The shoemaker’s children have no shoes, the mechanic’s car is leaking oil, and the photographer never takes photos….of their own family! Hanna and I have both experienced the truth of these statements. When you spend so many hours behind the camera, sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is hauling around expensive equipment and chasing your own hoodlums. Most often we resort to our iPhones, which secures the moment, but in retrospect we often regret. I can’t tell you how many years I have looked back on so many breathtaking images of our client’s love stories such as your children’s heads thrown back and laughing into the sunshine, your husband cupping your chin in his hand, dancing skirts swishing on a ridge line, and then craved these for myself.
A few years back Hanna and I attended a photographer’s workshop in Utah and the one major takeaway’s we received was to fill our own tank first. It is so important as artists for us to shoot for ourselves. We get the photos we want to hold onto, but it’s even deeper than that: We grow. We recharge. We experiment. We are free. There is no paying client on the other end, no expectation for perfection, no list of must-have shots. It’s just for the love of the art. And this art, it is what fills us up, inspires us to grow and change, and directly impacts the quality of photos we will eventually take for all of you.
In 2021 I didn’t grab my camera as much as I wanted to. No perfection happening here. But looking back on these images truly does stop me in my tracks. My heart swells. I love my family. I love photography and I would love to introduce you to what this year has looked like for me in pictures.
