 Humor me for a moment. Think back. Way back. You’re about five years old and you’re playing with a friend amongst several toys strewn about the floor. You pick up a toy and your friend immediately wants to play with that very toy at that very moment. It always seems to happen that way, doesn’t it? He reaches for it, you protest, your teacher looks over and says “Remember to share!” Oh the injustice! You might pout a bit, but you hand the toy over. And, of course, your friend almost immediately loses interest in it. But that’s a different story for a different day. From a very young age, we are taught to share. We’re taught to go second, break the cookie in two, lend out your favorite pair of shoes. And I’m not about to sit here and tell you that these are bad things! It’s good for us to give to others. The world would be a better place if everyone shared just a little more. But you can only share so much of yourself. You may have heard the adage “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” As adults, we spend a great deal of our time giving to others. You give your time, your attention, your energy. You give to your spouse. You give to your friends. You give to your boss. And if you’re a parent, you give (and give and give and give) to your children. With barely a chance to refill, all that giving eventually runs you dry. There is no more left to pour, so to speak. I found myself feeling that way last week. Nothing in particular happened to make me feel that way, I just did. I had been giving a lot to my life, to my loves, to my business. So I got away. I mentioned in my last post that I’m an extrovert. I love people and being around them, but even I need a recharge once in awhile. In the middle of last week I realized I had a couple of days with nothing on my calendar, so I kissed my husband goodbye and jetted down to Ocean City, MD for a couple of days. Completely alone. It. Was. Amazing. Being alone was therapeutic. For that moment in time the only person I had to worry about was me. No one expected me to do something productive around the house. No one expected me at an appointment at a specific time. No one expected me to call them up and chat about their life. And guess what? I ended up being 10X more productive when I got home! I suddenly had the energy for things that had seemed impossible the week before. I’m not writing this post to brag about the glorious alone time I had. I’m writing it to encourage you to take some alone time for yourself. It can feel so selfish to take alone time. Moms (and Dads!) especially struggle with this. You brought these little humans into the world, how dare you want to be away from them? But it’s OK to get away. In fact, it’s important to. I know not everyone can decide in the middle of the week to leave for a few days. I know not everyone has an empty condo just a few hours away waiting for them. If anything, the time away allowed me to acknowledge and be truly grateful for all I have in life. If there is any way for you to grab some alone time, even if it is just an hour or two, do it. Try to bite back the guilt that threatens to consume you because you need to be with just yourself every now and then. Give to yourself. Share with no one. Get in touch with your thoughts. Listen to only you for just a little bit. You cannot pour from an empty cup. Give yourself a refill.
1 Comment
 My first thought in this blog post will come as no surprise to anyone who has met me: I am an extrovert. I know, completely out of left field, right? But seriously. I love people. I get my energy from starting conversations and hearing new ideas. There is something so magical about making another person laugh. I love walking away from someone knowing we understood each other. Being an extrovert makes bonding with clients one of the things I love most about this field. I get to meet new people all the time and develop connections with them. My connection with Brandy and Lasse was almost instantaneous. And the only reason it was almost instantaneous was because Brandy hadn’t quite returned to our table when I sat down, so I didn’t get to meet her right away. Let me tell you, though, as soon as we got to talking, it was like talking to old friends. It was just so comfortable. And I think that feeling of familiarity, that comfort, comes from how at ease these two are with each other. When you fully trust your significant other and know they have your very best interests at heart, meeting a stranger to talk about the hopes and dreams you have for your wedding day is so much easier. You know that your partner has your back and that you are in this together. You are a team. No need to be nervous when you’ve got that going for you! Lasse and Brandy make an amazing team. Let’s start with the fact that they positively glow with happiness when they look at each other. And that happens quite a bit. After all, they’ve been living thousands of miles apart for the past year! I don’t think I would be able to tear my eyes away from Alex if we had done that! Now that Lasse is here to stay, you can tell they are just over the moon. I get to capture that happiness on camera! How amazing is that? These two have had some incredible adventures together. Not the least of which is the story of Lasse proposing to Brandy on the London Eye at New Years. That is like something out of a movie! Mother Nature decided to make their engagement session a little adventurous as well. We headed into Ellicott City for our shots and the entire time, there was thunder rolling overhead. One of Maryland’s infamous summer storms was brewing, but we were determined to get these shots! When the clouds opened up and it started to pour, they could have thrown in the towel, but we decided to wait it out. I was so impressed with their resolve! It just wouldn’t have worked out as perfectly as it did if it wasn’t for the love these two share. You can tell it is easy for them, and that made it easy for me! I cannot wait for their wedding in October. I have a feeling there are going to be tons of shots just like these. Full of love, happiness, and excitement for the life they are starting together! 
