Stepping out of your comfort zone

Through out my life I have been pushed to to step out and do things that I am not comfortable with. At the time I hated every minute of it, but I learned that most of the time when I stepped out of my comfort zone I really enjoyed what ever it was that I was trying to do. With this knowledge I have convinced myself to try more new things. It could be as simple as new color of nail polish to as big as a giant career change. All things that I have tried I have never regretted trying once I got through the newness.

I feel that I have gotten stuck in a rut when it comes to my photography. I mainly photograph my pets, (they don't argue with me like my children and they are easy to bribe when I have milk bones on hand) so I figured it was time for a change.

I was given the wonderful opportunity to second shoot a wedding with Whitney Montgomery, the owner of WAM Photography. It was amazing! Now I will admit that I don't think I was feeling the same pressure that Whitney was feeling as this was her wedding, and her name. I on the other hand was learning. I did want to give the best product, however I was not scared to make a mistake, or really missing a shot, because I knew that Whitney was working to get the same shot from another angle.

I must admit there are a number of photos that I was NOT happy with, there were times I felt rushed, and even though I knew I had no pressure to get "the shot" I still wanted too. I realized that I have alot of growing and learning to do when it comes to photography. I learned that I need to develop an understanding of flash, because using natural/available lighting is not always going to be optimal, and in some cases can destroy the photo. I realized that even though I shoot in manual and I can adjust my settings, there are times there is just not enough light. Focus was a huge challenge for me. As I look back over the files I notice how many shots I had that would have been amazing, but I missed the focus point.

Even though there were a number of shots that I missed I also nailed it on several as well. In fact some of these photos were given to the clients! I was actually quite proud of that small accomplishment when Whitney showed me the final product.

Overall I have learned a lot from the experience. I know that I am no where near ready to shoot on my own at a wedding, but this has opened up a new challenge for me, and hopefully this will help me to continue and to grow with my photography. I will never be able to thank Whitney enough for not only letting me shoot with her, but building my confidence as a photographer and offering to allow me to continue second shooting with her next wedding season! I am looking forward to a season full of challenges!

I would love to hear from the rest of you about how you step out of your comfort zones and continue to grow. This could be in any aspect of life! Please share your story below!

Ahhh... the Holidays......

Ladies and Gentlemen it is official! We have moved into the Holiday Season! I must admit that I will not acknowledge Christmas to much prior to Thanksgiving as I am one that wants to slow the season down and enjoy it just a bit longer than most. However I do love the holiday season.

What are the reasons that you love the holidays? I have a number of reasons. For one, well I love the food! I believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two favorite holidays purely because of that reason alone. Since I have gotten older I have taken on the responsibilities of actually cooking the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and it gives me time to reflect and be proud at the same time. As a child my grandmother was the one that held the big family meals every year and every holiday. I loved it because it was at this time the house smelled amazing, the food tasted amazing, and there was always something special waiting for me. My grandmother saved certain recipes for these holidays as well, and these recipes happen to be my favorite ones. My grandmother has since pasted and now the tradition has fallen to me. I know that I do not cook as well as she did, but I can tell that my children enjoy it as much as I did at their age and lets me know that I am on the right track.

I must admit that although there is nothing that I can do about it now, and that this is something that was completely out of my hands as a child, that there is something that causes a pang of pain from time to time during the holiday season. That pang of pain is caused by the inability to show my children exactly what the holidays were like for me as a child. My family has very few photos from the holidays that I am aware of, and it saddens me because these are some of my fondest memories. I can tell my children about the amazing Christmas tree that my grandmother and I put up every year, and the wonderful food she would cook, and the beautiful snow on the ground outside, but for my children it is a fairy tale. There is nothing to physically show them. Not only do I not have these photos for my children but I do not have them for myself. All memories fade to the recesses of our mind, and sometimes we need a trigger to bring them forward. A trigger can be a person, a smell, or a photo. I am sure there are a number of other things that could be used as triggers, but these are my triggers. With time my triggers are fading. The kitchen that my grandmother use to cook in no longer is in the family. My grandparents have past away, and I have no photos. All I have left are the memories, and I am afraid that one day they will fade away as well.

With all of this in mind I have made an attempt to provide my children with photos, so they will have something to trigger these memories for them years from now. I can only hope and pray that these memories will be as special to them when they are older as mine are to me. At least I know they will have something physical to hold on too and assist with triggering their fond memories.

