Friday, January 19, 2007
Goodbye Mr. O'Mally
I'm a big Grey's Anatomy fan, but last night's episode really hit close to home. George O'Mally's father died in the episode after surgery for Esophageal Cancer. My father passed away from that evil disease in 2001. The episode ended with Dr. Yang talking to George about becoming a member of the Dead Father's Club. She hit the nail on the head saying that you can't relate to being in the club until you're in the club. I hate being in the club! My dad was one of the greatest people to ever live. He is the foundation of who I am today. My business has grown ten times over since his passing in 2001, however it did so based on the philosophy and character he instilled in me, laying the groundwork for my success. I would give it all back though for one more day with him. One more day to take him fly fishing, which I learned how to do after he was gone. One more day to stop for ice cream after spending the day on the boat. One more day for him to meet my son who was born one month after my father died. One more day to say I love you. I Love You Dad.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Is customer service a thing of the past?
Over the past few weeks I have been updating my hockey equipment by purchasing certain items online. I have tried several different online retailers looking for the best price and availability. With three different retailers and three different products, I had difficulties with every purchase. In most cases, the item was advertised on their website but not in stock after I placed the order. The comunication with these companies was very difficult after they had my money. I have come to a conclusion that customer service is all but a distant memory. The internet has made it so easy to shop around for the best price from the comfort of your home that people don't want to pay the higher prices of the local mom and pop stores that were the backbone of the country until 10-15 years ago. Before the internet, people would shop from who they trusted with customer service and knowledge. Now it's all about price. Unfortunately, the internet has also given birth to a new type of business owner. Now anyone can own their own business with very little overhead. You don't need a retail space or stock any inventory. All you need is a computer. Anyone can set up a website that looks like a legitimate online storefront and sell virtually anything and have it drop shipped from the manufacturer. Unfortunately they have no idea what the manufacturers current stock on an item is, but they will gladly take your money first. Many of these e-tailers run their businesses based on volume, where only a certain percentage of satisfied customers is sufficient. Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few retailers who have developed very successful online businesses after having successful retail establishments. BH Photo out of NYC is one that comes to mind as being highly successful at adapting to the internet while maintaining their integrity. When it comes down to it, I would still rather put my money locally with a handshake and a smile, that is if there is anyone left to smile at.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The Five Languages of Love
My wife is reading a book called "The Five Love Languages of Children". It's about how to communicate and interact with your children in the way that best makes them feel loved, and with that love comes positive behavior and self respect. We've been trying out different aspects of each of the languages on our kids and so far the results have been enlightening. I took Sarah shopping today for some shirts, not because she asked me to, but just because I wanted to. When it was time to get ready for bed tonight, she did so without a fuss. It may sound like bribary, but it was actually showing one of love languages that she responds to which is "quality time" with me. One of the other love languages is the giving of gifts, but she spoke more about the one-on-one time with me than about the clothes. It's so much more satisfying being friends with my kids than being a parent. I know there is a time for both, but I believewhen parents and their kids are friends, they develope a strong mutual respect for each other that lasts a lifetime.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
New Years Resolutions
With a new year and a clean slate in front of me, it's time to set some goals for the upcoming year, starting with this Blog. I'm new to this whole Blog thing, so it's hard to remember to go into it and add new posts. I have trouble remembering my Blog name and password for that matter. So I hereby resolve to maintain this Blog with more diligence.
Now for the resolutions with some beef.
On the business horizon, I am going to get into high gear with destination weddings. I love shooting weddings and the Finger Lakes region has been a great place to shoot and now it's time to spread my wings and experience the world. My website will soon have a new look with expanded content, including a section devoted to destination weddings. A big thank you to Ellen from Lake Effects web design for putting up with my requests with the website. I recommend her to anyone needing a site. You can visit her at www.lake-effects.net or if you're a professional photographer you can visit www.lakewebsites.com
Personally, my goals are to be a better father and less of a workaholic. I absolutely love being a photographer. I make a living playing and come away with each job with new friends instead of clients. However, as amazing as that is, my kids have to come first. They are the heart beat of my existence.
I would love to hear your resolutions in the comments below.
Now for the resolutions with some beef.
On the business horizon, I am going to get into high gear with destination weddings. I love shooting weddings and the Finger Lakes region has been a great place to shoot and now it's time to spread my wings and experience the world. My website will soon have a new look with expanded content, including a section devoted to destination weddings. A big thank you to Ellen from Lake Effects web design for putting up with my requests with the website. I recommend her to anyone needing a site. You can visit her at www.lake-effects.net or if you're a professional photographer you can visit www.lakewebsites.com
Personally, my goals are to be a better father and less of a workaholic. I absolutely love being a photographer. I make a living playing and come away with each job with new friends instead of clients. However, as amazing as that is, my kids have to come first. They are the heart beat of my existence.