 
 
  What do you do when you book an international trip with your three children? Book a photo shoot of course! Ok, so maybe not everyone thinks that way, but I sure am glad Alice did! It is such a special way to document an important trip like this one was for her. Ironically, as I was shooting this, my parents were arriving in France to visit my uncle! Alice is the sister of a client who I’ve taken photos for several times. Remember the Cooks? I’ve taken photos for them several times over the years and every time is just full of fun moments. I’m also lucky enough to live about a mile away from them, so we run into each other all over the place! Mackenzie and Connor are responsible for the awesome name for the dino that sits on top of my camera lens. RoRo was named at our very first session together and I’ve been calling him that ever since! Alice and Steve are brother and sister who live an ocean apart. It’s very exciting when Alice comes to visit, and this time she decided to commemorate it with professional photos. I’m sure it was chaotic on her end at times, but looking through their gallery makes me think it was worth it. All three of her girls are so adventurous and loved having a new space to explore. We took the photos at Benjamin Banneker Park, which is a hidden jewel of a park in Catonsville. It’s tucked into a corner by Trolley Trail #9 and is one of my favorite places to shoot. There is a beautiful tree-filled backdrop as well as a reconstructed colonial cabin and split rail fencing. On this particular day, the wonderfully tended garden was full of butterflies. It’s difficult to capture the magic of little girls wandering amongst butterfly filled flowers, but I certainly did my best! I not only loved watching them explore, I loved getting to know them each a little better. Seeing as they live in France, their first language is French, and there is nothing quite as adorable as listening to a two-year old speak in French. My young cousin lives in France, and I could just sit and listen to him talk all day long, even if I have no idea what he is saying! Little Adele took a few minutes to warm up, but once she did she was off! Climbing, chatting, running, and, of course, smiling and giggling! Emma and Caroline proved their ability to smile on command, but I also made sure to capture at least a few candid moments for them. Caroline loved helping Adele and was a pro at getting some genuine smiles out of her. Emma preferred to wander a little more quietly, making observations and just taking it all in. It truly was a joy taking photos for these four. Alice mentioned a few times that she wished her husband could have joined them. I assured her I would love to take photos again. It would be an excellent excuse to schedule a trip to France! I hope they enjoy the rest of their time in stateside, and wish them safe travels on their return! 
 
 
  Ah, social media. In an incredibly short amount of time, it has changed our world. And I’ll be the first to say - I love it! On a personal level, I am so grateful for the ability to keep in touch with family and friends who live far away. It feels amazing to celebrate life’s milestones with people - getting a new job, buying a house, having a baby. These are things we get to share with each other in the blink of an eye, no matter how far away we are. I am also a big fan of it on a professional level. Instagram is an excellent tool for sharing images and creating a brand for your business. Facebook allows for instant communication and easy sharing. Social media is amazing and I love it on so many levels! That love extends to the well-known social media site, Pinterest. There is nothing quite like tapping that pretty, cursive “P” and being greeted by all of those colorful, hilarious, and useful images. I’ve been addicted since I first signed up, which was long enough ago that I was handwriting captions for every single thing I Pinned. Sigh. The good old days! And while I’ve been using it personally for a very long time, I’ve only just started exploring its usefulness as a business owner. This doesn’t mean I haven’t encountered Pinterest on the business side of things! For anyone who has ever been involved with professional photography, especially wedding photography, you will understand the power of Pinterest. In the world of social media, comparison is the name of the game. We spend a large portion of our time on devices looking at the lives of other people. What are they doing? Should I be doing that? Did I do that as good as they did that? When you’re preparing for a big event