Page 3 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #1

TEN YEARS

It’s almost unimaginable to think that a decade has passed since my son, JD, and I walked
the Virginia Creeper near Damascus, Virginia. It was on that hike that we decided to
found what was to be known as NyghtFalcon Photography.
We returned to Damascus this past fall with members of the NyghtFalcon team to walk
the trail again. It was good to go back and reminisce—but it was also a bit overwhelming
and disarming. JD and I did much research back in the fall of 2002 following that trip to
Damascus and our decision to start this firm. But although we thought we knew what we
were getting into, we really had no idea where the journey would take us.
So much has changed over the past ten years.
We changed our name, for instance. NyghtFalcon Photography has become The
House of NyghtFalcon. Many of the changes, however, go far deeper than simply
changing our name. For example, while it was the art and emotion of photography
that initially drew us to become photographers, I had no idea just how technically
demanding photography was. If you had told me a decade ago that I would own
strobes and shoot in manual all the time, I most definitely would have told you that you
were crazy. And yet, I own strobes and I always shoot in manual. I think, it seems, in
f-stops and various shutter speeds, and I am possessive of the ISO I use in my camera.
Yeah, a lot has changed.
The industry has also changed. We have witnessed several major paradigm shifts.
Digital replaced film. Firms that once thrived in the days of film—Kodak and Ilford among
others—are all but gone. They have been replaced by firms that didn’t exist a decade ago,
or if they did, were small by comparison. The wedding photography market, once vibrant
and lucrative, is now saturated. Competition is so intense that almost no one can make
money doing weddings. The world has changed. And we have had to change with it.
This anniversary issue looks backward and forward. It revisits the past and foresees
our future. Both, it seems, are forever entwined.
Among the many changes that have come to our firm, Yana Cortlund has become
Editor of NyghtBooks, the division that publishes this magazine. This is my last issue in
that capacity. Change continues.

Falcon

nyghtvision magazine volume 3, number 1, WINTER 2013