Now that I am older I have finally realized why my grandparents loved receiving Christmas cards from friends and family. It was the one time of year that they were able to see the changes in friends and family that they were unable to see through out the year due to being unable to travel. How you ask? Simple, it was done with an updated photo. I can remember getting the mail for my grandmother and bringing it into the house for her and listening to her talk about Uncle So and So and how much Cousin So and So had grown over the last year. I witnessed the joy on her face as she read the cards and looked at the pictures and happily shared them with my grandfather. I never understood as a child the importance. I personally hated getting my photo taken. But now that I look back and I think about the excitement and happiness that these photos gave my grandparents I now understand.

I have said all of this to say that I am excited about the holidays and the fun that comes with them. I also wanted to remind you of the importance of holiday photos and what they can mean to others. In an effort to help you create these memories I want to remind everyone that I have open slots available for holiday photos. If you are interested in a mini session please email me and I will send you the information for these as well.

Don't forget about your furry family members either! All of mine LOVE the Holidays. As you can see this is my dear Brownie and her favorite toy, Santa. I completely understand that there are many that believe that their pets are part of the family too, and I support this! Bring your fur babies along for photos as well!

I would also love to hear about your favorite holiday memories! Please leave your favorite holiday memories in the comments!

But why?

Good Afternoon!!!!
Over the last week or two I have noticed on social media that there are a number of people that are becoming angry with the inability to find a decently priced photographer. This is not something that I understand at all.

Each and everyone of us have to have an income. In order to pay for your home, the things that you have, your transportation, everything. There is nothing in this world that is free. I know that this seems crazy when it comes to photography. I mean all it is pushing a button on a camera right?

Actually no it is so much more than that. For instance let us start at the beginning. There is the time that we must take to market ourselves as photographers and to get our names out there for our customers to find us. Marketing not only takes time, but it also can take money. There is also the initial cost of our equipment and then the upkeep of that same equipment. For the photographers who have studios and such there is also the money that it takes for the upkeep of all of these items as well. Now when you meet with your photographer there is a contract. I can promise you the paper that it is written on, and the time that a lawyer invested into making sure the contract is legal was not free. Now lets think about the actual shoot. Did you use props, did you go to a location that requires a fee? These are all things that do not come free to the photographer. Now think about why you hired that photographer. You hired them because of their talent, and their ability to create art. In order to create art many photographers use programs such as Lightroom and Photoshop, yet again another cost.

As you can see with each step in the process to get your photos there is a cost involved, and this cost is only to get through the process, it does not even pay the photographer. This photographer still has to be able to pay all of these costs, and be able to pay themselves in order to support their families.

So the next time that you are looking for a photographer and the cost is more then you would care to pay please take a moment to think about what all it entails, and that is before you are even paying for the actual talent and time for your photographer.

Here are some additional links if you would like to read them about the cost that photographers have to consider when developing their pricing guides. I hope that this helps bring an understanding as to why photographers cost more then what you may think that they should cost.

http://www.themoderntog.com/cost-start-a-photography-business
http://clickitupanotch.com/2012/06/photography-business-start-cost/
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-calculate-your-cost-of-doing-business/

Fear of what is to come

I must admit that with everything that I have done in my life and all of the things that I have faced there has been one factor that has always been there.... fear. In a lot of cases I completely understood that fear. When I graduated from high school, it was the fear of starting college and being alone. When I got married I was afraid that I would never be "good enough" as a wife. With every child that I have had there was the fear of something being wrong during the pregnancy and fear of losing my child during birth. Now that my children are growing it is the fear that I am not doing enough as a mother. As a Soldier in the military there has always been the fear of losing the person to my left or right, and while on deployment the fear of not coming home to my children, or coming home disfigured.

When I took up photography I discovered another fear that I did not know that existed. The fear of what is to come.

I never realized how much a camera, and the thought of what that camera could produce scared people. I have seen people panic before a shoot about what they are going to look like in the final product, they panic during the shoot and after the shoot. I have heard horror stories of people seeing the final project and blaming the photographer for the way that they look.
I would like to take a moment to explain a few things. First of all, yes a photographer does have some control of the overall out come of a photo. We are able to control things such as the way that the photo is composed, the posing of our clients, to some extent the lighting, and post processing. Please understand that photographers DO NOT Photoshop their clients to add 50lbs, and no, a camera does not add 10lbs. There is no reason for us to do things like this. It does not in anyway benefit us to make our clients unhappy. Yes, when we edit our photos and we add some artistic uniqueness to them, and that is our style. Our style is what attracts the client. 

