Ben Berndt Photography

The time has finally come

Many of you already know this, but starting October 16th . . . . .  I will be a full time photographer!!!!!!

I have been working hard towards this goal for the past two years and had intended on doing this at the end of next summer. Well, a couple weeks ago, I was sat down at my dayjob at Ameriprise and told that my job was going to be eliminated as of 10/15/2009. There was a good opportunity to do another job that was being created, but I never really felt called to do thats as it was.  So I figured I’d explore the severance package as another option. I will give it to them, they are doing right by me on the severance side of things.  I called Rachel up and asked her if she was okay with going back to teaching this fall(which as the following week) and she said she’d look around. What she found was a fantastic job just 3 miles up the road from us. She interviewed on a Monday, was hired that night and then started the next day. 

So here we stood:

Ben: severance package [Check]

Ben: Lots of fun weddings and other shoots planned for the next 2 years [BIG check]

Rachel: Awesome new job [Check]

2 little girls that need someone to watch them: [ oh boy.....   ]

Thankfully, both My mom and Rachel’s mom are great grandma’s and are pretty flexible with their weeks.  So a few calls were made and they signed up for full time Grandma Duty for the following 7 weeks.

We are nearly 2 weeks into the 7 week period and things are going about as well as you can expect…(really good).   I am incredibly excited to focus purely on what I love to do and not be distracted by a 2 hour commute and corporate b.s everyday. The icing on the cake is being able to spend the days with Hannah and Grace.  I can’t wait to be Mr. Mom and go on all sorts of adventures with them.  One of my biggest fears was to get too busy with work that I miss out on being their dad.  Thankfully we don’t have to worry about that now. 

~Ben