Rebalancing

Gavin and Martha came to me over a year before I was to shoot their wedding, and were extremely easy to work with from the very beginning. Their plan was simple and their wedding was sweet and beautiful. Schnebly Redland's Winery was picturesque and the time of day was perfect for some great lighting for the ceremony.

I have grown fond of formal portraiture over the past year, and weddings have been great opportunities to experience this type of portraiture in a special way. An aspect of formal portraiture that I enjoy is the freedom of time and not feeling pressure to lose a moment that is often associated with event photography, an exception to this has been portrait sessions during weddings. When you combine the time constraint of wedding plans and formal portraiture, the mix is a charged session of portraiture that I tend to enjoy. There is something about pressure and energy involved with being in a moment that I love.

Lately, I have been working long hours, busy with photography jobs on the weekends, and trying to learn more about shooting and post-processing video in every free moment I am able to get. Still, I have found time to work on things around the house on the weekends and spend time with my great family at least once a week. I am grateful to have all of these things to fill my time, and by no means is this a complaint but to say that I don't want all of this busyness to burn me out, nor do I want the feeling that my job, photography, and learning more are the cause of being burnt out. To cope with being busy, I have been getting to bed earlier, waking up earlier, getting some quality time alone in the morning, and taking breaks throughout the day to watching some inspirational TED talks. The result has been the ability to focus on one thing at time, letting go of some things for the short term, and getting back into some physical exercise. I love playing sports and with a schedule that easily gets filled it becomes increasingly hard to make time to play as I get older. The benefits of physical exertion especially through playing has a great balancing effect, and it is something I feel as though I have always had while growing up.

The two TED talks that seemed to have sparked an interest in me the most have been one about playing and one about regularly scheduled and planned sabbaticals. I have not reflected on the significance that playing has had on my life until watching this talk about revolutionary play. I have been previewed to regular sabbaticals through friends in ministry, but had not considered the effects for myself, and at this time it is quite enticing although unsettling to my perception of the normal. Plenty of dreams in this little head of mine, and there are so many great technological breakthroughs that seem to be happening weekly that it is hard not to be excited about the future. I continue to gain perspective about life one day at time while trying to stay balanced, preparing for the future, and grateful for each day I get.

Back in the Water!

So I remember when my love for photography was new. I was learning at an incredible rate and I was just concerned with taking pictures for the sake of learning. My videography has become that fresh new love to me. I am able to enjoy the foundation that 10 years of photography has afforded me while experiencing a new medium of expression. When I look at creating complete video productions I become overwhelmed. So I have changed gears and I am starting from what I know. I am just beginning to collect footage learning about my cameras and the simple encoding and uploading to web for the best results at a minimum file size.

I hope you enjoy these two brief clips plus a few images I gathered before filming. This is a more personal post and I know this is my professional photography blog, but this is a natural progression of skills and direction of learning for me, and since it is consuming my time, it is either this or no blog! I do have plenty of less personal higher quality images to share and I intend to share more when ready, but in the meantime enjoy and please stay tuned.

I have also been on a weekly adventure with Lianne helping to maintain her blog and produce both video and images to track her progress along her journey to Horse Whispering! Check out her blog for weekly update with my own photos and video. It is pretty sweet, I know. She has begun to give me weekly lessons so that I can begin to nurture my own skills and love for horses as well. I am loving every minute of it. I hope you understand and can continue to follow my blog despite the inconsistency.