Hunting and Photography Passions Collide | Southern Utah Hunting Family
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
- Steve Jobs
When two passions collide it looks something like this. Dustin's love for hunting pulls us out of the house and into the wide open to run the hounds three days a week. My love for photography talks him into leaving a few hours before sunset and him patiently waiting for me to photograph everything during the dog running process.
Dustin's love for the hounds began shortly before we got married. He was working at Metal Vision at the time and a few of his work buddies invited him to go lion hunting with them that weekend. Well, he went and I think it's safe to say the rest is history. It was like a love at first hunt type of story!
I'll be honest, when we got married, we were young and immature. I was pregnant, hormonal, and now had a husband that wanted to go hunting ALL the time. Looking back now, I guess I can't blame the man! I'm not sure how much of a joy I was to live with at that time. I certainly didn't plan to get pregnant at 19 and I was positive my life was over.
We will rewind several years back to my childhood and fast forward a few into our marriage! When I was a child, I always had a camera in my hand no matter where I went. My grandma bought me my first film camera and I photographed EVERYTHING (Thank heavens for digital today)!! I always dreamed of becoming a professional photographer, but I let fear stand in my way for far longer than I should have.
This is the part that we fast forward a few years into our marriage... about nine to be exact. We now lived in Cedar City and discovered that is was probably one of the best things that we could have done for both our relationship and our family. It has caused us to rely on each other and grow together in a good way.
This is where The Hunting Family comes in and two passions collide into one. Jack's love for hunting is insane. The boy will wake up at 330am with a smile on his face + excitedly jump out of bed when he knows he's headed out on the mountain with dad.
Once I realized how much he loved it and the girls started to show more interest, I thought, "why not?"
When we first got married hunting caused a lot of problems in our marriage. Dustin was gone every weekend, I was home alone + pregnant, and it was a struggle. We worked on it, I bit#$%! a lot, and we finally came to a compromise. Every other weekend! ha
I am so glad that we were able to grow together and I realized what a good thing I have going on with Dustin!
Today I can honestly say the more we go, the more I am beginning to truly enjoy it myself. We have chosen a time not only in our lives, but in our relationship that allows us to be in the right headspace to make something as great as The Hunting Family work. We bust our buns behind the scene to learn and share as much as we can with you.
Starting this journey has provided the opportunities we create for Dustin to do what he is passionate about. I am able to do what I am passionate about, and we are spending way more time outdoors exploring as a family which makes everyone happy!
There is nothing I love more than being able to hang with my people and take photos in pretty places! Yes, Dustin does get annoyed sometimes when he is ready to go and we... I am slow getting in the truck, but boy, you can't beat a sunrise on the mountain!
Thanks for stopping by + joining us on our adventure!
