About Us
Wayne Cordes, owner |
Thanks for stopping by to learn a bit about what we can do for you! I hope you like what you see as much as I love doing what I do!
Sometimes the best things in our lives are simply things we stumble into by accident. Milestone Images fits that description quite well. I wish I could tell you that I just sat down one day and decided that this is what I wanted to do with my life, but I didn’t.
It all started with a “Box Full of Memories”…memories that I’d left behind many years ago, a few life-changing events, an idea, and perhaps, fate. You can read the full story of how Milestone Images got started below.
Celebrating your milestones and memories…
Milestone Images is the ultimate marriage of my lifelong love of photographs and graphic design, my commitment to family, my fascination with computer technology and my belief that the only “real” art in our lives comes from the people we share it with. The fond memories we hold in our hearts and the images we capture along the way become the record and the true measure of a life well-lived.
My goal at Milestone Images is to simply take those memories and those images and create a work of art that celebrates the important milestones and memories in each of our lives. My best rewards are the words of an 80-year-old….”It’s the best birthday gift I’ve gotten in eighty years!”, or that of a 30-something farmer…”Mom, it’s the best gift you’ve ever given me!”
A bit about me…
I’m an Iowa farm boy who left the farm behind to learn a bit about life in the city! I have a journalism degree from Iowa State University, studied international communications at the University of Iowa Graduate School of Journalism, and left the academic world to pursue a career as a free-lance photographer.
After 10 years, I began a long career as a Director of Marketing & Public Relations for various hospital and healthcare organizations in northern Wisconsin, Chicago, Des Moines and the Kansas City area. Throughout those years, my focus was on communications, photography, design and graphics.
Milestone Images is the perfect blend of all those experiences, and so much more. It is, indeed, what I believe I was always meant to do!
From a box full of memories...
to a cherished keepsake!
click to enlarge |
Sometimes when we least expect it, events in our lives change us forever. It’s at those times that we often find ourselves looking back at where we came from...then discovering what’s really important and what we are meant to do in our lives.
In 2003, after living in various Midwestern cities for more than 30 years, I returned home to rural Iowa to spend some time with my dad when he was ill. I’m glad I did. He died a few weeks later. My world was changed forever.
Finding hidden treasures...
As I sifted through those things he left behind, I realized that there was truly a treasure, not only in my heart, but also in all the family pictures that had mostly been stored in shoeboxes, albums and drawers. Memories that surfaced every few years when someone dug them out of their hiding places. I hadn’t fully appreciated my heritage and my roots until then. Like most people, I had been far too busy.
To make sure my siblings and I each would have copies, I started scanning each photo, each memory, to my computer. As I scanned them, I sadly realized that once again they would likely end up with the same fate as the originals...in another shoebox, a drawer, an album, maybe even in a scrapbook...or perhaps just on my computer hard drive.
The beginning...
One day as I sat staring at those boxes and stacks of pictures, I had an idea. A way to make those memories come alive...to pay tribute to my parents and celebrate my family heritage every day. I had never seen anything like it, but I knew what I wanted it to be. And I knew it would be so much better than a scrapbook, a slide show or just another box full of memories.
I had many years experience as a photographer and graphic designer...and for a while at least, the time to experiment with my idea. After weeks of study and a few revisions, my vision became reality. That box full of memories was now carefully blended into one beautiful image. I liked what I saw. My siblings had a few tears in their eyes as they studied it for the first time. Then I showed a few close friends. They wanted to know if I could do one for them, too.
A labor of love...
My original intent was to just create that montage for my family and then return to the city and another job. But I slowly began to realize that I had found my new calling. That’s how Milestone Images began. This truly is a labor of love! My life had changed dramatically and unexpectedly all because of that box full of memories!
My passion for family; my love of photography and design; my growing fascination with computer technology−all the basic tools I needed−had been there for many years, just waiting for the right moment to be given a new direction.
My only regret is that my mom and dad never had a chance to see it! They would have loved it and cherished it as much as I do.
A cherished family keepsake...
Today, my greatest rewards come from comments like that of an 80-year-old montage recipient who summed it all up when he received a surprise montage for his 80th birthday: "It's the best birthday gift I've received in 80 years!" And that of a "thirty-something" Iowa farmer who told his mom, "It's the best gift you've ever given me!"
Milestone Images can help you rediscover your "box full of memories". The possibilities are only limited by the size of your box full of memories...and your imagination!
As you pause to reflect on your personal and family milestones, memories and heritage, I hope you’ll consider having a photo montage created to celebrate the important people in your life. If you do, I hope it helps make your world and their world a bit richer as my family montage did mine, and that your montage becomes a cherished family keepsake.
— Wayne Cordes
