I seriously love After Sessions. Love them! How much better does it get than to spend more time with fabulous couples after their wedding. When all of the pressure if OFF. No one is standing around checking the time wondering when they get to go drink. I mean, let’s face it. You could be the best, most amazing, fun, rockstar wedding photographer out there and you don’t stand a chance against a nice drink after a year of planning, picking, chosing and writing checks. So no matter how much fun I have with my couples on their wedding day, it doesn’t even come close to the fun we have at the After Session.

Paige + Joel were a prime example of this. We had a blast hanging out in Gruene, Texas (which is like one of my favorite places on earth) on a smouldering hot June evening. Summer in Gruene is insane anyway. So many people roaming through. Since Paige + Joel are just beautiful they were not lacking in attention. They also brough along their gorgeous Weimeriener and you gotta just love dogs + brides + grooms.  We were having so much fun, but it was so hot that Joel suggested we kick back, have a beer and hang out at the Gruene Dance Hall for a while.  Yes, this is my job.

It just doesn’t get better than this.

Another giant thanks to Paige & Joel! Best wishes always!!!!

Shine On!

so i totally messed up! my commitment at the FTP workshop was to blog every day for a month. For each day I missed I promised I would go 1 week without Starbucks. I missed 2 days this weekend. I am totally thinking I should’ve said i will blog 5 days a week. That way I could take Sat. & Sun. off. Ah, details, details! I won’t pout though. A commitment is a commitment after all. I will have to see if I can schedule some posts during the week to post on the weekends. That’s fair right??? At any rate, looks like I’m not having Starbucks for 2 weeks.

In other breaking news let the record show that I watched about 15 hours of television this weekend. Yes, I am bragging about that. I never take the time to watch TV. I have about 2-3 shows that I really love and make it a point to watch but even then, the only show I will actually take the time to DVR is LOST.

Mark & I had the entire last season on DVR and hadn’t gotten a chance to watch any of them with the exception of the season premier. So, this lovely Labor Day weekend we completely played couch potatoes and watched the entire season in 3 days. OMG, it was amazing. I am so sad though that once again, I will be sitting here until Jan. when the premier airs to figure out what’s going to happen next. REALLY??? I won’t spoil it in case there is some sad soul out there reading who has for some unknown reason not watched it but WTH??? Is next season the last season for real???? What on earth am I going to do. Even 10 years worth of The Bachelor can not even come close to making up for one season of Jack or Sawyer. Oh, say it isn’t soooooo!!!!!!!

And in a final thought I will be posting the new Holiday Mini Session promo tomorrow so stay tuned. Spaces are LIMITED this year so be sure to book early!!! Can’t wait to knock out another great year of holiday sessions!

Alright, until tomorrow…..

Shine On!

So I had a completely different post in mind for today. Funny how the things you have planned always have a way of unraveling themselves and manifesting themselves into something completely different. I love that!

At this very moment I can’t quite wrap my brain around everything that has transpired over the course of the last week 2 years. There have been so many ideas, changes, challenges, victories, opportunities, adventures, disappointments, and dreams that at times it has be literally paralyzing.  I am an “act now think later girl”. I get an idea  and I go. 110%. just move on it and make it happen. I figure out the details later. Sometimes this has worked for me and sometimes, um, not so much. Either way I’m ok with the fact that I just roll with things. There are moments of frustration but aren’t there in everything.

However, as much as I’m OK with rolling with things there is something to be said for living  intentionally.  I’m trying to embrace this and learning how to implement this idea into my life & my business. At least for me, it’s a tough concept to grasp.  I still believe that as with anything, you must find the correct formula for making the parts come together to equal the sum of what it is you are hoping to create.

I will spare you the details of what has and hasn’t taken place over the course of the last two years and get right to the good stuff which is actually what has only occured in the last week. Yes, the jumping off point was the FT Roadshow last week in Austin (it might be a while before I stop talking about this so if you read regularly and this bores you to tears, deal with it, you’ll be glad you did) There have been a handful of times in my life where I have felt I was in the right place at the right time.

Or rather,

God led me to where I needed to be.  I still struggle, alot, with wondering if God has placed me in every single situation I’ve ever encountered in my entire life for a specific purpose and plan. I realize this comes very easily for some people to understand and connect with but I think if we are all honest it has been really difficult for us, much of the time, to hold onto that known certainty. I mean, it’s so hard for me to understand why God allowed me to be right where that police officer was on the oncoming street when I ran that stop sign when I was a junior in highschool resulting in a hefty fine and a loooong conversation with my grandmother regarding my responsibility as a licensed driver on the streets of our community.

However, even in my most doubtful moments there is an unconcious knowing in me that can’t deny the lessons I’ve taken away from every situation He has led me into. This week has been one of continued reassurance that I am right where I need to be for right now and that He has afforded me some amazing opportunities.

