Here’s a special message from my Director of Public Relations…

I’m a bit tardy in posting my entry for this week’s Let’s Do 52 Challenge.  This was just the kick in the pants I needed to dust off my creativity and take my camera for a walk.  We’ve had unbelievably nice weather the past few weeks, so there is still so much life left everywhere you look.  The mid-morning light cast an amazing golden wash over everything and also made for some very satisfying shadow play.  This is my contribution… “Natural”

If you’d like to join the challenge with me, visit Paint The Moon - get out there and create something!

In the spirit of my 2012 theme:  “Inspire, Create, Believe”, I wanted to give myself an incentive to keep my creativity open and flowing.  It’s so easy to fall into complacency, which eventually turns into beating yourself up over things you had resolved to do.  That’s the whole point of creating a theme for the year, rather than new year’s resolutions.  In past years, I’ve attempted a 365 project – one photo a day for an entire year.  I always started out strong, but the reality of my schedule (running a photography business plus continuing to work two part-time jobs to supplement), soon left me feeling overwhelmed and guilty for not keeping to the goal.

So this year, I decided to take a little of the pressure off and join the “Let’s Do 52″ Challenge over at Paint The Moon.  I think a photo a week is much more within my reach and the weekly suggested themes will keep my creativity fresh and active.  If you want to challenge yourself to be more creative, you’ll find plenty of inspiration (and some fantastic photoshop actions and templates) over at Paint The Moon.  Join the challenge with us, too!

One of the ways I am turning things around for me and my photography, is that I’m not making any New Year’s Resolutions.  Making resolutions always seems to focus on flaws and shortcomings, and the resolutions are often too vague or unrealistic, thus sure to fail.  I want to start out the year being successful, and using my newly formed idea of what that word “success” really means to me.  I’ve been encouraged by a friend to instead choose a theme for the year - one word that will set the tone for everything I do in my business and in life, thus keeping me mindful of where I want to be nd making sure I do everything with purpose and intention. 

I couldn’t settle on just one word, however, so I have 3:  Inspire, Create, Believe.  From this point forward, everything I do, everything I dream, everything I experience should somehow reflect one or all of these theme words.  If I can help inspire others and surround myself with people who inspire me, and encourage all of us  to be actively creating art on a regular basis, then I believe I am making a positive impact, which has always been my goal in life and in business.

So let this blog post INSPIRE you to CREATE your own theme for 2012, setting the tone for your year, and together I BELIEVE we can do astounding things!

So… what is YOUR theme for 2012?

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”  ~Mark Victor Hansen

I spent the last week of 2011 in my hometown with my parents and my older sister – something I don’t often get to do.  While I was there, my sister helped me plan a “hometown photo day” at the local community building, offering mini portrait sessions at a very minimal cost.  It was a great idea that I plan on repeating in the spring.  Our timing for this one was slightly off, and the turnout was extremely low. 

Other than my mom, I had only one other couple who took advantage of the offer.  So I had a lot of time to think about how I measure my success.  Since I started my photography career nearly 6 years ago, I have been on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs – the Ups being opportunities that I never imagined, like meeting and photographing the Dalai Lama, First Lady Michelle Obama, traveling with the University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team to the Sweet 16 – and many other amazing people not necessarily as famous, but no less inspiring through my lens.  The Downs of this business have been mostly related to money or travel – and the glaring lack of both.  I also have spent a great deal of time comparing myself, my work, and my journey to some of my seemingly more successful peers.

Remember that couple who took advantage of my hometown photo offer?  Turns out they were there because they had never had a professional portrait together, even though they had been together for a while.  It was my great honor to be the photographer they chose to make their first portrait together.  That, to me, is a tremendous success.

So, I have decided to change how I measure success, not only in my business but in life as well.  My wish for us all is that 2012 be filled with moments like the one I experienced back home, for those moments are the true measure of success.

Do you have an all-time favorite family photo?  Perhaps it’s one you took on a recent family vacation, or snapshots from an amazing night out with friends.  Your first toothless school photo, your first date, your first car.  Maybe you have photos that you treasure from decades ago…your baby photos… or your parents’ or grandparents’ baby photos.

My Mama has a trunk full of albums just bursting with photos, and any time my sister, Cathy, and I are together at Mama’s house, our favorite thing to do it open up that trunk, gather up as many albums as we can fit in our laps, and go through every photo on every page, pointing to some and saying, ‘remember when…’ and laughing about something that happened before or after that photo was taken.  There are about a dozen albums of just my Mama’s life experiences as an artist – art shows where she displayed her paintings, newspaper and magazine clippings about her work, or about the woman behind the art.  Our family has always documented life in photos, and my Mama has lovingly placed them in these albums and cared for them so that Cathy and I would have them ‘some day’.   But we have never wanted to stash these treasures away until that vague future  ’someday’ arrived.  We always feel like ‘someday’ is now.

Where is your trunk full of ‘someday’ memories?  Is it stashed away in albums packed in boxes?  Is it on a disc on your desk, or tucked away in a folder inside your computer?  Believe me, I have thousands of photos on discs and in hard drives.  Some of these photos are just as memorable and precious to me as the ones in my Mama’s trunk.  But I never find myself sitting next to my sister in front my computer clicking through thumbnails and saying, ‘remember when…‘

Don’t get me wrong…the digital age has brought much convenience and success to us as photographers.  But I wouldn’t trade those photo album treasure hunts with my sister for anything.

Stuff. 

I love stuff. 

Holy buckets…I have SO. MUCH. STUFF. 

GAH!  I really hate all this Stuff!  So I’ve been in the process of clearing out, donating, downsizing, and editing…everything.  The Leaning Tower of Storage that once consumed an entire wall of my bedroom has now been cleared away, consolidated down to 4 small boxes of Really Good Stuff that fits in the top shelf of my closet.  That bedroom wall is now home to the most beautiful antique dresser… a gift from a Beloved Friend.  It changed the whole atmosphere of my bedroom from stressful to peaceful. 

That’s the Beloved Life that I want to create for myself, my friends, my family, my clients.  Changing stressful to peaceful.    In order to do that, you have to clear away some not so great stuff and make room for the Really Good Stuff. 

Clear away Distractions…make room for Connections.

Clear away Stress, Worry and Separation… make room for Calm, Peace and Togetherness.

Make room for the Good Stuff, my Beloveds…and it WILL come.

Did you know? The super cool people at Mohair Pear and The Other Place – College Hill  are sponsoring a “Zombie Walk” to benefit the Cedar Bend Humane Society! Show up at 4:30 in your Zombie best. The walk is at 5:00. Zombies will do a loop around The Hill, then over to the Other Place for pizza/beverages/beer. The OP will be offering Zombie discounts, too! Costume contest winner gets a Mohair Pear gift certificate. All proceeds from donations from the Zombie Walk go to the Cedar Bend Humane Society.

 Happy Snaps Photobooth  is supporting this event by opening up the photobooth FREE to all Zombies on Saturday Only from 3:00pm to 5:00pm before the walk.  You can find us right above Copy Works on The Hill at 2227-1/2 College St., #1.  After the walk, “like” us on Facebook to download your Zombie Snaps for FREE: www.facebook.com/HappySnapsIowa

I have been doing a lot of things lately to get out of my comfort zone.  Each time I push myself beyond my comfort zone, and see things turning out okay, or often even turning out greater than I ever imagined, I realize that this comfort zone I’ve been living in, really wasn’t so comfortable after all.

So here’s to the dreamers and anyone who is pushing past fear and finding fulfillment…