I will personally admit that I am not a fan of being in front of the camera. Here are my reasons why I do not like to be in front of the camera:

1. I am not comfortable with how I look most days.
2. I am not the one in control of the situation.
3. I am afraid of what the person behind the camera is actually thinking about me.
4. I am aware that I do not look like a model, and it makes me worry that my looks are going to affect the final product.
5. I am afraid of what others will say about the photos that are created.

Now these may be very similar reasons that you are afraid to be in front of the camera. However, are these reasons really substantial enough to be fearful or angry about the final product? In my personal and humble opinion my answer to you would be, NO. I am sure that you are wondering why I would say this about my own fears. Please let me explain by breaking these fears down a bit.

1. I am not comfortable with how I look most days. Why am I not comfortable? Well the simple answer is that is how I have been conditioned. I have spent many years in the military and one of the requirements is monitoring my weight and giving an appearance of being fit and if for some reason this was not meant you were immediately labeled as fat, and could potentially be put out of the military. My whole career I have ridden the line of the weight and therefore I panic about how I look because it really could cost me my job. However is this really the case for you? Have you been conditioned to be overly mindful of how you look? In most cases I will say yes, because society as a whole conditions people to believe that we should all look, act and dress a certain way. However is it true? Take a moment and look in the mirror, I bet there is someone looking back that is very beautiful in their own way no matter how they look.

2. I am not in control of the situation. This is one you may or may not struggle with. I feel that I struggle with this because of several reasons. One, I know how the camera works and I want to control the settings and everything about the situation, two, my background has taught me to be in control no matter what the cost because in some cases it could cost me my survival. Now realize this is a bit extreme, and may not apply to you. Trust the person that you are paying to take your photo. You picked them for a reason, and you gave them your money. Let go of your control and trust the photographer to make your photo beautiful and amazing.

3. I am afraid of what the person behind the camera is thinking of me. I guess that this is really silly. If the person behind the camera thought I was a horrible ugly person I am sure that they would find a reason to not take my money. If the person behind the camera thinks I am horrible why would they want to have to deal with me at all. I personally believe that not every photographer can take every persons photo. There has to be a fit between the client and the photographer. If there is not a good fit the overall experience is not going to be great, and it is going to lead to a horrible interaction. Therefore when you are booking with your photographer make sure that you are comfortable with them, if you are worried about what they think of you after you meet with them, maybe there is reason. However maybe it is just not a good fit. Keep looking, and find the photographer with the style that you love, and that makes you feel comfortable and is a good fit for you and your family.

4.  I am aware that I do not look like a model, and it makes me worry that my looks are going to affect the final product. In America we are conditioned to believe that we must always look like a super model in front of a camera and if we don't the picture will not turn out. This is not the case. Ladies, every stretch mark, every scar, every bit of stretched out skin is what makes you unique. Every gray hair that you have acquired, make you special and unique to someone. Believe it or not there are many men out there that believe that there spouse is beautiful the way that they are. Stretch marks and all. Why? Because it is their wife and each of these things is apart of a time in their life together and they would not trade that time for the world. Ladies, just because your husband does not tell you that you are beautiful does not mean that they do not think that. They just don't realize that we need to hear it. For my younger ladies that have not had children and have not started to age remember that you are beautiful as you are. Each of us is different and there is no reason to believe that you need to look like a Victoria Secret model in order to take a photo. Be who you are and love every moment of it because you are you, and that means you are beautiful. Do not believe that the final product is going to be affected, because it will be a final product of you and therefore will be amazing just like you.

5. I am afraid of what others will say about the photos that are created. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is something that you should never be afraid of. It is null and void. Stop and take a look at the final product. Do you love it? Does it represent you? Does your uniqueness come out in the photo? How does the photo make you feel? Notice all of these questions are about you. If you are happy with the final product, then who cares what anyone else thinks? YOU paid for the photos, and they are of YOU. As long as you are happy and you feel amazing about them who cares what others think? You are the only one that needs to be happy with them.

Never be afraid of what is to come when you are in front of the camera. Trust that you are making every moment matter, and your photographer is catching those moments and will ensure that it is beautiful. Remember your photographer is not out to ruin you, they are there to make you feel amazing and beautiful, they want you to be happy with the outcome, not afraid of it. They are not going to make you look horrible they are going to catch your natural beauty and emphasize it.

Never fear what is to come, because what is coming is a small glimpse of you and your personal amazingness, embrace it and love it! Don't fight it, change it, or hide it! Love who you are!

