Once upon a time...

This is my submission for the I heart faces "Beautiful B&W" contest. It was taken at a friends wedding I was helping shoot South of Atlanta a few months ago. The adorable flower girls seeing their soon to be aunt all dressed up like a princess was priceless!

 This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Happy Valentine's Day

This is my entry into I Heart Faces photo challange. This week the theme was hearts. I had this fun shot of my sweet daughter after she made her Valentine's mailbox for school!

www.iheartfaces.com

Photographing the everyday moments: I heart faces challange

As a photographer, I am used to picking up my camera for a portrait session, or a wedding. I must admit however, that sometimes I get lazy when I'm home, and unless we are all dressed up for a special occasion I don't grab the camera as often as I should. The perfectionist in me prefers the room to be cleaned or to have just the right light before taking a picture. It's gotten worse since starting my business. I now feel this added pressure that because I am a "Professional" photographer, all of my pictures, even of my own family must be frame worthy! Of course much of life is not "frame" worthy, and that is just me being overly concerned with someone judging my whole body of work based on a random badly lit picture of my daughter on vacation. I guess you could say overcoming the perfectionist thing is still a work in progress:)

The truth is when you look back on life, it's probably not the dressed up portrait moments that you will
remember the most. One of my favorite pictures I found recently, was one of me when I was a toddler sleeping on my mom. Is it a flattering picture? No, but it's says so much more. My mother's love and devotion is captured in that image, so no matter how messy our hair looks, it's a great picture.

In honor of the those once in a lifetime everyday moments, here is a picture of my sweet daughter during storytime. We have an elaborate bedtime routine that always includes a bedtime story. The "Alice and Wonderland" pop up book is one of her favorites.

I Heart faces, an online photography site for people who love taking pictures, had a photo challange this week for images with books, and this one I took a few weeks ago, came to mind when I heard this weeks theme. This photo was submitted to the I heart Faces photo challange.  www.iheartfaces.com

 

Perfection is overrated.

My therapist said I was a perfectionist. I was shocked and defended myself, "Clearly I can't be a perfectionist, have you seen my house"?

Sign #1 that you might be a perfectionist: You don't think you do anything well enough to be called a perfectionist!

The more I considered it, the clearer it became! I have spent much of my life trying to do everything "right". I am a rule follower and a people pleaser. I love doing things I excel at, and desperately avoid doing anything I may fail at, or look like a fool trying! Sure, sometimes it works to my advantage because I will work hard to be great at whatever it is I am doing, but it has also kept me on the sidelines of life, watching and not doing because I feared failure.

I was once told my an acting to teacher to "not be afraid of making wrong choices". I didn't get the depth of what he was saying to me at the time, but what I realize now is his advice applied not just to my acting but to my life as a whole. Being wrong, looking bad, and making a fool of yourself is how you learn what's right, and get better, and discover all of the interesting detours that you lead you to who you were meant to be. Stepping out on a limb where you haven't gone before is scary, but it's those moments when we stare the fear in the face and step out anyway, when we grow the most.

Take the imperfect pictures, tell someone how you feel even when you don't have all the right words figured out, and play the game even if it means you might lose. What you will gain, while it may not be perfect, may be a whole lot more interesting!

If you are a recovering perfectionist like me, I highly recommend the books "The gift of imperfection" by Brene Brown, "The relief of Imperfection by Joan C. Webb and a good study of the book of Romans in the Bible. Getting God's grace has helped me give myself some!

Gaining Momentum

Ok, so while I am just getting started in the whole blog world, I have been on this journey to reconnect with my dreams for awhile now. If you are tuning in midway through let me get you up to speed...

I went to NYC to pursue my dreams of being an actor. Lived there for 7 years, loved it, and it was a life changing time, but I spent more time waiting tables then starring in shows. I decided to try something else I was passionate about and ended up working in fashion, well sort of, if you call footless pantyhose fashion. SPANX is now a house old name, but it wasn't at the time. Around this time met a great guy, who also happened to live in Atlanta where SPANX was based, and before I knew it I was packing my bags and moving to the ATL!

After getting married, and leaving SPANX I was unsure what to do next. I wasn't up for trying to learn the theater scene in Atlanta, and the fashion world in the South, was a little lacking. The problem is having studied acting, the job best suited my skills was sales. So I sold, ad space at least for a little while. It was for a wedding magazine, and while I loved the industry, sales quotas were not my thing. I left and briefly tried my hand at a gift basket business, Atlanta Basket Cases, and while it had a great name, and a good first year, when I got pregnant, we decided it wasn't viable enough to keep going without me, and running a business with baby on board was getting tricky.

We moved to Athens, which after living in Time Square for 7 years, felt like life had come to a halt. It's a nice town, but a small town, lots of great people, but it got old fast. I was at home with a baby, and ready to pull my hair out. When my husband took a new job, we got the chance to move back to Atlanta, and the pace picked up a little. This is when I made the decision to go back to school. First time I didn't get a degree, I got a diploma, and college credit, but it was an acting conservatory, so I thought it was time to bite the bullet go back and get a new direction. Having gone to a performing arts high school, I knew if I was going to go back to school it had to be an artsy one, so I headed to SCAD Atlanta. While my true passion was photography, having studies such a niche thing the first time around I felt I needed to study something broader and went into Advertising Design. I have always been drawn to marketing, branding, and design elements, so it seemed like a good fit. I thought if nothing else I could keep working on my photography, and one day design some killer marketing and advertising pieces for myself.

Two years into school, I loved it, and was getting straight A's but felt like it was time to have another kid, before the first one got much older. So, took the plunge, got pregnant, and took a break from school.

I forgot to mention I got a Nikon digital SLR in 2006. I have always loved photography, started with a 110 camera in elementary school, came in second place in a Kodak contest in middle school, and was Historian of the Thespian Society in high school. Once I had my daughter my fascination with capturing those critical moments was taken to new heights. I started shooting friends kids, and at the end of 2010 launched a site, and started charging for my work.

Baby #2 is now almost 7 months old, and my photography business is picking up momentum. I have put school on hold, and decided to see what happens if I give my photography dreams some space to grow.

OK, now you're up to speed, that's assuming anyone read long enough to get to this point. If you did, wow, thanks for sticking with me! Would love for you to follow my blog, or leave a brief comment. I promise to keep future posts a lot briefer!