About

One day, a West Omaha photographer approached me with an intriguing proposition—to buy his studio. At the age of 24, I was faced with a monumental decision. This photographer was renowned, and his studio ranked among the top three in Omaha. Newly married to my beautiful wife, April, I had to seize this fantastic opportunity. We decided to embark on this adventure, purchasing a beautiful 4000-square-foot home studio in West Omaha. The purchase was a journey that took months to navigate as we did not have significant savings. After much persuasion and 8-bankers later, I secured four loans totaling $267,000. A first and second on the home and a first and second on the business, and in October 1985, I plunged into entrepreneurship and business ownership.

I had to make one of the hardest business decisions of my life. I had been working for my mentor, Les Hassel, for seven years, and they had become best friends. Les's kids were my age, so Les was like a second father to me. But I had to leave and start my own business.

The studio, which had been in business since 1967, was called David Lee Studio. A few years later, we changed the name to Rick Billings Photography & Video. 

Rick Billings at the peak of his Photography Career

In 1989, I got a knock on the door, expecting a client; I was surprised by two gentlemen from the State of Nebraska wanting to purchase our home, which included his studio. They needed it for a new road coming through. Father Flanagan’s Boys Town was across the street, and our property was an easy target for their needed land. To make a long story short, I acquired an acre of land 50 feet behind the old studio in the condemnation. I had the property rezoned commercial, and as a result, the price of the land quadrupled. He used that for a down payment and borrowed $500,000 to build an 8,000-square-foot state-of-the-art photography studio on the corner of 132nd & West Dodge Road in Omaha. April and I designed every inch of our new 8000 sq ft home studio and were there during the entire build. We moved in March of 1992. 

Later, in the summer of 1995, after a year of immersing myself in digital photographic technology, I fearlessly embarked on the transition of our professional portrait studio into the unknown world of digital photography. Unbeknownst to me then, I was about to become a pioneer, one of the first photographers in the world to embrace digital capture technology in their portrait photography business. This journey began when Kodak developed a camera for NASA with a CCD (charged couple device) that matched the quality of the film for the first phase of my business. The biggest obstacle was the cost, a staggering $29,950 for just the camera body with the CCD. But my unwavering vision and determination prevailed, even when my peers doubted me.

I quickly captured Kodak's interest, and they asked me to share my knowledge and experiences. So, I dedicated the next eleven years during my off-season in the studio to lecturing on digital photography and traveling to over 40 States, Canada, and Mexico. My mission was clear: to help others successfully transition their film studios into the age of digital photography. From 1995 to 2003, Rick was a proud member of a select group of professional photographers who served on Kodak’s Digital Professional Photography Mentor Team, a testament to his commitment to the industry and his peers.

In May 1997, I opened the first digital photography training center in the United States, getDigital Training Center.

One of my top three goals was to develop a business that could continue without me. I achieved that in March 1998 when I merged my business with a Pittsburgh-based company called PhotoWave. We relocated our family to Pittsburgh in June of that year. We operated the studio remotely until April 2003, and they sold it to Tim and Jinnie McCormick. I am proud to say Billings Photography in Omaha is still experiencing great success today.

Rick moved his family to Orlando in January 2002. 

Celebrating 50 Years
as a Professional Photographer!

Rick designed and built a new 8,000 sq ft Studio in 1992 in Omaha, Nebraska