Nine

I’m a bit late, but Zack Wussow Media just passed it’s ninth anniversary. Typically I do a quick post with some thoughts about the last year, but I’ve been putting it off because this has, obviously, been a weird year.

Actually, it was already unusual for me personally in the second half of 2019. Many of you know I have worked for a yearbook photo company in the fall for many years. My 2019 season was cut a little short when an opportunity came up to start a new, year-round position in graphic design for a company down the street. It was looking like the future might be quite different for me…

Then 2020 happened. That company folded, and I was back to 100% photography. Except weddings, events, even portrait sessions were canceled indefinitely due to COVID-19.

Now as my tenth year gets going, the wedding industry is slowly creeping back to life, maybe?, and the end of 2020 is looking a lot more like years of the past. Weddings and yearbooks, albeit both with big asterisks depending on how things go.

What’s that tenth year actually hold? No idea. I’m fortunate to say my personal situation, family, etc. mean my wife and I will be fine for the foreseeable future. But no doubt, that future is murky.

I hope you are all doing well.

Eight

Today is eight years since I registered Zack Wussow Media with the wonderful folks at the Vernon Town Hall. Eight years of weddings and engagements, maternity and babies, events and portraits.

It’s been a wonderful eight years and I’m so excited to see where the next years take me!

Seven

June 14th is here, and Zack Wussow Media is officially another year older. When I walked into the Vernon Town Clerk's office to file a DBA back in 2011, I didn't really know what would come of it. I certainly didn't know that seven years, 120+ weddings, and tons of events and portraits later, this little business would still be taking care of me.

Thank you all, because I could not do this without you. Here's to seven more years ahead!

Half a Dozen

Oh hey, it's that time of year again! Zack Wussow Media turns six today. It's been an amazing, exciting, and busy year, though only about half of that is due to business. The rest, well...

Hint: That's me.

The coming year promises to be just as interesting, with a bustling fall season and some other big changes coming on the home front.

So just a little note to say, as always, thank you to my amazing customers who make this job a joy and put my name out there, my family and friends who support me, and my wife Heather who's always there for me (and increasingly often assisting me for work). Cheers!

Five Years

You know the cliched interview question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Well, when I walked into the Vernon Town Clerk's office and registered my Doing Business As name, and even if they had I could not have guessed.

This picture, currently on the "About Me" page, is from October 2012. I should probably post something more... recent.

In all honesty, I started Zack Wussow Media for two reasons - first, because the only other UConn Photography grads I knew actually using their degrees were doing weddings, and because you need to register your business to pay taxes. I wasn't sure if it was what I wanted to do long term. In fact, I probably would have said I intended to work a little and then go back to school.

Before grad school, though, I wanted to follow my professor's advice and "get some life". Boy have I.

In these five years I've also acquired more camera gear then I could have imagined needing, taught myself to be a serviceable accountant, advertiser, and salesperson, learned and forgot how to use a steadicam, built three ring lights, taken a million yearbook photos, and attended several lifetimes worth of weddings.

And assisted on one rap video.

Just after ZWM's first anniversary, I met my fiance. A year and a half later we moved in together, into my first real apartment. Then, this past spring, I asked her to marry me. (No date set yet... We're procrastinators.)

I've gotten a tattoo, tried scuba and sky diving, taken at least three road trips, run in a Tough Mudder, and perhaps most incredibly of all, I've gotten Heather's cat Enzo to tolerate my existence (maybe even like me... sometimes).

So given all that, where do I see myself in another five years? My wedding, for sure. Probably owning my first home. Almost certainly still behind a camera.

But besides that? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm excited to find out, though.