Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Moore.
Dan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I picked up a camera for the very first time in April 2012. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it would become so much a part of who I am. Growing up I dreamed of being several things but a photographer was never one of them. I went through a very difficult time where I found myself very lost. I’d gone through a divorce, a foreclosure with a bankruptcy as well as an injury to my lower back all within a few months. I literally felt like I had lost almost everything. Luckily my parents took my two young kids and I in. We stayed in their basement for several years. I had found myself at a place in my life where I felt very lost. No part of the life I was living resembled any of what I imagined it would be. I remember one evening I was feeling particularly low when I really began reminiscing about my childhood. Thinking back to those years in life where things were so much simpler. I remember thinking back to visits with my grandparents, trips to Birmingham, Alabama to stay with them. Playing at the park in Homewood, my grandmother’s cupboard that had every kind of chocolate treat you could imagine.
Family get togethers with aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. Holiday dinners that always ended with my grandmother’s homemade lemon icebox pie. Saturday morning cartoons, sleepovers with friends. I was literally so overcome with a yearning for moments of my life that were barely even holding on as memories. I was never someone to care much about all the pictures that had been taken when I was a kid but sitting there in the basement that night I realized just how important they were, and that’s when it happened. We all have our own beliefs, but my belief is that my heavenly father spoke to me that evening. I was literally sitting on my couch, my face resting in my hands with tears streaming. I remember feeling so totally defeated and broken then I very distinctly remember hearing a soft voice, almost like a whisper say,” …. pick up a camera……” I heard that and the tears stopped, I mean instantly. I jumped up off the couch and ran into the other room to grab my shoes because I was headed out the door. What made the timing of all this even more perfect was that I had just come into a small amount of money. People always ask me, “why Nikon Dan?”. Well, because that evening when I drove to Best Buy and ran inside in search of a camera, the Nikons were the first ones I came to. I bought a little D3100 starter kit. Got back home, opened that sucker up and started playing with it. I remember feeling a child like excitement that took me back to what it felt when I was a kid waking up Christmas morning and sitting in front of the tree with my mom, dad, brother and sister. I woke up the next day and hiked up Kennesaw Mountain with my new camera and took pictures of anything and everything.
When I got home, I put my SD card into the card slot of my flatscreen and pictures began popping up and I fell in love with photography. I’ve spent a very large part of my life since then learning about cameras, lenses, lighting, editing, etc. Today I love looking back at where I came from. I’m extremely blessed to have a woman in my life that is so incredibly supportive of what I do. We have an in-home studio at our home in Acworth that I spend a lot of time in. I enjoy studio photography as well as outdoors. It’s taken a little over eight years but this has become so much more than I ever dreamed possible.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a really smooth road. I try to live my life with a mindset of it’s not crossing the finish line but rather who I became as I run to it. I believe in life if you fail to appreciate every single step of your journey in pursuit of your dreams, then you never can truly treasure reaching them. It took me eight years to reach a point where in my mind I’m a true artist. I look back at some of my work and literally shake my head sometimes and I smile, because I’m reminded of how far I’ve come. I’ll tell you something though. I loved photography from the first day I ever picked up a camera to this day and every day in between.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Daniel R Moore Photography – what should we know?
I think people who know me best would say what truly sets me a part is my heart for my craft. It’s not just the photographs captured, but the experience left with the people whom you interact with every time a picture is taken. I love connecting with people on that level and leaving them in awe of the entire experience. I’m so proud of so many aspects of what DRM Photography is all about. I’m always open to new ideas and new concepts. If I had to choose one thing that I would be known for it would be my portraiture work and quite certainly my photo retouching.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Faith, Perseverance, Desire and Love from the people closest to me. All the encouragement that I’ve been given over the years. Most of all as I sit in my studio typing this, I know that without my beautiful wife standing by my side none of this would’ve ever happened to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: drfoto.biz
- Phone: 404-932-7182
- Email: drmfoto1@gmail.com
- Instagram: @drmfoto
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/dan.moore.9028/
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