Best of the Best & My Favorites of 2009…Part Deux

Wow! This is such a hard thing to do…to go over thousands & thousands of images & showcase a select few! I feel blessed, humbled, grateful, inspired, & on & on & on each time I look back at each of these images! They are a constant reminder that I would not be where I’m at today if they didn’t see or feel something from my work which in turn made them want to book me…& keep coming back! This post features a lot of my little ones mixed in with some brides & mommies to be! This post also has A LOT of my regular clients…and yes the other posts have a lot of regulars in them as well. But looking through these, & I did them in no particular order, my regulars keep jumping out at me. I can never express how much it means to me when a client comes back for a second time, a third time, or a fourth…all in a period of a few months.

For instance, I will be photographing one little man showcased in this post for the third time tomorrow in less than two months! That makes me so excited to be able to document his life! I have no kids of my own at this point in my life as my schedule is too insane & I’m too selfish with time for a child to be in. And yes, I have no problem admitting that! So to photograph my client’s children from birth on up in age is an amazing experience for me! I have my divas, my smilers, my criers, my pouters, my gloomy ones, my serious ones, my giggly ones…and I love each and every one of them for their unique & individual little personalities! My clients are amazing parents & maybe one day I can be like them! I admire them for their patience, tireless energy, undivided attention, & most importantly their self-less ability to love & protect someone that means more to them than their own existence!

This blogpost also features one of my brides who is near & dear to my heart…Misty (& her equally as sweet husband Ryan)! I will be the first to say I will not shoot a wedding just to shoot a wedding. If I don’t connect with the bride on some level then it just isn’t going to work out. Your wedding day is one of the most important days in your life. You have to be able to connect & be comfortable with your photographer because he/she is with you during some of the most happiest, private, embarrassing, emotional, special moments in your life on your big day…with a camera to document it all! I talked with Misty & Ryan on the phone probably almost a year before the wedding date & immediately liked her bubbly personality. She asked a ton of questions, as a bride should, & bam…instant connection! I had my fingers crossed they would book me!

I met Misty & Ryan about 9 months before their big day to shoot their engagement pics & finalize a contract. Before that point she would email me pics of them & their travels, amazing weddings they got to go to, their dogs! Immediately they both make you feel like you’ve been this long lost friend & they’ve found you! You are now a friend for life! Over the remaining months leading up to the wedding Misty would email me pics of her dress, photo ideas, colors of the wedding, save the dates…she kept me in the loop! So potential brides, please take note of that! She made you feel like you were one of the bridesmaids even though you were one of the most important vendors at the wedding! More importantly when we emailed back & forth about wedding stuff, it always led off into another discussion about whatever was going on in our lives at the time! My first book will be dedicated to her, with the title that she has already come up with for the book!

God blessed them with a gorgeous, warm summer day where I will forever be known as the “black ninja” cause I got mad photo taking skillz! I’m the idiot who dressed all in black on a hot August day for an outside beach wedding & was about to die from a heat stroke! Not really, but you get the point! It was hot & I did feel like I was dying at times with the sun blaring down on me! And I’m constantly moving in & out, up & down, side to side, etc…whatever it takes to get the shot!

And that is why this job is so special. Each picture, each person, has their own unique story in which I have the camera to document & the voice to tell.

This is Misty & Ryan!