Monthly Archives: January 2015

This post has been a long time in the makings:  to try and explain something that has my entire heart is a heavy heavy deal!

It’s no secret that my heart, my photographer heart belongs with children and families!  It’s where I’m called to serve and where I truly feel in my element!

My story with children and families goes way back and it’s something I would love to share with you!  It’s a raw story… one that involves a lot of who we are as a family… us Tuckers and I will have to divide it up into a short series here on the blog.

I think the best way for me to start though, is for me to introduce you to my Lifetime Experience!

Last year, I met with Katelyn James for a re-cap mentoring session.  We spoke a lot about my love and passion for shooting only children and families.  We talked about how I really wanted to create an experience that detailed how important I felt these sessions were.

You see… weddings are extremely important and it shows:  pinterest boards and guides and magazines and industries all developed just for weddings!  Brides and grooms and their families invest in so much for their one special day!  And it is… an extremely special day that you will remember for the rest of your life!

Something changes though when you become a mom and a dad!  Your life shifts and what was super important also shifts!  It’s miraculous!

So I feel that we need to have that same kind of value that we have for weddings placed on our family images!  These family images and sessions also deserved an experience!

After all… these moments we have with our children race by as quick as the beats of our own hearts!

This is where Katelyn encouraged me to create the Lifetime Experience!    She helped me define my passion so that I could put it into writing for my clients to see and hear in my Portrait Guide.

The Lifetime Experience isn’t just about showing up to sessions and providing my clients with beautiful images and a good time!

The Lifetime Experience is about creating a relationship with my clients that will actually last a lifetime!

Once you have a relationship that is consistant and honest… you can be comfortable and relaxed!  You can feel free to be yourself!  That’s when (as Linc would say) the magic happens.  Together, we capture images that absolutely reflect who you are from the inside out.

The Lifetime Experience shared in the guide above is about sharing our stories together and in that guide, I share my story as a first time mom with my amazing clients.

My story isn’t all beautifully clean and sunny!  It’s raw and rough and because of that it has its very own beauty!

If you will let me, I’d like to share that story with you here in this series!

You’ll just have to wait until next Wednesday to start.

 

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We unplugged this weekend!  It wasn’t by choice… but it was really amazing!  I hope everyone has a chance to do this.

By unplugged.. I mean the computers were shut off!  I didn’t check facebook (once!)  I saw e mails in my inbox, but I didn’t have a single second to respond to them!  (Which leads me to some business practices I think I might implement pretty soon!)

I looked at instagram, but we didn’t post or have a second to!  We barely had a chance to pick up our phones except for a few phone calls here and there to our family members!

We left all social media behind (kind of) I mean we had access to, and Tuck didn’t really go unplugged because I dare say that might be impossible for him doing what he does, but I loved not connecting and not really “seeing what was happening”.

We were so busy not even being busy, just truly enjoying each other!

Saturday Linc had soccer and I got lost in target!  I’m telling you friends… as a mom SOLO TRIPS TO TARGET…. WHAT?!

It’s a dangerous thing!  I came home with soo many goodies that made Tuck just shake his head!  Linc and I then re-decorated the kitchen and made lunches at the same time.  We also took care of a sick daddy!

Tuck had to go into work for a bit on Sunday, so we went swimming at the Williams Farm Recreation center.

If you haven’t been there and you have little ones who love the water… GO!  GO NOW!

It’s fabulous!

Linc and his buddy ran through the splash pad with some serious wild abandon!  I’m really not sure who had more fun, Linc playing with all the amazing water park fun or me watching him dominate the water slides or show no fear at wading into the deep and swimming on his own!

Last night I sat there as I was journaling and writing my gratitude notes and I realized that as a small business owner doing what I do, social media is super important to my job.  It’s such a wonderful tool but being connected to it all day like I am (like I need to be) and like sometimes I can be addicted to is overwhelming!

Taking the time out this weekend and I mean literally a “time out” from social media and being “connected” was truly a real blessing!  I feel truly refreshed like my battery has been recharged!

I spent some serious quality time with my family and with Linc!  Time that involved one on one uninterrupted conversation and play.  Time that was completely undivided and 100 % in the moment~

I think one of my new goals or practices this year might be to stay as “unplugged” as possible on the weekends.

As I watched him wade into the water yesterday I realized how fast time is slipping by!  I want to be present for all of his moments, really present!  I want to give him my undivided attention so that later on in life when the moments really count… the conversations really count, he knows I will be there to listen to him!

You might think I”m so silly, but last night my little boy was TIRED!  We went all day yesterday without a nap, we were having that much fun.  Tuck bathed him earlier in the evening while I was cooking us a crazy dinner so he came down all fresh and clean in his spiderman robe and lighting mcqueen slippers to eat with us!  He’s so cute!

But I decided to take him to bed last night and rock him off to sleep.  It’s something we haven’t done in a while because he’s just so big now.  He gathered all his winks and his blanket and he climbed up in my lap.  The crazy bit was that the second he laid his sweet little head down on my shoulder he immediately fell asleep.

I rocked him a while longer and just cried a bit… good happy tears.  He is getting so big but in moments like that, he’s just still the right size.  He’s still so little and so sweet!

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Conferences, Workshops, WPPI, Mentoring, Coaching… it’s all AMAZING!

It’s also soo needed once you get to a certain part as a business owner and photographer.

We need community.  We need to lift one another up and help inspire each other to go after what we want and keep pursuing our dreams.

This is why continuing education is so important!

Creatives need to get together so we can literally get the buzz off one another and feel those warm fuzzies that we all started out with!

This year, I have decided to set a really strict budget for my business!  Tuck and I are really looking hard at what’s coming in and what’s going out.  We are trying to streamline our tasks and get organized!

Last year and the year before I did a one on one mentoring session with Katelyn James!  I can not even begin to tell you how LIFE CHANGING this experience was for me both personally and professionally.

Seriously, life changing!  (ya’ll she is just an amazingly beautiful person, inside and out!)  I can’t even!!!!

So this year, education wasn’t even on my radar.  I was completely focused on working and sessions and building The Lifetime Experience (more on that to come friends!)

That was until I heard about this… The Creative at Heart Conference!!!

When the women got back from the first round of this conference, the talk was overwhelming!

I had to know more!  I had to talk to Tuck!

We sat down and I realized, I needed to do this.

I am a firm believer (now) in setting priorities and wants vs. needs.  I set my list and we were really sticking to it.  Sometimes though, every once in a while and opportunity comes up and you just know you are meant to be there!

So midnight last night, Tuck and set our alarm! We got up, registered for the conference (EEEK), I squealed out a loud HOORAH and then we climbed groggily back into bed!

I’m so excited that I am actually going to Creative at Heart!

I can’t even begin to say enough or describe this conference to you.  Not enough to do it justice.

Think about women coming together and learning about creating community and relationships!  Talking together about how to make a business that is meaningful and lasting and about something MORE than just business!!!

And the speakers…. OK Go check out their line up:  Katelyn James, Lauren Hooker and Mary Marantz just to name a few!

Friends… if you are looking for some inspiration maybe this is for you too!!

Are you looking for something to kick start your year?!  Please, go check out this conference and reserve your spot.  I would love to see you there!

 

P. S.

Check back next week to see a new series all about the LIFETIME EXPERIENCE and why I created it.  It’s personal (far beyond anything I would ever dream of sharing)!

 

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