Even writing that with clarity, I shudder at the realization that with big opportunites come big risks.  Risk is like intentional living for me….not a huge fan. Embrace it! (tha’ts me convincing myself) This is going to take some time. So with these opportunities I’ve been granted over the course of the last week I’m pushing forward to take big-ish risks in life & in business. I hope to share some of them with you in the coming days.

Today I was once again reassured of this direction and of my intentional living experiment when I stumbled upon David Wenzel’s story again.  It was absolutely no coincidence that today of all days I decided to re-read his story in it’s entirety.  This is important to note because I’ve already heard and read portions of David’s story but I missed a pivotal moment in his journey. And I find it so incredibly amazing that the reason I rediscovered his story today was all because I was researching brand ideas, hit Amy’s blog (that I haven’t read in months) and instantly popped over to David’s blog. If you haven’t read his story it really is nothing short of amazingly inspirational and it’s not even an option. just read it!

So again, I’m reassured that I am right where I need to be, right now.

I promised I’d come back today and give you the recap of the Austin Fast Track Roadshow. If you are just tuning in (in which case I will ask you where have you been???) you can read all about my Fast Track epiphany that I posted up yesterday. It’ll catch you up to speed.

ok, so where was I yesterday????  read the book, rejoined the forums, actually started to participate in the forums. That was huge for me. If you’re a photographer you know there are like what 9,000 forums you can join to connect with other photographers in the industry. I love forums but let’s face it there’s a lot of drama that can get stirred up on them. I’m not a huge fan of drama to begin with. I live with an 8 year old girl and that’s about all the drama God equipped me to deal with. I’m a member of several different forums but until I read Dane’s book I pretty much tried to utilize them in a way that gained me as much knowledge as I thought I needed and I didn’t really participate much. There were a few I was active on but overall I had the mentality of “what can these people teach me”. That’s ok to a point. However, there comes a time when you have to realize you have something to offer and when you realize that, regardless of how big or how small you might think it is, you open yourself up to share and you start to approach the online community with a whole new perspective. It’s so apparent that this message really resonates at the FTP forums because it’s just a phenomenal group of people over there.

So, yea, I rejoined the forums and started connecting with some of the members and reviews started pouring in from the Roadshow and it as pretty amazing. It didn’t take me long to realize I had to make it happen. When Dane announced he was going to be in Austin, I screamed. For real. I promise. I was stoked!!!!!

The workshop was hosted by Studio 563. Amazing, amazing group there! Andy & Eric were the best hosts constantly making sure everyone had whatever it was we needed. It was awesome. And their space in dowtown Austin is killer. So cool.

The workshop itself was intense and fun and intense and practical and intense and comforting. Dane brought in some amazing guests for us. Top notch companies like Spilled Milk Designs. Nick is like a rockstar super designer stud man that can rock a ShowIt site like no one I’ve seen. Incredible. We also got completely set up and dialed in with ShootQ. Which could quite possibly be like THE most amazing tool ever. If you are a photographer and you are running your business without this tool I guarantee you are not even tapping into your full potential to run your business efficiently.   If there is anything you should take from this post (besides the fact that you must go to a Roadshow) it’s that you must right now purchase ShootQ for your business. Amazing. And ok, I’ll be totally honest and say it didn’t hurt Andrew & Rachel at all when I found out they are Mizzou alums. Woot! Go Tigers!

Very early on during the first day it was apparent that this was going to be an opportunity to walk away changed. If you were open to it. It was so so easy to feel at ease in that group. It was an intimate setting where you immediately knew that you were going to make connections that would impact you for a lifetime. Dane laid the ground work for that very early and reminded all of us that he was asking us to be “for each other”. It’s a resounding message that you will hear anywhere you find an FTP’er. It really is as simple as that. Once you know that you are surrounded by people that are “for you” it’s hard not to open yourself up to the possibilities of change, progress & growth. In all aspects of your life…not just your business.

There were many times you could easily have forgotten you were sitting at a photography workshop. It was that intimate and when Dane talks to you it’s like you are the only person in the room. It doesn’t matter that there are other people there listening in. He is such a genuine and caring person and you immediately sense that he’s not kidding when he says he is 100% committed to you and your business.  He just hones in on everything about you and really wants to know why you’re there and what you are looking to walk away with. His teaching technique is engaging and the content of the workshop is just straightforward and practical, good business sense that we all need to be practicing. He speaks incessantly about running your business as a business. Things we all think we are doing but that we realize we aren’t doing well. He talks to about being an invitation, about connecting and about building a business that never has to compete with any other photographer in town because your business is about YOU and honestly no one else in town can touch that!

About 1/2 way through the 2nd day I started to realize that there was no way I was walking away from this and not taking this opportunity and running with it. I could not just come home and wake up each day doing the same things I’d been doing.  It really was time for a change and Dane gave me and everyone else there the tools to implement that change and infuse our businesses and our lives with the FTP philosophy.