 

Tell me what you think of this photo. Is she beautiful? Should she have stayed away from the camera? Do you think the photographer did her a disservice or did this photographer capture this subject and everything about her?

Fall mini sessions!!

There is more there

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” –Dorothea Lange

How many of you just run through life without a second thought? Do you rush to get from point A to point B and so on until your day is done and you can get back home and crash on the couch just to do it all over again the next day? Do you ever stop and take a breath or stop and "smell the roses"? Or are you one of those that holds the thought process that you will do all of that "smelling of the roses" thing when you are able to retire?

I must admit that I use to be one of those people. I use to run through life as fast as I could and never bothered to stop and take a look at what was going on around me. I did not take the time to enjoy the scene or the people or anything that would even remotely associated with it because well, my family, and my job was my life and I felt that when the kids were grown and on their own and I was able to retire that was when I would take the time to slow down and enjoy the scene and the people that was around me. I have learned otherwise since I have picked up a camera.

I first picked up a camera because of my children. I wanted to record all the cute moments in their lives, (and to be honest I wanted to have pictures to embarrass them with later in front of boyfriends and girlfriends. Bad I know LOL)  and I wanted these pictures to remember the important moments in life for my kids. I know there are things that have happened in my life that I wish that I had a picture of, and well I don't, which is no one's fault really. But I wanted to make sure that my children had the photos that I wished that I had from my childhood. So this lead to taking action shots during sports and just fun moments at home. This was the first step in seeing what I was missing while I was rushing around.

After I realized how much I was missing and how much I may never see again I started to see things in a much different way. The sunset became an individual event, not something I would see again tomorrow. Places in general have become more interesting because I am looking at it from another point of view. I must admit that I tend to look at things as another beautiful backdrop for a photo shoot or another amazing background for my computer, but it is still something that I want a photo of, and I am taking the time to actually look. Things that I have never taken an interest in before I now have an interest in. 

From behind the camera I have learned alot from my children. I have seen how important that one pass in basketball, or that one hit in football, or that one goal in soccer means the world to them, be it good or be it bad. I have learned that there are alot of things that I have missed out on. The playfulness that happens between siblings (even when it appears that they are fighting) the beauty of building a sand castle, or the joy of just getting dirty because you can. My children have also taught me that it is ok to slow down a bit to "smell the roses" and even more importantly to take a picture of the rose so that I can remember it for years to come. 

It is ok to slow down and breath. It is ok not to rush around all the time, and by all means enjoy the moments that you are currently in. And above all take the moment to take that photo, or have someone take that photo for you, because it will last more than a lifetime.

I must apologize

Thank you for taking the time to come back to my blog, especially considering how long it has been since I have posted.

First of all I would like to apologize for my absence. I realize that it is not good for a person, or a business for that matter to go silent for as long as I have been. With all of this being said I feel that it requires some sort of explanation.

There are several reasons that all of my activities have stopped. It is not just my blog that went silent so did my personal social media pages as well as my business.

Why? Like I said there are several reasons. First of all one is very close to my heart.  My beautiful pup Brownie (pictured above) has had some health issues as of late. These health issues lead to the discovery of a tumor that we were told has to be removed. This in of itself has been an emotional ride for me. Brownie has been a constant in my life for over ten years and she is my buddy. She has traveled from coast to coast and to Hawaii with me. I have not had a day where I have come home and she has not been there to greet me at the door, or a time when I needed someone to cuddle with that she was not there. I must admit that when we found the tumor that I was scared and I thought the worst. I believed that this tumor had spread before we caught it and that we were going to lose my dear Brownie long before I thought that I would be ready. This sent me the direction of a downward spiral of fear, doubt and to some extent grieving for a loss that I had not suffered yet. I lost my will to move forward and all I was able to think about was that I was going to lose my best friend and I felt that it was all my fault and that there was something that I could have done. Yes, I have a full family and yes they do love me and are there for me, however Brownie has been my rock when no one knew (and I do not even think that she knew) that I needed one, and so this was a very emotional blow. One I did not have a way to handle. However, as luck would have it when we completed the pre-op appointment for Brownie we learned that she has one tumor, and there was no spread to the chest or anywhere! It could still be cancer as the vet warned, however if we get it out now we can stop it early from taking over and eventually taking Brownie from me before I am ready. She will be having surgery soon and I will update all of you on how she is doing over the next week or so.

On another note I am making some plans to hold a fall mini session I am currently scouting a location and working on a price list. I will get this posted as soon as my girl has recovered from her surgery and we are back on track.

Thank you for the love and support!