A small town photographer is saying good-bye to New Jersey

In a town known as Gloucester County located in the southern part of New Jersey, lives a small town and not very known photographer who’s packing up his belongings and getting ready to drive away from his hometown and relocating towards California where the sun is always shinning, the weather is warm, and people are always becoming famous. Charles Spangler carries a canon around and has a passion for seeing the world through a lens and capturing images. He is a 5-foot-11inch man who happens to dress like a “new age, indie, punk hipster,” as told by Charles himself. His eyes are covered with these huge, round grandpa style glasses that are perched on the bridge of his nose. On the week of Aug 25, 2016 Charles traveled out to California to shadow a photographer named Jamar Williams, who is the co-founder of the company Dream shore studio. Unexpectedly, Charles will soon call this company his home away from home. A trip that was originally scheduled to be a shadow experience, so he could gain some knowledge of how to run his own business and learn new technique, turned into a job opportunity. Not only did he gain a job but also received one that is taking him across the country to the west coast. Charles will soon be saying good-bye to New Jersey and saying hello to the beautiful state of California.

This opportunity came about when Charles’s aunt, who is a HR, did a job for Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams is a real estate photographer in San Diego, Calif. Charles’s aunt had contacted Mr. Williams asking for the permission of having her nephew come out and shadow him since Charles’s specialty just so happened to be in real estate. “So yeah um, I went out there, shadowed him for a week um,” Charles paused for a second recollecting his thoughts, “not even expecting a job really.” The purpose of him traveling out to California for a week was just to witness Mr. Williams’s talent, take notes on how he runs his business, so Charles could return home and reapply the new knowledge to his own small business. In an exciting tone Charles explains to me, “he’s really cool,” because everyone knows that a boring photographer would be dull and uninteresting, so it is a great idea to work for a cool one instead. In a joking manner Charles continues, “he does exactly what I do but on a much larger scale, like million-dollar homes on cliffs or whatever,” he begins to laugh as he leans against his chair.

What sold Charles to gather his belongings to move to California to accept this job was the fact that as a photographer or just any human who is seeking a career as some type of artist, location is the key to success. “Living in the middle of nowhere in Gloucester County isn’t the place to get discovered,” Charles explains as he is moving his arms and hands around the space between us to put emphasis on his sentence. To most people, it is common knowledge to move to a big area as in New York City or even out to L.A, Calif where people, who were becoming famous, migrated too. “If I ever wanted to progress, and get out of this you know,” Charles began but then suddenly stopped. His voice changes to a more frustrated tone as his brows began to furrow and continued, “this rut, like I feel like I’m so stuck,” he claims as he throws his arms down into his lap in defeat. He felt that this option was the best movement for his career to advance forward. “I would regret this for the rest of my life if I didn’t do it, so there was no way I could say no,” Charles says as his eyes droop towards the floor than back up to my eyes.

When Charles was offered this job and opportunity to move, his initial reaction was the state of being shocked, he just could not believe it because he did not expect this to happen. Charles just felt fortunate, guess the stars where on his side during that week. Amusingly, Charles chuckles, shakes his head a bit, and said, “I honestly did kind of fantasize that maybe I would get something, but it never really crossed my mind as a possibility.” Although he was thrilled and ready to move out of this small town, he was nervous about what his family, friends and girlfriend would say.

When he began telling his family and friends the news, many of them had nothing but kind words and best wishes to him. The one reaction that really meant the most to him was the one that came from a girl who loved and has stood by him for over a year now. Charles gleefully brought up the fact that his girlfriend’s first words about this, without hesitation was, “take it, like you’d be insane not too.” At the time, he thinks that maybe she was just unaware that he would be going 2,887 miles away. For her to immediately say those words, he personally thought it was cool because that showed that she genuinely cared about him and supported his career choice. Charles clasps his large hands and slender fingers together and lightly leaned them on his knees and added, “we are strong enough to get through anything.” As he continued to talk about her reaction, anyone could see the pure love he has for her and just how much happiness she brought to him and continues to bring by encouraging him to move forward with his career. “Seeing that be her initial reaction really was I don’t know,” he paused, and I can see how his eyes seem to lighten up with love, “that was pretty special to me.” He explained how any other person, would have made this into something about themselves and how easily a person can hold back someone, but his girlfriend did not do either. His girlfriend clearly loved him enough and believed in him to let him go across the country to make a name for himself with his photography.

His mother acted a bit oddly to his news, but could any person really blame her? Her son just came back from a small trip and now is mentioning to her how he was given a job and will be moving to the west coast. The first words that came from her lips were, “huh.” Charles laughs about the reaction and continues, “she kind of was just standing there thinking for a while.”

Most people are probably wondering how this young man is going to make a living out in California. As most people are aware, California is an expensive place to live. However, Charles does have a plan, he is not going to California completely blind, and he does a have a place to call home for a little while. His aunt, who originally introduced him to Mr. Williams, owns a condo where Charles will call home for at least a few months until he can officially get settled and sort all his plans out. He is, however, is planning to buy an apartment but for right now, he is just taking one-step at time. Although it may seem as if he is leaving everything and everyone behind, he is at least going somewhere that has a stable job waiting for him and some family members to give him a support system and a place to stay. As of right now, once he gets to California, he will find a part time job just to add a little more green into his wallet until his new job picks up.

It was during his senior year of high school, when he narrowed his photography down to one specific style, which was real estate. His mom is a real estate agent, just as any mom would do; she had her son photograph the houses for her. From then on, it progressed, Charles realized that he enjoyed this style and could make a living from it, so he began talking to other people in her office and from other offices. He learned how to market himself and his talent, which helped him gain clients. Charles had originally wanted to specialize in portraiture but for him financial wise that was not the style to support his wallet. Real estate has more money tied into it than any other style right now. “I’d like to do portraits of people and the fun stuff, but this is what I gotta do for now,” Charles tells wearing a solemn look upon his pale face.

Charles began a website, which was before his real estate interest, at first it was just a place to post his photographs and make himself more official. Over time, when he began his real estate photography, he started editing his website so it was more centered to his new style. This became an outlet to people to discover him and for his clients to contact and even pay for his work.

When Charles was a sophomore in High school, he received his first camera, which was a Canon T3I. Charles lips began to spread widely, although could simply be missed because of the hair that covered his chin and upper lip, from thinking back to that year. He looked at me with a soft smile and said, “I immediately fell in love with it, I was taking pictures with it every day” he lets out another small laugh as if he was embarrassed to say what he added next, “I was watching videos like crazy on just how to improve.” This small hobby rapidly grew into a passion of his.

Before he discovered this talent, as an eighth-grade student he was into skateboarding and wanted to own his own business for it. He always thought of himself as being his own boss, which was the main reason he decided that he wanted to run his own business. His career path changed when he was in high school and received that beautiful Canon. He really liked photography because to him, it was fun, but it was also a way to earn more of those nice, crisp, green, presidents’ faces printed on paper to support his financial needs. He began photography in high school after he found his new love interest, by the name of Canon; can you picture that?

Sometimes it takes years for a person to discover a hidden talent, other people are just lucky enough to recognize it early on. For Charles he discovered it after receiving his first camera. “I think about that a lot honestly, how it just kinda happened,” Charles says while looking up at the ceiling and smiling reminiscing back to it. “I don’t think I was even asking for a camera,” he states while trying to hold in a laugh, because ironically this was during the time, he was fascinated by boards with wheels rather than images. “So, I think my family wanted to get me something to record my videos on,” he pauses than continues with a short but sharp laugh, “and it turned into something completely different.”