“This is That Lady Beauty, in whose praise
Thy voice and hand shake still, - long known to thee
By flying and fluttering hem, - the beat
Following her daily of thy heart and feet,
How passionately and irretrievably,
In what fond flight, how many ways and days”
Love looks like a lot of things. But the love that looks like laughter is maybe my favorite love of all. It can weather a whole lot of storms. I feel like I'm probably right in the middle of this. And that's strange. For a long time I thought I was at the beginning, but 18 years maybe puts me past the start. Sometimes I miss the not knowing. There's a weariness that can come with life. It can weigh you down and beat you up, and you weather the knocks and then stand back up. But there is also a strength that comes with that. And we can you can do it as a team, when you can laugh late at night, because all three kids cried at different times, and you forgot the things you needed to remember, and when your son Jack keeps saying, Dammmit! Ha! It's good to have that laughter in your back pocket. And when you have problems, it's when you forgot to laugh, at yourself, at life, with your partner.
So starting out with joy. It's not such a bad way to begin all that is coming. All the good. All the tears. All they whys? When I see couples, like Shaelyn & Tyler, just starting but laughing the whole way, when their bodies find each other, and their eyes connect together, it makes me say, YES! You, you've found it. You've found the piece that matters.
Thank you, Shaelyn & Tyler, for letting your joy shine during your engagement photo session.
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
New Year, New Beginnings, New Goals and Old Goals. I'm entering a stage of motherhood that's foreign to me. Normally when my babies are nearing the 2 year-old mark, I get a little sad. It feels like the official end of babyhood, and in the past, it meant looking towards growing our family. That was really hard and complicated for us, and two year-old meant I needed to start dealing with that. But now, we are done having babies, and it means my Nora is moving out of baby forever, and I'm leaving that phase forever. ALL.THE.EMOTIONS. But you know what I used to do before babies? I set goals! Big Goals! And I pursued them. I went back to school after Scott graduated and got my degree in photography at 27, because I LOVED IT. It made no sense to anyone I knew except Scott. I started my way up from a small photography studio. I started my own business when it looked like a family might never happen. I FIGURED OUT TAXES (kind of) But here I am, leaving the last decade of my life, and looking towards a whole different kind of future. One that doesn't involve shots and doctors visits and late nights and no sleep. I've changed so much this last decade. My dreams have merged into my children's. But I still have my own. So, I've decided to ignore the voice in my head that says everyone can do everything better than you, and it's been done, and you don't have anything new to add. I mean, that might be true, but it wouldn't be true to myself. So, I want to create a new kind of session. One that doesn't have a checklist in my head of shots to get, or to make sure everyone is looking at the camera. One that doesn't worry deeply about disappointing people, because I know photos are an investment! One that honors parenthood and the fleetingness of childhood. So I wrote down what I wanted and it was too, FIND MAGIC. When your babies are crawling over you, when the light dances across your face, when your tired, and play the I lay down game. When your emotions are blurry and your heart is full. I want to focus on the emotion and not the technical, which means I'm giving myself permission to not be perfect. Maybe NO ONE will want these. That's okay, I'm going to track you down and force myself in your home...in a safe and respectable way! I just think we all deserve to have our magic captured. I think life changes quickly, and I don't want to spend the next decade chasing perfectionism, because that's my nature and that's been my whole life. I want to chase love, the feeling of it, the shape of it, and way it shapes your life.
Name in progress...just like my life.
Wonder Sessions
Magic Sessions
Childhood Series
Magichood Series
Either way, it's my goal. To add some imperfection and love into your life and mine. Who wants to play along?
