Reflections

I've always been an artistic person, at different times in my life expressing myself through drawing, oil painting, writing or photography. And now I'm even contemplating a beginning guitar class while I'm at school!

As the time for me to begin school comes close I find myself often getting lost in my thoughts. I've felt a heavy heart because I realize that with my new journey into the scholarly environment, as exciting as it is, comes the journey where I will no longer be walking hand in hand daily with my camera, but rather hoping for brief moments with it. (I've even thought about seeing if I could be a photographer for the school's newspaper.)

I've loved the challenges during my photography career, where I've had to stretch and grow and step out of my comfort zone. Who would have thought that photographing creatively the interior of an elevator, or finding dry spots on a wet wedding day, or trying to get 4 teen/pre-teen unhappy kids to smile, or getting 40 people together and shot in less than 10 minutes before dark could be so exhilarating?

My photography has been a very personal experience for me. Each wedding I shot, as I edited the images I captured of the couple's day, I've treasured their lives, their families and friends and the relationship they've shared with me. Each baby, I've loved. Each face, I've treasured. As I work on people's images, I gaze into their faces and they become someone I know, in some way. I see the lines in their faces, the curl of their smiles, the dimples in their chins or cheeks, the scars from years ago and I've gazed into their eyes. "The eyes are the window to the soul", and as I worked on images of people and gazed into their eyes, I've become acquainted with their souls.

I will miss the frequency of this type of connection with people that I've had, and will anticipate excitedly any sessions I can find time to do during my school year.

I've always had a love affair with words and learning. I admire those who write so eloquently and can draw me into their world, much like the way a photograph can make you feel like you've stepped into someone else's place in time. I love learning and growing and exploring new (to me) ideas and concepts.

I love being reinvented.

Although I am changing the direction my life is going, I know my love for photography will always remain with me and I will forever be taking my camera with me wherever I go. And when I am old and my mind is feeble and I can't do anything else, I will be happy if I am still able to lift a camera and move my finger .25 of an inch.

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." ~Ansel Adams

More Sneak Peek

A couple of years ago I got a call from a senior who wanted to be brave and daring and do something different for her senior session. This year I was lucky enough to also shoot her brother's senior session, he didn't know he was going to have to also be daring and brave rainy weather for his session! Thanks for being a good sport!

I love when people bring something of themselves to their sessions, to make it uniquely theirs. Mitch brought his snowboard and his longboard skateboard.









I gave this one a little 70's processing twist.



By the end of the session the rain was coming down pretty good, you can see some of it in this shot. Good thing his hair style already had the wet look. :)





So, with a little bit of creativity, we got his session done despite the uncooperative weather and he has a whole bunch more than what you see here in his gallery that I will be putting up by tomorrow.

It was nice meeting you Mitch, I hope you have a great summer and congratulations on your graduation!

One From Tonight

As I was loading tonight's Senior Session this one caught my eye and I decided to play with it before turning off the computer. Tonight I met up with Mitch for his Senior Session. This was our third attempt to get his images shot as the last two times had to be rescheduled. When I saw rain in the forecast for tonight I decided to be brave and go ahead, try his session anyway and if it was raining too much to head down to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds to see if we could find some dry spots to shoot. Wouldn't you know it, when we showed up there, the ground was dry, but the rain quickly followed us. I think we got a few really good shots and some fun ones to play with too, like this one of him with his snow board...



Thanks for being a great sport tonight Mitch and braving the weather! Hope it didn't take too long to warm up again.

One Last One

This is my youngest daughter Joyanna enjoying her bike on the hill.

The images from these two posts are from the first time she's taken her bike down a hill ever. After the first time and she got to the bottom of the hill she excitedly began chatting about how the bike went all on it's own and she didn't even have to peddal!

Oh to be a kid again and enjoy the simple things in life, like gravity.

A couple of fun ones

From the other day...

A few more to share...

Enjoy!

H & E {Engagement}

Saturday I met H & E for their engagement session in down town Minneapolis. We first started out at a park near the Stone Arch Bridge. We visited the Guthrie Theatre which has an awesome red wall out front. I planned to use some of their poses at this wall for other images. And really, we were all over the place for the next two hours and found so many sweet spots for shots! I couldn't even begin to put a dent in their session editing today.
Here's the first few I have worked on so far...





These next two images I took in preparation for the last image..







H and E- thanks for the great session and I'm sure I'll have a few more to post(there's just too many to keep to myself!) as I work through them! I am so looking forward to your wedding in June! Hope you liked this peek!
P.S. I hope baby cooperates with you on Wednesday, drop me a line and share your good news!