Colorado 1988
Bentley Photography History Part 12
Our new life was going along just great but our paradise was starting to change. When I first moved to St. Simons once Labor day came and went so did most of the tourist and after Labor day the island was very quite and peaceful. By 1988 and 1989 the island stayed crowded and the developers were building shopping centers everywhere. Beautiful live oaks were being bulldozed to make way for more and more buildings while others sat empty. There was a bumper sticker going around at the time that said "Save The Island, Blow The Causeway". Traffic was becoming a problem and the charm of the island was wearing off.
Chance and I loved a lot of outdoor things like hiking and skiing, both water and snow skiing. So we started looking at other places and things to do. One thing we looked at was doing the same type of photography that we were used to at Callaway Gardens. At the time someone that owned the photography concession at Callaway Gardens was wanting to sell it. Another thing that we talked about was going to Red River, New Mexico and buying the same type of business that did ski pictures in the winter and rafting pictures in the summer. We had a friend that knew someone who was wanting to sell a business that did that. We both loved to ski, but Chance hated cold weather and had lived in Wyoming and Indiana while growing up and swore she wouldn't live where it was cold like that again. It was fun for us to visit those type of places as long as we knew we could come back to Georgia after a few days. So she put her foot down and refused to do that and Callaway Gardens just didn't look that promising at the time.
Then in early 1990 something happened that made us step up and make a decision. We found out that Chance was pregnant. We talked about living at the island but didn't see a future there and didn't really want to raise our children there. So since we found ourselves coming to the Winder and Atlanta area to do weddings more and more, and I had family here, we decided to move to Winder. At the time we weren't sure how long it would take to sell our house and where we might live. We spent a lot of time coming up and looking at houses and businesses spaces that were for rent and finally put our house on the market. In April of 1990, 23 years ago next week, we moved to Winder into the studio we are still in.
So, we took a big gamble in 1990. We both quit our jobs, with Chance 5 months pregnant, and moved to Winder to open our own business. It was an exciting time and we had a lot of work ahead of us.