Chasing Your Dreams

A little over three years ago, I joined Isle Media. At the time, there were just five of us in the company. We were eager to make a name for ourselves, and started to work our way up, shooting whatever jobs we could get through Craigslist and word of mouth. In 2011, we somehow managed to shoot 25 weddings, and were stoked for our direction. At the time, Alan, my boss, was in HPD, and was juggling both his police job and his new media company. I remember him talking to me about his strong desire to become a dad, although he was not sure how to go about it, given he was gay. Through literally blood, sweat, and tears, we grew our little company into a dynamic and passionate group of 25 artists, that has now changed the local scene of how a wedding is captured on film and imagery. We now shoot 150+ weddings a year, with a full team of videographers, photographers, stylists, and DJ/MC's, handling weddings of every conceivable size and type. We've shot in Thailand, Japan, Palau, as well major U.S cities (LA, San Fran, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, and Houston). We've flown in helicopters, ridden on elephants, and stood witness to many amazing traditions that are celebrated in different cultures for weddings.

During this whole time, an amazing story was unfolding with Alan and his pursuit for his own children. What began as an interest in surrogacy, evolved into a multi-faceted journey for Alan, as he flew to India and Chicago for the surrogacy program. Over the course of a year, Alan poured his heart and soul into this pursuit, learning about the procedures involved, and how to be a parent.  I was fortunate enough to travel with him to India, and remember the moment when he got an email saying he was officially a proud father of two baby girls. I've never met someone who wanted to be a father, more than anything in the world, as Alan.

Since then, everyone in Isle Media has become aunties and uncles to Alan's two little ones, Ava and Addison. They've grown up so fast, and it's quite interesting at the office, to be editing on a computer, a few feet away, the girls are walking around with their toys and food. The whole experience has definitely changed my outlook on traditional parenting, and also about chasing your dreams. Alan's story was just published on Yahoo news this morning (please see screenshot above), and just comes to show if you really put your mind to it, anything is possible. You can check out the full article here.