wee bittles
kiddoes
teens
I think I will fit right in.
Just kidding.
(It’s amazing the amount of crazy self portraits I have… this was taken awhile back. This is what happens when a photographer gets bored and ends up amusing herself.)
Today I head out to Newport Beach, CA (by way of L.A.), to Dane Sanders workshop. I am so excited. I’m sure it will be a blast to be around other photographers, talking about… well I’m not quite sure, but I’m sure it will be crazy good.
Love ya!
Are you ready for it?
I think I am.
What about you?
How easily do you deal with change;
be it the seasons or the seasons of your life?
Do you embrace it, ignore it, or fight it…
OR a little bit of all three?
I’m looking forward.
Life can be an interesting and curious thing
IF you are truly awake for it.
So often in our lives, we zone out, get caught up in the hustle and bustle, that before we know it…
the important moments of our lives are over, and somehow we missed them…
we missed how incredible they were.
Today… stop… and enjoy the moment for tomorrow it may all CHANGE.
Okay, it suppose to be the standard business fare to put on your happy face all the time… well the thing about me is… I am very much a wear-my-emotions-on-my-sleeve kind of person. Since I found out Wednesday that I was chosen for a spot to attend, Dane Sanders’, photographer-author-motivational speaker, Collect Focus workshop in just a few short days, I’ve been emotional swinging… from total elation to total panic!
This is tough for me. Last year, after my sister’s death, I started to suffer from panic attacks. My chest starts to tighten up, my mind gets flooded with self doubt… I basically freak. How do you operated like that? If I followed my emotions, I would never leave my house.
I don’t want to be Agraphobic. I don’t want to be a scared little mouse. I believe we can define ourselves… and that’s not who I want to be… even though that’s who the tightening in my chest is telling me to be.
To get through these panic attacks, this is what I do…
Step One: Acknowledge emotions and physical sensation
Step Two: Emotional check-in
- I contact a safe person to tell them what’s going on
Step Three: Allow my cheerleaders to cheer me on
- Sometime you have to take all the positives that your friends and family give you and hold them in your heart. How could I not do what I do when, let’s say, my little 6 year old tells me she’s so proud of me?
Step Four: Breath and continue on
Step Five: Repeat as needed
While all of that doesn’t totally eliminate my feelings, it does take the edge off. Usually once I’m in a situation, I don’t feel that way anymore.
Pictured above: my little 6-er and her little friend on the playground… she such a cute little goose.
P.S.- I wouldn’t mind if you left a nice comment below. Believe it or not, I like to go back and re-read the nice things my friend have written and it gets me through when I can actually talk to someone. (And this is why I am where I am today, because of my friends.)
Thanks.
Meet Sweet Baby M
I bring her to you from the far away lands of West Louisiana… enjoy.
(A side note… while I had dreams of doing a full out newborn session, I was only able to make 17 images. It seems she was a lot more sleepier during the day when there were not a house full of talkative adults. I wonderful why? Luckily Baby M is a natural beauty, and a true professional and was able get just a few.)
p.s.- Sorry about the watermark, I think they just really detract from this beautiful little newborn. However, for some reason, people think that all images on the internet are free to use. Well they aren’t. And we, photographers, in particular get rather prickly about people stealing our creations.
There was a time in my life when I thought my children would always be this age…
when I would constantly get woken up in the middle of the night, either to feed babies, sooth bad dreams
when I would walk around in a state of sleep deprivation
when I was never ALONE
when life was slow
when they fit into my lap
when they would stop me in my tracks to just sit and hold them, even just for a moment
when they thought I was always beautiful no matter how awful I really look, just because I was mommy
Those times don’t last forever, do they?
Are you where you want to be? Depending on the day, I think I answer that differently. I really love my life, but I have a desire for more. I have a desire for more, but am afraid of losing what I have… like time for my family or for myself. Or perhaps I’m holding myself back because of a fear of doing “things” wrong… but really folks, who really wants to operate out of a place of fear? I don’t. But those fears are little sneaky creepers that whisper in your ear when you are not aware, telling you how to live your life.
Friday night, Dane Sanders, author of Fast Track Photography, put out a notice on the web that read:
Wanted: Ten (10) never-say-die, thrilled to get a chance to get ahead with their business and their lives photographers who really believe that “there’s always a way” and are committed to becoming bootstrapping geniuses that stay in love with photography like a 16 year old in love and are committed to finding a way to make a living doing it.
Successful applicants are tirelessly upbeat, fantastically organized and dependable and interested in making a name for themselves. These spots are reserved for those who get that it’s a privilege to come to a workshop like this and have the vision to leverage the moment for greatness.
Of course, I immediately applied. It sounds intriguing. Maybe this would be something that could help me get to where I want to be. While I don’t know if I’ll be picked, anyone who knows me, knows that I am NOT “fantastically organized“, but… still… I am rather curious to see what this is all about… maybe you will too.
Here’s the link if you’d like to find out more: Apply to the Collective Focus
The deadline for applying is Tuesday, September 21 at 12pm PST.
Good luck.
Images from my backyard… okay, maybe not exactly my backyard, but behind my neighborhood. I never realized how beautiful it was until I trekked out there yesterday with my camera.
BTW… Chuck T’s not the best trekking footwear. They were soaked in dew down through to my socks.
p.s.- All images are Copyrighted. Please to not steal my images. However, if you would like to use them or buy them, please contact me.
Sometimes mommies are good mommies, and sometimes mommies forget the time because they are going to try out their brand spanking new Mark 5Dii that they’ve dreamt of owning for the last two years and are bad mommies.
Her little sister apparently was not as concerned about being late.
Got to go… more picts to come from the suburban bayou.