement.
Kent walked up to me and asked if I would be willing to shoot some behind the scenes footage of his upcoming shoot the next day. he talked about how he didn’t have a lot of photos like that and he needed some images. he paid me for the work that I did and provided me with an opportunity to connect with his team and his clients that morning.
I’m not sure that Kent needed any behind the scenes photos this month. I am sure that I needed some resources and maybe more importantly I needed a chance to connect with people and photograph and be who I am. I was in need and he went out of his way be generous to me and love me.
Kents generosity to me last week put tears in my eyes and helped me to remember who I am. It is a picture of the friend that he is & I am thankful for that and wanted to share that.
thank you Kent & @ashleighmast for being who you are😘
feeling really grateful today.
the community, creative lab and co-working space known as Hingework opened its doors 4 years ago. @kentmast joined us a couple of months later and things have never been the same. about a year before he came to Hingework Kent and I talked about the idea of doing a short film about the story of Hingework. a year after he joined we sat down together at our home and recorded hours of our story. he spent time with me and my family shooting this fall and winter. and today Kent and the team at @njyfilms released that project.
it is a ridiculous blessing to be surrounded every day by people like this. super grateful for this man and his gift for story. he and @brianna.garber are amazing to work with.
the short film is @njyfilms check it out.