I would love to hear your resolutions in the comments below.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sitting at home with the wife and kids for a quiet New Year's Eve. This is the first New Year's Eve I've been able to spend with the family in three years because of weddings. It's fun to watch the kids eye lids bobbing up and down as they struggle to stay awake. I had a nice wedding yesterday of Carol Munger and Phil LaMarche. It was a nice winter wedding in need of some snow. Here are some images from the wedding.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Happy Holidays
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah or whatever brings you peace and joy this magical time of year. May the new year bring you the ability to attain all that you dream of.
Steve
Friday, December 22, 2006
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
The article below ran in last Sunday's Daily Messenger, written beautifully by Anne Johnston.
I got my first call today to photograph still born twins that were a mere 17 week gestation. It was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. When I first received the call, I could feel the color drain from my face. I knew I would get it someday, but I wasn't prepared for it to be so soon, especially with Christmas on everyone's mind. Unfortunately, fate does not take off for the holidays. Christmas was far from the minds of the young couple whose lives were forever altered by the loss of their two unborn children. They were twins, a mere 17 weeks along in the womb.
I immediately went on to the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep photographers forum to get some advice on how to proceed. The forum is a wealth of information for anyone looking understand more about this phenominal organization. The website is
When I arrived at the hospital, Chris, the maternity nurse was extremely helpful and sensitive. She understood that this being my first shoot, it was nerve racking.
We started in a room without the parents with the twins. They were so small, just 5oz's each. It was very surreal to see these tiny lifeless bodies, that not so long ago were thriving in their mother's womb. The full emotional impact of the situation didn't arise however until the parents came into the room to be photographed with the twins. The sense of loss on their faces was unimagineable. Having two healthy kids, I can not even begin to understand what they are going through.
I got my first call today to photograph still born twins that were a mere 17 week gestation. It was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. When I first received the call, I could feel the color drain from my face. I knew I would get it someday, but I wasn't prepared for it to be so soon, especially with Christmas on everyone's mind. Unfortunately, fate does not take off for the holidays. Christmas was far from the minds of the young couple whose lives were forever altered by the loss of their two unborn children. They were twins, a mere 17 weeks along in the womb.
I immediately went on to the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep photographers forum to get some advice on how to proceed. The forum is a wealth of information for anyone looking understand more about this phenominal organization. The website is
When I arrived at the hospital, Chris, the maternity nurse was extremely helpful and sensitive. She understood that this being my first shoot, it was nerve racking.
We started in a room without the parents with the twins. They were so small, just 5oz's each. It was very surreal to see these tiny lifeless bodies, that not so long ago were thriving in their mother's womb. The full emotional impact of the situation didn't arise however until the parents came into the room to be photographed with the twins. The sense of loss on their faces was unimagineable. Having two healthy kids, I can not even begin to understand what they are going through.
From Daily Messenger 12/17/06
Photographers provide 'something to hold on to'
By ANNE JOHNSTON
Messenger Post Staff
Posted: Dec 17, 06:00 AM EST
Portraits are offered, free of charge, to parents of children who die in infancy.
CANANDAIGUA, NY — Without exception, everyone Steve Chesler tells about his newest venture is taken aback.
Repelled, actually, might be a better word for the reaction the Canandaigua photographer gets.
Chesler himself had a strong reaction when he first heard about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a Colorado-based non-profit organization that attempts to help parents who lose babies in early infancy. Free of charge, photographers volunteer their time to provide families with portraits of their children. Often taken in hospitals — just before and/or just after life support is removed — the portraits are meant to help the parents remember their child and continue, for years to come, to acknowledge his or her brief life.
For Chesler, the premise stirred up many emotions at once.
“How could (photographers) do that, and how could they not?” he said. “It’s giving the family something to hold on to and cherish for the rest of their lives.”
The organization was founded after a couple named Cheryl and Mike Haggard made the decision to take their 6-day-old son, Maddux, off life support on Feb. 10, 2005. Mike Haggard called Expressions Photography because he had seen owner Sandy Puc’s portraits of babies displayed at the Denver hospital. Puc and her staff accommodated the Haggards’ request for photographs of Maddux and also provided a DVD, set to music.
Afterward, Cheryl Haggard joined Puc in co-founding Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.
Now its regional coordinator, Chesler first learned of the organization at the annual conference of Wedding and Portrait Photographers International earlier this year in Las Vegas. “What piqued my interest was the brochure they had — how tasteful it looked. And it was an idea I’d never thought of,” he said.
Once other people see the photographs that are taken through the non-profit, he added, they are not quite as uneasy about the idea.
“Almost everybody I’ve tried to explain it to didn’t understand it. Anybody I’ve shown the Web site to, did,” he said.
Still, Chesler admitted, “it’s a touchy subject. It’s all about somebody’s personal interpretation of it.”
A Long Island native and former Daily Messenger photographer who has owned his own studio for almost eight years, Chesler is the father of an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. He and his wife have never experienced the loss of a child, but he can empathize.
