The History Of Lifetime Images

A couple of photographers went out to lunch one day, one mentioned that a few years back he had assisted for a guy named Steve at a company called Lifetime Images.  "Excuse me, did you say Lifetime Images?" the girl at the next table inquisitively asked.  "Yes I did" he said with a smile.  She lights up and says "Yeah, they photographed my cousin's wedding! Those guys are great!"    It's great when people think highly of you and your work.   Our story is really simple, and started back in 1997.

Steve fell in love with photography back in high school.  He was on both the newspaper and the yearbook staff as a photographer.  In those days he had his own black and white darkroom in his parent's bathroom and spent many a late night making prints.  He would photograph events, scenery, his dog, sports, his dog some more and then photographed girls.  Steve learned quickly that cute girls liked to be photographed and it wasn't long before he had a portfolio of beautiful girls.  When he went to college, he worked for the Associated Student Body as a photographer.  One day a gal called over looking for a photographer to photograph her wedding.  Steve went over to show his work. Mostly portraits of cute young gals, none of whom were wearing wedding dresses.  The bride looked at the pictures and said "You know these are great, if they were wearing wedding dresses in these pictures they would be perfect."    She ended up hiring Steve, and unfortunately he was more nervous than the bride.   For his first wedding he didn't blow it too badly, the bride was happy and he was on his way.

 After college Steve went to work for several large corporations, and got married to his college sweetheart, Lecia.    He did outside sales and one sales call was in Santa Barbra.  After the call was over Steve managed to talk the gal he was working with to stop by and see Brooks Institute of Photography which was located in the city of Santa Barbra.  There he had a truly inspirational meeting with Ernst Brooks who asked him if he was doing in life what he meant to do.  The answer was no. Unfortunately he fell into a rut of working for the man.  And never really quite getting ahead.  It was at this time that Lecia informed Steve that he was to be a father.  The news was twice as good when it turned out that he was having twin daughters.  

Steve and Lecia both had great jobs, great benefits, and soon a family.  He came up with this idea of starting a wedding photography company, something small, and honestly it was only meant to do at most ten weddings a year. They would keep their fulltime jobs and the jobs would help pay for the photographic gear which they could use to photograph their kids.  It was a fairly simple plan.   No need to quit the fulltime jobs, nothing much would have to change. 

The first year Steve managed to land a few weddings.  It was small and manageable.  Steve started posting images of his weddings on his website and writing about them, he was a blogger before there was such a thing as a blog.  The next year he signed up a Mormon woman's daughter, and before long he was photographing all her friends weddings as well.  Overnight the business grew.  He was super busy.  Lecia came into Steve's office in the middle of the night, and found Steve making albums.  Something had to give.  Before long his website was a hit and brides who planned their weddings longer than three months in advance started signing up.  He was booked solid.    Unfortunate, every time the Mormon gals called to book a wedding, Steve was booked on every date. 

It was around this time that Steve had a large picture of his daughter in his truck.  It was nicely framed and Steve pulled it out to put some wood in the back of the truck in a Home Depot parking lot.  From this a woman who saw the sign on the back of his truck asked for a card.  It was seven in the morning,  Steve was unshaved, messy, and without a card. She wrote down the number off the back of his truck and drove off.  Steve said to himself "That didn't go well."  Much to his surprise it did go well enough.  Her daughter, Tonya did call. Not only did Steve photograph her wedding but all her friend as well.  Eleven years later Lifetime Images still gets referrals from people who were referred somewhere up the chain form Tonya.   Its often so very, very far removed that they have no idea who Tonya was.  It just goes to show you that if you work hard and people appreciate what you do, the good word gets around.

In 2001 Steve quit his fulltime job.  A year later his wife Lecia joined him in the business.  Many other people joined the team including Chad, Rachel, Susan(s), Stephanie, Margrit, Andy, Rene and lil' Jo.  It's really the relationships that they have forged with associates and other vendors that has helped keep Lifetime Images busy.   Lifetime Images is a family run company.  The most important thing to the company is happy clients who get more than what they paid for, and understand how much Lifetime Images appreciates each and every one of them.   Instead of seeking awards and glory Lifetime Images seeks to do the best job possible with each project, and help them capture memories that they will cherish for a lifetime!