by Jesse D'Hulster
Jesse here again. I've been away doing other things for a few weeks. Andrew filled in for me last week which ended a two week gap. Blog writing seems to not be as easy when there are weddings to edit and brides to meet.
A few interesting things have happened in my life as of recent. The first, is that my videographer and friend, Justin DeCoene and I have been Facebook friends for 10 years. Normally I would say that this isn't a big deal, but it actually marks the literal beginning of our friendship. I at one point confused his name with Stefan. Over the years, the friendship has had it's ups and downs, and currently has him parked in my dining room, but I am really happy with the past 10 years. He's a great friend and a great videographer and addition to the DH Media team. He and I have been on more adventures than I would like to admit, and times where the true bond of friendship has come through. People may laugh, but he's a great friend and someone who knows that the world is better because DH Media exists.
The other thing that I am in the process of doing is packing up and going through old boxes. In a few weeks, the DH Media basecamp will be moving to a bigger location, which, sounds cooler than it actually is. I have tasked myself to purge some things in my life, but the problem is, a lot of the things have deep memories. Memories are important to me. Memories are probably one of the reason I use cameras so much. I like to preserve memories. The photos on my wall are definitely the most recent way I preserve memories. The stuff in my closet is the old way. There are boxes of photos of when my brother and I were younger, along with other nicknacks and items that a 26 year old normally wouldn't have (My china cabinet turned wedding-favour cabinet being an example). It's amazing going through all these old photos and weird items (like an A&W towel I forgot I had), and think, it's obvious I don't use this. I haven't opened that box in three years, but now that it's been reopened, and the memories come flooding back.
I realize it's not really the memories I'm trying to preserve, it's the comfort of knowing the photos of people who have long since left my life, or some books and CD's I've read in the past are still there as a constant, in a world where you very rarely get a 'constant'. Packing and purging will be hard.
Moving forward, I'm sticking to preserving memories in 'Big Ass' portraits that I hang on my wall. It helps the closet space.