“The second that baby comes out and you hear that cry, it’s life-changing,” he said, adding that if a baby lives only a short time — and even if a baby is stillborn — that child is forever a member of the family. “That’s a huge loss that is incomprehensible,” he said.
Chesler recently contacted Thompson Hospital to make officials there aware of the service he is offering. He also plans on contacting other hospitals serving the Finger Lakes.
Amanda Padgham, a Farmington-based photographer, has done the same. She is involved not only with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep but with a similar initiative by the American Child Photographers Charity Guild.
In addition to being a photographer, Padgham is a pediatric nurse and a mother of two. She has helped a couple of families, including one in Batavia that was told — prior to the birth — that one of their twin girls had a chromosomal abnormality and would not survive long. The baby lived three weeks.
It was a difficult job, Padgham said, but she feels blessed to have two healthy kids and wants to give back.
“I think it’s important that there are people who will be there for the families and, as uncomfortable as it is, give them something they can remember,” she said.
As of yet, Chesler has not taken any pictures for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. “It’s an honor to be able to offer this service, but I’m not looking forward to it,” said Chesler, who has helped other photographers affiliated with the organization digitally touch up their photos of infants.
The photographers have an online forum, Chesler noted, where they can not only exchange technical advice and tips on tasteful presentation of their subjects but offer emotional support. “We’re all there for each other,” he said.
For more information, visit www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org or www.acpcg. com.
By ANNE JOHNSTON
Messenger Post Staff
Posted: Dec 17, 06:00 AM EST
Portraits are offered, free of charge, to parents of children who die in infancy.
CANANDAIGUA, NY — Without exception, everyone Steve Chesler tells about his newest venture is taken aback.
Repelled, actually, might be a better word for the reaction the Canandaigua photographer gets.
Chesler himself had a strong reaction when he first heard about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a Colorado-based non-profit organization that attempts to help parents who lose babies in early infancy. Free of charge, photographers volunteer their time to provide families with portraits of their children. Often taken in hospitals — just before and/or just after life support is removed — the portraits are meant to help the parents remember their child and continue, for years to come, to acknowledge his or her brief life.
For Chesler, the premise stirred up many emotions at once.
“How could (photographers) do that, and how could they not?” he said. “It’s giving the family something to hold on to and cherish for the rest of their lives.”
The organization was founded after a couple named Cheryl and Mike Haggard made the decision to take their 6-day-old son, Maddux, off life support on Feb. 10, 2005. Mike Haggard called Expressions Photography because he had seen owner Sandy Puc’s portraits of babies displayed at the Denver hospital. Puc and her staff accommodated the Haggards’ request for photographs of Maddux and also provided a DVD, set to music.
Afterward, Cheryl Haggard joined Puc in co-founding Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.
Now its regional coordinator, Chesler first learned of the organization at the annual conference of Wedding and Portrait Photographers International earlier this year in Las Vegas. “What piqued my interest was the brochure they had — how tasteful it looked. And it was an idea I’d never thought of,” he said.
Once other people see the photographs that are taken through the non-profit, he added, they are not quite as uneasy about the idea.
“Almost everybody I’ve tried to explain it to didn’t understand it. Anybody I’ve shown the Web site to, did,” he said.
Still, Chesler admitted, “it’s a touchy subject. It’s all about somebody’s personal interpretation of it.”
A Long Island native and former Daily Messenger photographer who has owned his own studio for almost eight years, Chesler is the father of an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. He and his wife have never experienced the loss of a child, but he can empathize.
“The second that baby comes out and you hear that cry, it’s life-changing,” he said, adding that if a baby lives only a short time — and even if a baby is stillborn — that child is forever a member of the family. “That’s a huge loss that is incomprehensible,” he said.
Chesler recently contacted Thompson Hospital to make officials there aware of the service he is offering. He also plans on contacting other hospitals serving the Finger Lakes.
Amanda Padgham, a Farmington-based photographer, has done the same. She is involved not only with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep but with a similar initiative by the American Child Photographers Charity Guild.
In addition to being a photographer, Padgham is a pediatric nurse and a mother of two. She has helped a couple of families, including one in Batavia that was told — prior to the birth — that one of their twin girls had a chromosomal abnormality and would not survive long. The baby lived three weeks.
It was a difficult job, Padgham said, but she feels blessed to have two healthy kids and wants to give back.
“I think it’s important that there are people who will be there for the families and, as uncomfortable as it is, give them something they can remember,” she said.
As of yet, Chesler has not taken any pictures for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. “It’s an honor to be able to offer this service, but I’m not looking forward to it,” said Chesler, who has helped other photographers affiliated with the organization digitally touch up their photos of infants.
The photographers have an online forum, Chesler noted, where they can not only exchange technical advice and tips on tasteful presentation of their subjects but offer emotional support. “We’re all there for each other,” he said.
For more information, visit www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org or www.acpcg. com.
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