2015 was a year to put in the books; not necessarily because I had big successes and grew my business by leaps and bounds, but more as a learning and reflecting year. 2015 was hard. Here's a little bit of a backstory: Rob, my husband, and I moved across the country to San Francisco towards the end of 2013. I continued to travel back to Knoxville, TN for weddings up until November 2014 (over an entire year of traveling); I was over it. I love and adore Knoxville and it will always be in my heart, but I was ready for San Francisco to be home. I was ready to unpack my camera gear and really focus on planting my roots in the Bay Area. When we moved here, Rob and I didn't know a SOUL in the city. Not one person. So making a name for myself was going to be difficult. There were many nights of crying, many days of searching Craigslist for a full-time job in HR; many applications went out only to be rejected. Even my safety net had huge holes. But Rob continued to be my support. He would tell me we have put too much time and energy into this for me to just give up...my business was right on the cusp of booming, he could feel it. Well, I'm happy he could, because I definitely couldn't. But I still went out, networked like crazy, made amazing relationships with other photographers, second shot so many weddings that my hard drives were filled with other photographer's images and my file folders were far fewer; I became envious of other photographers during October (the month that the community basically explodes) and found myself in a space of negativity far more often than I care to admit.
I don't want to sound like doom and gloom; 2015 was a solid year. I shot 6 weddings of my own, every single one of which I feel like I learned something new, had stunning images, developed relationships with my clients and began taking my business in the direction I wanted it to go. But one thing was missing. While going through and updating my portfolio, I noticed something about my images. Where was the emotion? Where were the belly laughs, the tickles, the sweet and unstaged moment of brushing a hair away, the last photograph that I take and say "that's it, it can't get any better"? I was over posing. I wanted the images to be perfect, and in those moments, I lost the beautiful imperfections. So in going through my images from this year, I went through and found the images that made my heart soar! The images of giggles, genuine hugs, twirling in city streets and the love that we all have in us. The moments that made me fall passionately in love with photography.
So here they are: just a handful the moments I long to capture. I've never been so energized, so refreshed and simply yearning for clients to be in front of my camera and to capture YOU. Your family, your loves, your LIFE and your hearts. Let's do this together!