in your life, the research leading up to it can sound a lot like this! Pinterest is full of gorgeous images of brides with perfect make-up. Portrait sessions with smiling children in pristine outfits. Newborns sleeping serenely in their parents’ arms. And these are photos. These moments did actually happen! They are heart melting and soul warming and you want that for your big moment too! All of this is completely understandable. You’ve hired a photographer to capture a moment for a reason. You want it to be perfect. So you send all of these beautiful, wonderful ideas to your photographer. When I start getting these emails from clients, I’m not upset. I’m really not! Pins are a fantastic way for me to gauge the style of a client. It gives me a general idea of what they are expecting from their shoot with me, and it allows me to prepare accordingly. All that being said, Pinterest can be a little dangerous. The Pins you see are of other people, in other places, at other times. It is almost impossible to perfectly replicate another photo you’ve seen. And don’t forget that you’ve seen none of the experience that went into it. That baby could have been wailing the entire shoot and that was the only moment when he was calm. Those parents may have offered ice cream to their kids seconds prior to the photographer pushing the shutter button. That beautiful bride with the perfect tablescape may be a model at a styled shoot! My point is this: Pinterest is a great way to figure out what kind of photos you might want from your session, but be careful not to slip into the sinkhole of perfection. You are beautiful and so are your loved ones! Trust the process. You will get lovely, memorable images that you will treasure forever. Heck, they may even be “Pinterest-worthy”! ;) 
   There are some serious perks to being a photographer in Maryland. A lot of people refer to our state as America in miniature. To start with, we get almost every type of weather. Hot and humid? Check. Cold and snowy? Check. Perfect, low-humidity, 70 degree days? Check, check, check! We also have almost any landscape you can think of. To the west, we have mountains, and to the east, the ocean. Get in the car and drive three hours in any direction and you feel like you’ve driven across the country! It’s hard not to love it. The ocean part of all that loveliness is where this session comes in! The Cheadle family vacations in Fenwick Island every year, and a couple of times before I’ve been able to catch them there for a family session. So many of my sessions take place around Baltimore and the surrounding areas, it is always exciting to be somewhere different. And an evening beach session is the perfect kind of different! The weather gods were on our side this time. All week it called for a rainy Friday, which was the evening we had chosen for our session. We considered bumping it up a day, but then Thursday dawned dreary and rainy as well. Seeing as the Cheadles planned to leave no later than Saturday morning, we were feeling a bit down to the wire! And yet, Friday came and so did the sun. Bright blue skies persisted throughout the day, and the evening was no different. Beach sessions can sometimes be a little tricky here on the East Coast. The sun sets on the opposite side of the water, so if you want to get any shots with the ocean as the backdrop, your subjects have to face the sun. With no forgiving trees to cast a shadow, this can lead to squinty, shiny images. I have yet to find someone who likes themselves looking like that! We waited until 7:00, which during the summer still gives plenty of light, and the shadows from the houses and buildings were long enough to give us some relief from the bright rays. Of course, that sun also is responsible for that delightful glow we all want after a week at the beach! And we definitely used it to our advantage. Some of my favorite images are of Davis and Allie giggling together on the lifeguard chair with the golden light streaming down behind them. They really are just so cute together! To think, our first family session doubled as a maternity session. Melissa was still pregnant with Allie! Now her two babies are adorable kiddos who, as fate would have it, are pretty darn good at smiling for the camera! I love taking photos for this group. For starters, I never say no to a little extra beach time! Photographing it gives me a whole new perspective on the beauty of the ocean. I also just really love the Cheadles! They are so go with the flow, and like I said, now we have four fantastic smilers which makes my job easy! 
