What is "It"?

Oh boy, where do I start? It's obviously been awhile since the last time I've blogged, and to tell you the truth I kind of took a break from all things Photography. Brian and I finally, FINALLY, got married on August 7th and the last month has been a whirlwind of crazy emotion, fun, family, friends, adventure, love,  and returning to reality. Wait... WHAT?! I have to come back from this past month of living at the center of all things with my new husband? I felt like we were the black hole at the center of our solar system, everything and everyone was revolving around us and being hurled toward us.... without the negative side effect of having the black hole (us) suck all the light out of everyone of course. ;-) What I mean though is we had a month of quite literally having everything revolve around us. Everyone wanted a piece of us.... vendors, friends, immediate family, extended family, our kids. We had gifts sent to our house often, people sending cards, parties, cookouts, showers, and pampering. I had more pictures taken of me over the last few months than I have for the previous 29 years of my life. We went on our honeymoon and had the chance to spend some MUCH NEEDED alone time together. We had people we don't even know congratulate us, we got to sleep in, finish a full cup of coffee in the morning, drink wine with dinner, go OUT to dinner, sit by the pool and RELAX instead of having to catch our 20 month old before she dove into the deep end without any swimmies on..... Over the last few months we got lots of presents, got to enjoy the company of friends and family that we don't often get to see, and got to be giddy like little kids and not apologize for it. Brian and I got to experience raw emotion together, and relive beautiful feelings and pledge our lives to one another. We got to put rings on each others hands and cry together and look into the eyes of our best friend and focus on us. We got to begin the rest of our lives together. We have two kids, a house, a dog, demanding jobs, and rarely ever get so much as a date night. We loved being able to not have to think, get up, juggle 5 things at once, and stress. On our honeymoon we were in a so-called bubble of peace and love and we didn't want it to pop. So I ask ya (spoken in the voice of Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny), how does one come back from all of that? How do you re-focus and find ambition instead of wishing you were sitting poolside with your new hubby, sipping pina coladas, alone and in silence? How do you go back to work phones, alerts, potty-training, back to school shopping, cleaning, cold cups of coffee, sibling rivalry, and bad nails and hair? Well, I'll answer my own question. Aside from the fact that Brian and I came home from our honeymoon a day early because we missed our kids soooo much, I also have something new to look forward to. Well, not completely new, but I am super excited to bring my Photography business to the next level and I'm looking forward to putting in lots of hard work, time, and dedication to Wedding Photography. Yes, somehow in this big, long, hard to follow, messy post of a blog, I can somehow relate it to Photography. Wedding Photography more specifically. I've always wanted it, but I've never been so sure and as inspired to succeed at it as I am right now. Thanks are awarded to good timing and good clients, in part, but I also have another Photographer to thank for kind of lighting a fire in my heart and under my tush, for that matter. Her name is Jasmine Star. Maybe you've heard of her. She's currently making a huge name for herself and spreading her knowledge and positive vibe throughout the industry like wildfire, only in a really good way. This past week she embarked on an adventure, a highly informative adventure, and did something no other Photographer has done, that I know of anyway? I'm sending my prayer to the Photography Gods for forgiveness in case I am wrong. Anywho, Jasmine photographed a real live wedding, and it was shown live online, for all the world to see. As in LIVE live, through a website called CreativeLive. Like exposing her talent, enthusiasm, strategies, stories, information, advice, and flaws in front of thousands of people live. Live, on air live. And if there's anyone out there that didn't understand the meaning of live, I'm sure you do now ;-) She also did a few days worth of classroom teaching and a kind of workshop with a few lucky Photographers that won the opportunity to join Jasmine in Seattle for this crazy cool event. I thought about entering the contest, but honestly, I was in the middle of planning my own wedding and I couldn't even fathom thinking about flying out for a week to be so immersed in someone else's right after my own grand event. What I was able to do though is watch it. I watched Jasmine rock it from my the comfort of my own computer. I soaked in her bravery, her strategies, her advice, her experience, and probably most importantly, her will and her spirit. Her spirit is contagious. Jasmine Star went out on a limb, a HUGE 100ft hanging over an alligator infested swamp limb, to share her knowledge with less experienced Photographers like me. Just because she is that kind of person. And I've been inspired to make something of it. I may not be the talented blogger and business-woman that Jasmine is, and I may not yet have reached the level of creativity and genius that Susan Stripling possesses, but I am good, and I love what I do, and my potential is limitless. I hate patting myself on the back like that, but I firmly believe that. I know there's still things to learn, and there will always be something more to learn but, ever since I was about the age my daughter is now, my favorite and most frequently spoken words were "I do". Because I wanted to do "it", whatever "it" was at the time. And I did do it. And if I didn't know how to do it, I learned how to do it. I pushed myself to do it. I expected myself to do it. And even if somewhere along the line I decided I didn't want to do it anymore, I still did it just to prove to myself and everybody else that I could do it. That's not the case with Wedding Photography though... I truly want it, love it, and I will learn and do whatever it takes to get it. And I will continue to do it. (As a side note, my daughter is now saying "I do" as well, and I didn't teach her those words ;-)) So... I have 3 weddings booked for this fall season so far, and next year is going to be better, and I'm hoping I can continue to improve and grow my business and grow as a Photographer. Thank you to Jasmine Star for sharing her knowledge, spirit, bravery, and success. Jasmine talked about starting out with a kind of Jasmine Star cheer squad, well, here's the Nicole Montmarquet cheer squad......

Looking forward to it!