Yearly Archives: 2015

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)!

 

The days somehow seem oh so crazy long (whether you work away from your littles and just trying to rush the day away to get back home to them;  or whether you are at home chasing after your littles).  The hours seem to drag by some days and yet when you finally found the time to sit down for just a moment of peace, you realize that in what felt like that one incredibly long hour or day actually turned out to be a week or a month that suddenly came and went! DL3A4029

How is it that time can feel so sluggishly slow one moment and then in a blink of an eye all of a sudden blow by us so fast it can make our heads spin?!

It’s not about being on auto pilot.  It’s not about being completely efficient at the every day tasks or just trying to get it all in and all done working hard to be the best you can for your family.  It literally just happens!  To me, sometimes it just feels almost like I’m standing still yet watching Linc just speed by, the wild child that he is!

These moments are so incredibly precious and priceless.  We all feel it!  As soon as we bring our littles home, we just want to hold them so tightly because we know each tiny second is a unique experience we won’t get to repeat again!  I know… sounds depressing when it’s said like that, but really it’s wonderfully beautiful!  Let’s just say it:  we you become a mom (or a parent in general… I’m not leaving out the daddy’s here at all)  you are just changed!  Time feels different.  It means a different thing completely!

Each day is a brand new experience!  Heck moment to moment can be a brand new experience!

When I had Lincoln, my view of photography completely changed!  I saw every single second as a possible moment to freeze in time!  I wanted to capture it all!  Gosh I still do!

There are days and moments where I just wish a photographer could follow us around all the hours that he is awake and just continuously and with rapid fire take a million pictures of the interactions we have together.  I love how his little mind works and more than anything I love how he views the world with wild curiosity and complete loving excitement!

Every moment is important!  The way that the time flies around here… I just want to soak it all up and have it saved for later!  I want to fill my house with prints and albums so that he can see who he was and how he has grown!

As mommas we are the memory keepers for our family’s.  We are the story tellers and we get to pass down the history of “us” from generation to generation.  We are trusted to do this and it’s a big gift and a big responsibility!

So often though when we do this, we tend to forget to include ourselves.  We are mostly the ones that are taking the pictures and documenting are memories.

Sometimes (I do this often so I can use myself as an example) it’s uncomfortable for us to be in front of the camera.  We tend to make excuses.  My most frequent excuses are I haven’t showered yet today, my hair looks awful, I’m not dressed well enough!

Do those sound familiar to you?!

Trust me… I can make excuses all day long because I am soo awkward in front of the camera!

BUT…

These are my words of advice that I’m going to offer to myself.  It’s a plea really… to you and to me!  We need to forget those little things and put them aside.  We need to step in front of that camera and be with our children, be with our family!

One day our children are going to want to look back and see us as parents!  They aren’t going to care if we weren’t showered with our hair just so.  (Linc might… because often he tells me “mommy fix your hair!”)   Our children aren’t going to care years from now if we had the right clothes on or we had our make up done.

They aren’t going to care what we looked like exactly… just that we were there!  

They will want to know what our hands might look like and if they have the same ones.  Do they smile like we do or have the same kind of spirit!

It’s those kinds of  character traits that you can’t exactly see but you can feel when you look at an image that our children are going to want to look for!

They will not only want to know their story, but also our story as their parents!

So in this next year my dear mamas:  if you haven’t thought of a goal for the year or a project, maybe start with this:

  • Break out your camera and snap away, at all of the moments that draw your attention.  How the light hits your little one’s face one day.  How you love to marvel at how long their eye lashes are.  How they play with wild abandon or read passionately in a little nook.  There is beauty in every single image if you are willing to see it!
  • Place yourself and be willing to be in front of the camera with your family!  No matter what, no excuses!

Let’s try and do it together!  I will if you will!

These days that can sometimes feel so long (oh so long my dear sweet Linc 🙂 ) are flying by all too quickly.  I want to spend every second I can soaking it all up and making sure we can remember them for years and years to come!

I’m soo beyond excited this morning because Lauren and Sean’s Surf the Dress session was chosen to be featured on the Two Bright Lights Blog!

I know it may sound weird, but I get giddily excited when sessions are chosen to be featured: not because my work is being featured (although that is super amazing and I’m ever so grateful for that!)  I get super excited for my clients and friends and I’m just especially excited for Lauren and Sean this morning!

You all:  my couples and my families… are sooooo fuuuun!!!!  I know a million photographers say this (all the time!)  But my clients are truly and honestly (hands down) the most FUN and the most beautifully spirited and soulful people!  When I get the chance to show how beautiful they are to the world… oooh boy!

This session was totally spur of the moment and so completely unique!  These two are complete lovers of the ocean.. truly!  If they could build a house under the water, they would!  They met as life guards (in and around the water), they spent most of their courtship in and around the water.  Sean proposed to Lauren as she glided to the shore on a paddle board while he waited on bent knee!  They were married on the beach!  It was only fitting that these two best friends and adventure seekers come together for a session like this!  Bonus:  Lauren is kind of amazing to get in the ocean in her Watters Wedding Dress, but to surf in it… that is crazy hard!

Now.. to have their story and their infectious love, not only for each other but also for the beach and for adventure, shared with others to see… it truly makes my heart burst!

I am eternally grateful to Ragan and the team from Two Bright Lights!  I can’t thank them enough for choosing this session!

You can check out their feature here…

But here’s a little sneak peek reminder… in case you  missed it the first go around!

Congratulations to Lauren and Sean! Thank you both for being so adventurous and fun loving and willing to just GO!