This is hands down the best investment I’ve made in my business thus far.  I mean, I thought it was killer that for the first time I walked away from a workshop feeling like I actually got 10x more than what I paid for and didn’t have that feeling of…”ok, that is all great but NOW WHAT?”  I actually KNOW what to do next or at least I know I’m on the right track.

So a giant thank you to Dane for just being Dane! To the Austin group who was just so incredible. I can’t wait to see everyone again and I’ll be honoring my commitment to check in on all of you this month to find out where you are on your commitments! And of course a big thanks to the Portland group who sent us all yummy desserts! I mean, really….does that stuff happen at other workshops??? Seriously!  You can check out a couple pictures on Dane’s blog.

I’m stoked at what the future holds. It’s going to be awesome to watch it unfold!

Every day of our lives we wake up and we are given opportunities. I know that is such a cliche thing to say but it’s honestly true don’t you think? It doesn’t mean that every opportunity that is presented to you is one that is going to be life altering. I mean, every day I get up and I get my kids off to school and I’m given the opportunity to climb back into bed, which is where I absolutely 9 times out of 10 want to be. I usually stay up for no other reason than I hate waking up from sleep so freakin’ much that I only want to do it once a day. It’s that traumatic for me.

I digress.

My point here is that we are give opportunities every day. I was given a big opportunity a couple months ago when I found out Dane Sanders: photographer, author, teacher, friend and yes, Violent Femmes fan was bringing his Fast Track Roadshow to Austin. I promise you I screamed when I found out.

I first heard about Dane thru one of my favorite Flickr groups. A fab-u-lous little rockstar by the name of Christine Tremoulet was ranting and raving about this guy and how he was doing this amazing thing and there was something about Founders, and a new forum, and a rockin’ website and a book.  Because back then I stalked Christine like…..um, a crazy stalker dude I was all over finding out what this was all about. I joined the forums and was immediately like…um, there isn’t much going on over here. These people aren’t teaching me anything and I moved on. When Dane’s book, Fast Track Photographer was released I bought it almost immediately. I was so excited to get it and put it on my shelf right next to all my other amazing photography books that I had been collecting.

And that was that.

Fast forward a year. Yea, a year. A YEAR!!!!!

Something compelled me to pick that darn book up and read it. At this point I had already stopped my subscription to the forums because it wasn’t anything like any of the other 9,000 forums I was on. Nonetheless, I read the book. In one day. There was absolutely no question. It wasn’t like anything else I had read. It was as if after I read it the entire makeup of my brain actually changed. My whole thought process and the way I had been approaching my business. It was a little alarming actually. Kind of like I was suddenly part of this cult…but….like a really rad cult. (rad…that’s one of Dane’s words…see he even changes your vocabulary)

It was really that simple. As simple as reading a book. I rejoined the forums and this time with this idea that instead of joining a community wondering what they were going to be able to do for me & my business, I joined to be a part of something bigger than just my business. I rejoined with this epiphany of just connecting with other people in our industry and with the intention of just being purely genuine in my giving & receiving in whatever form it might take.

I know it seriously sounds like a bunch of kumbaya but it really was a good place to be for me. It led me right to the workshop in Austin and I will give you all the deets on that tomorrow.  I know I said I would talk about it today but there is no way I can keep rambling this way. So we’re doing this in two parts. I promise a full review of the actual workshop tomorrow and what the FTP philosophy is all about.

Kumbaya Peeps!

I wanted to say “Happy Fall Ya’ll” so bad I could hardly stand it. I will resist for a wee longer as not to appear to be a complete fruit loop while we are still in high drought conditions and pushing 90+ degree weather every day. Even at 90 it feels like a cold front in comparison to what we’ve been getting. Regardless, I am thrilled that we’ve entered a new month and that it’s one that will soon render cooler temps for me and being the fall/winter girl I am…that is definitely a good thing.

I am beginning September posting on the blog and announcing my official commitment to blog every.single.day…for a month.  I know, pick yourselves up off the ground. Never before have I been able to pull off the ‘blog every day for a month’ promise since like 2006 when i first starting blogging and I would blog about my kids’ boogers and insaitiable hunger for all things scrapbook related. Seriously, I’ve said it before 8,000 times…when I had nothing to blog about …I blogged. Like all the time! What the heck did I write about people? It’s insane how commited i was to blogging back then. i secretly think it had more to do with the fact that it was my only means of communication to the world and even though all my friends lived inside my computer it made me feel ‘connected’ to something other than Steve from Blue’s Clues. (yes, this was the pre-Joe era)

I also realize I just promised this like in June (i think) so it’s even more important that I prove I can actually do this! Plus, I made a commitment to do this at the Fast Track Roadshow in Austin last week. Which by the way was so incredible I can’t even begin to squeeze in all the goodness about it in this post. It warrents and entire post all its own. Which will come tomorrow! So stay tuned peeps! This is good, good stuff!

In other fascinating news, I’ve got the biggest craving for black jelly beans and can’t find any. Why is it that you can only find them at Easter? Do other people not eat these things throughout the year?

That’s just so weird.