A familiar beginning
My son Robert shares my name—and that instinct to build something of his own.
When I started my photography business, I followed my passion and worked through the steps as they came. I didn’t spend much time thinking I could fail. Watching him build Freshwater Landscaping reminds me of that beginning, although he’s growing it faster than I ever did.
Just a few years into running the business full time, he and his business partner, Charles, have built something pretty remarkable: trucks, equipment, an office, and a place to keep it all.
Sometimes that means headshots. Other days, I’m photographing Charles working an excavator, a property being graded beside Lake Minnetonka, or the finished stonework around a Chanhassen home. These photographs help tell their business’s story—and let me capture a little of my son’s story, too.
Out on the job
I go out on different jobs and photograph them working. The goal is to make commercial images they can use on their website—images of their own people, equipment, and projects.
Tree work moves quickly. I like this frame because it catches the branch in motion. It gives you a sense of the work that a finished-project photograph can’t show.
What the work becomes
The rock wall at this Chanhassen home is one of the finished projects I’ve photographed for them. Alongside the working images, these photographs show what the crew leaves behind for the people who live there.
For this project, the customer bought the lot next door and had the house removed. Freshwater came in and graded the entire lot, with the lake just beyond the trees.
I started my own business by following my passion. Now I get to watch Robert follow his—and occasionally bring my camera along.
Robert