So much has been happening in the lives of the Maher’s and JM Images the past few months.  Many months actually.  Not to dwell on the past to much as it is just that, my mother has been in and out of the hospital the past four months.  There was a span of nine weeks she spent at UPMC in Pittsburgh.  She will be returning home(again) tomorrow after another two day stay on the 7th floor.  Shewwww……..

During more of my time away from the studio I had what I thought was going to be a quick and simple meniscus surgery. Out patient surgery.  Well, seems my meniscus was torn in three areas and my cartilage was “old” and I had a rather large issue with arthritis that was not part of the plan.  All this means is that I am six weeks non weight bearing on my knee.  (as opposed to four days of rehab for a minor procedure)

During this time there have been a few mishaps with the studio space.  If you are local you may have noticed an excavator to the side of the studio.  If not local, well, there was a HUGE mess.  Seems the sewer backed up and flooded my studio basement.  This too has been repaired.  There have also been a few orders that had taken a little longer than normal (for those of you that have been effected I do apologize and have apologized) and have either been ordered or will be ordered this week or have been delivered and you will be called.

During this time though I have had some great things happen that may not have happened otherwise.  I have worked on a new website (same basic look but a little cleaner), have reworked my site as it had been hacked into a few months back. (ALMOST finished with the reworked site.  Wedding images are to be uploaded this week.) I have also made a few new friendships (locally and nationally ) in the business that I may not have had I not been overwhelmed these past few months.  I know it is hard for some to believe, but a lot of us photographers are friends and do go out for lunch and talk business and non business. There is an old saying that your best photo friends live out of state.  That said, I have many out of state photographer friends but I also have a few here in Grove City and Slippery Rock, Butler, Pittsburgh.  (Not to mention a really cool cat name Mr. Fawkes from Australia who helped me out with a lot of good ideas to rework my images and gave me some positive feedback about what I was already doing)I also got to reconnect  with Skip Cohen over the phone (met him a few hers back in Vegas during WPPI and again during his inaugural Skip’s Summer School) and he gave me some great advice and also critiqued part of my site/blog/work and have me some personal advise that I have taken to heart.  I would suggest checking out Skip’s blog even if you are not a photographer.  If nothing else read his Sunday Morning Reflections posts. (check out one here) He is just a great writer and can bring a smile to your day.

Sometimes you need to embrace the bad times to make work of the good times.

Lastly, I want to make you that you stay tuned to my site and studio .  I am so excited to share a few of my new ideas and another side of my photography in the next few months.  If you liked JM Images before I know you will LOVE the new things coming up!

Thanks for reading!

Joe