Last year I looked back on what I’d shot and thought no way, it can’t get better and then this year I looked back on 2012 and was so happy to say that it does, it only get’s lovelier, different, more wonderful.  I strive to keep my work fresh, always growing.  That is the key I think to loving what you do, enthusiasm and a striving to always learn.  Each wedding informs the next, each portrait session, each commercial shoot, every bit of personal work I do feeds the rest.  I’m reading a book right now called “The Dude and the Zen Master” and the last thing I thought I’d discover in it’s pages was the secret to making this happen.  Jeff Bridges points out that with movies, no matter how often you rehearse you always have to come back to a place of emptiness, where everything is new.  I’m not photographing a child laughing, I’m photographing this child, laughing now.  I’m not photographing a bride coming down the asile, I’m photographing this bride who is coming down the asile now.  Each time it’s new, each time it’s unique, each time it’s magic and it’s my joy to attempt to capture this moment, right here.

I’ve been featured in magazines, the Huffington post (twice), interviewed on BBC, my images have been shared on Good Morning America and I’ve made it to quite a few blogs, and that’s just this year alone (one of these days I’ll make a page on the website celebrating all that goodness) but the best, most rewarding and validating thing for me is to get a letter, or a text, an email or a voice mail telling me how happy a client is with their images.  A mom who can’t pick her album images because each one is so special to her, a bride and groom who cried together while looking at their images; re-living the joy of their wedding day, a woman who can now see herself not as she does when she is judging herself in the mirror but how we see her, how beautiful she really is.  That means the world to me.

So once again, I say it a lot, thank you for letting me, us, (because Sean and Kerri are a huge part of what I do) be part of so many moments, it’s an honor each and every time and I don’t take it for granted.    I made myself stop picking images for this post or it would have been too long, here are just a few of the images that made 2012 so special.

WAIT! WHAT WAS THAT AGAIN!!

Schedule a session in January for sometime in the next three months.

!!!The SESSION IS FREE!!!

A deposit of $500.00 is needed to hold your date and it ALL goes to print credits after the session!

You let me photograph your beautiful family in your element!

You have an amazing collection of images that capture your families awesomesause.

My little artists heart is full.

Here are some of my beautiful family in our element, I can not wait to get to photograph yours!

I won’t be using my iphone but here’s one of all of us!

fine print :

dates limited and offered on a first come first serve basis.  offer only valid for in home, daily life portraiture.  date not held until full deposit has been received. it’s going to be awesome so don’t miss this one.

Well I don’t know how they found me (Paula) but HoldFast has me up in with their featured artists.  My day to feel like a rockstar :)  Sean took the photo of me that is used and I have to say it’s the coolest I’ve ever looked so there were some planats colliding!  In all seriousness, I do adore my moneymaker and really all the products I’ve gotten from them!  Can’t wait to get the new camera leash when it’s released!  Check them out and tell me what you think of my little feature!!

Since Thursday my photos (and another couple photographers too) have run in the New York Daily News the London Daily Mail Online, they were featured on Good Afternoon America (I dvr’d it but haven’t watched it yet).  I was interviewed by the BBC (and quite literally got a vmail making the tardis landing sound while I was on the phone with them) and spin off articles have been seen on MSN affiliates and as far away as Milan…     Just pretty cool …

Such a simple concept, I thought, the morning after a wedding I show up at the hotel the bride and groom are staying at, or maybe even their house, the wedding is over, the dress is maybe already whisked out to the cleaners and the bride and groom are now Husband and Wife.   I spend an hour, maybe a bit less and just capture them together, still in pj’s, maybe drinking coffee, maybe cuddling and enjoying each other. Just being together. These photos aren’t really for the rest of the world, they are for them, sharing or not sharing, doesn’t matter.  It’s being who they are together that matter.

I’ve done a handful of the sessions, I got the idea to call them morning after from my friend (and amazing photographer Susan Sabo out in LA) but of course haven’t shared very many because well, they are perhaps a bit more  personal.. one session I took down from the blog because it was something the couple realized, they loved, but didn’t want to share with the world.  That’s fine with me, the photos are for them, not for me.  Still I wanted to thank Austyn and Martin, (who shot this session to celebrate being married) for allowing me to share their images :)

So something so personal has gone viral, what a juxtaposition, and there has been some “controversy”.  I think, the quiet moments are worth treasuring as much as the celebrations, maybe more so.  There has been talk about raunch, and appropriateness.  It’s subjective and it isn’t for me to judge or not judge.  I stay where I am comfortable but I shoot who a person is, I don’t try to pour them into a mold of what I want them to be.  For me that’s sexy, being who you are, being comfortable in your own skin.  Sexy is being comfortable enough with someone to rest on his thigh and take a deep breath and realize how happy you are at that very moment.   Without any masks, being who you are and knowing that’s what your partner loves.  That is what I want to do. That is what I strive for.  I hope I get to continue to let people shine as who they are, whether it be a boudoir session, a wedding, an engagement, or yes even in their pajamas the morning after they are married.

I can’t help it, I love to do spring cleaning on my website every year.  This year it’s no different!  I loved the side scroll but the bottom navigation wasn’t as intuitive as it could be.  The site didn’t expand with screen size and it wasn’t very easy to add photos too.

The new site is cleaner, crisper (so better to focus on the photos) and I love how it runs.  I love the new image on the splash page (that’s katie and joel their wedding is coming up in a few months) and I love the full of many more photos portrait gallery.  The wedding site has some new images as well and a couple new stories to tell.  Check it out would you and let me know what you think?