  
  Awake babies seem to be my thing these days! The following post contains a lot of wide awake shots, but they happen to be adorable, so I bet you won’t mind! You’ll also get to see a bunch of sweet little outfits and props and a loving cousin and fur brother. So, trust me, it’s worth your time! Baby Anna is my sister’s husband’s sister’s baby. (That sounds like the beginning of a long-winded joke, doesn’t it?) My sister’s in-laws are close with my family and I am so grateful for that. We have one amazing thing in common - my nephew, Tommy. Both sets of his grandparents love him dearly and his presence in our lives has brought us even closer than even the wedding did. I often feel like I got a bonus family! I know it isn’t that way for everyone. I consider myself one lucky girl! This closeness not only means I got to be a part of documenting some of Anna’s first days in this world, it also meant the session itself was extremely relaxing. Working with people you know and love means the atmosphere is calm from the very beginning of the shoot. It’s why I offer client meet-ups prior to their newborn session. Sometimes, it’s nice to get to know the person who will be up close and personal with your brand new baby! In this case, everyone in the room already knew each other quite well. We were off to a good start! Even with a pretty full meal right before and in the middle of our shoot, Anna clearly did not want to fall asleep. She was bright-eyed when I arrived, as she ate, and when we laid her back down again. Sometimes I get so caught up in wanting them to sleep, I don’t realize they are happy being awake! This was the case with Anna, just like it was with my last newborn, Colin. Babies who refuse to sleep can’t necessarily be posed in exactly the ways us adults want, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cute! In fact, many parents I work with end up loving their babies awake shots more than the sleeping ones. They say those photos show more personality! Whatever your preference is, you can’t deny Anna is precious awake or asleep. She went through several outfit changes without a single complaint. And let me tell you, these outfits were just so delightful. From ruffled bloomers to a football themed tutu to a mermaid tail adorned with pearls, I barely contained my squeals as I saw her in each one. I am blabbering on a bit about how sweet and lovely she was, but the photos truly speak for themselves. Towards the end of the shoot, Anna did finally close her eyes and rest. That’s when we let big fur brother, Murphy, and big cousin, Tommy, into our little session area. We tried very hard to get all three of them in one shot, but I’m sure you can imagine how difficult that was! Seeing them interact with this tiny little girl was just magical. It was amazing to see the little boy I love so much show such affection for his cousin! And I absolutely believe Murphy knows he is her protector. Once again - the photos speak for themselves! 
 
 
   I’ve mentioned before (several times) how much a newborn photographer loves a sleeping baby. Sleeping babies are peaceful. Sleeping babies don’t cry. Sleeping babies don’t mind being put down on a big blanket, or wrapped up in a gauzy swaddle, or squished into wicker basket. So when I got all set up at the Saft household and Colin showed absolutely no signs of drifting off, I prepared myself. I knew we might have to work a little holder to keep him wrapped up tight. We may have to take more breaks to keep him comfortable and content. I knew we’d get the shots (it always works out!) but I also knew it might just a little more difficult. I even warned Karen and David of this to keep them from stressing out! Then little Colin made a big old liar out of me. He was just so very relaxed! Awake, yes, but calm calm calm. He had absolutely no problem being the star of our shoot and just hung out while I went crazy taking photos. If it hadn’t been for his adorable, bright-eyed face looking back at me, I might have thought he drifted off on me! By the end of the shoot, he actually did drift off on me, so we were able to snag a couple of those classic sleep shots as well. Colin is an extremely lucky little dude because he has an awesome big brother, Jacob, who easily had the most fun out of all of us. He clearly thought we were all just hanging out! I got lots of great shots of the two of them in between lots of giggles. Jacob also pushed all the buttons - and I mean that literally! According to Mom and Dad, Jacob has always been fascinated with buttons and, of course, what happens when you push them! Between my camera, light stand, and the ceiling fan remote, he had plenty to choose from. When you’re trying to get an almost two year old to take cute pictures for you, it’s good to find your in. Mine was knowing just enough detail about Paw Patrol to win his trust, and then letting him have a little fun with the buttons in between shots. If he wants, Jacob has some serious potential in the field of engineering! He truly did push all of the buttons, but not without giving me some shots for the album! Even though I was thoroughly impressed with Colin’s chilled out attitude and Jacob’s ability to make the session fun, one of my favorite moments was seeing the handmade cradle that Karen’s stepfather made for her children. When she told me about it, there was no way I could have prepared myself for just how beautiful it is. It is obvious how much time, energy, and love was poured into it. I wish my bed looked that amazing! We made sure to get some shots of Colin gently swaying in it, and sure enough, Jacob had to come over to investigate. It was a pretty adorable moment, even if they didn’t know it! Newborn shoots, especially with alert and awake little ones, can be tough, but the Saft family handled it like champs! I love that I got to capture so many smiles and happy moments for them! 
  |
Welcome to the Blog!This is where I'll document it all. Where I'll use words to try and convey just how special it is to do this job and live this life. Enjoy scrolling through!
Archives
June 2019
|
