Employee Spotlight: Dave Gallagher

What Defines You? 

In life you will succeed in some areas and you will fail in others. This is true regardless of the integrity or intent in your decision making.  Through life’s travails, how one defines themself shifts and matures. Being a husband, father, business owner, etc., means you make difficult decisions based on your experiences and balanced by your character.  These decisions are not always well received by everyone that is important to you.  The right decisions ultimately make someone unhappy.  But you do your best and you strive to hold to the highest values while showing understanding and empathy.

And that sets up the following prose by Emerson, as this more than anything else, defines how I live:

To laugh often and much; 

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, 

to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, 

to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived,

This is to have succeeded.

What are five words you think your teammates would use to describe you?

I am not going to put words in my teammates mouths.  Honestly, if you asked them I would be certain you would hear some that are strongly positive and some saying that I am also very tough at times.  Not all are flattering and that is OK.  I do my best as I strive to push the full team towards our common goal.  And that goal is to be the best in the world at what we do. Not the best in our city, state or country, but to be the company that all others are measured by globally. That’s a lofty goal and it’s a moving target.  So it’s a never ending journey and a constant effort.

One word that I hope they would use is a leader.  I try to lead with actions not words.  And this graphic illustrates my mind frame in our business:

If you could only use one camera for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Really?  What kind of question is that?  

Not possible.  

Cameras are tools and there are different tools for each job. I have used a Leica SL2, Leica M11, Fujifilm XT5, Phase One IQ3 100 Achromatic, and a Phase One IQ4 150mp all in the last 60 days for different needs.  

I love cameras. I loving trying new ones. I don’t see this changing.  

I just find myself looking at them at 100% and still wanting more….. 🙂

Describe the journey that brought you to Capture Integration. 

I graduated RIT with a BS in Imaging and Photographic Technology degree in 1991.  I went to work directly for Sinar Bron Imaging distributing sinar, broncolor, Foba, and Leaf digital cameras.  

My degree from RIT set me up perfectly to embrace the new digital capture technology that was beginning to take over our marketplace. 

After 4 years at Calumet and 3 years at Phase One, it was time to do this for myself with the lessons learned over the span of 13 years in the industry.

I learned what to do, but more importantly I learned what NOT to do.

I quit my job, borrowed money against my home, and started Capture Integration in 2004.  

If you were behind your camera and could choose anything you wanted to be in your viewfinder what would you be looking at?

This one is easy. It would be my wife. She is my “ride or die.”  She has been my muse. But most importantly, my favorite thing to look at in the world is the smile on my “person’s” face.  I can’t say that she has always enjoyed being on the other end of my lens but she hasn’t’ had a choice being married to me.  Every now and then she lets me know that I am her #1 by her “one finger salutes” and it just makes me warm and fuzzy inside…

Name 3 things that you could not give up?

• My morning coffee
• The sound of a 500hp V8 on a cold start
• Holding Christine’s hand

Name 3 things that you could live without?

• Spaghetti with a red sauce – not for me
• Slow drivers in the passing lane – especially if they drive a Corolla
• Radiohead – I am not alone on this one! 🙂

What do you look forward to in the future?

To be able to build a farm on our land from the fence posts up.

To plant that garden patch.

To be surrounded by loving farm animals you have saved or raised.

To listen to that deafening cacophony of bovine chatter, buzzing pollinators, nearby pasture neighs, and the wind though the GA pine…….  

And to have the satisfying comfort knowing that  “I have done my best.”