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Happy New Year, everyone! Our holiday season was amazing.  Rob and I trekked to a ‘cut your own’ tree farm in Brant Lake this year and hand selected our tree.  Yes, Eddie Bauer – you can borrow these images for your catalog

I have some images of our tree decorated, but I haven’t downloaded them yet, so I guess that’s a post for another time.

I am really looking forward to 2010.  So many good things are happening, I’ll try to fill you in on as many of them as I can in this post.  And, since I know you only like posts that have pictures, I’ll do my best to include them when I can…  First,  I took a much needed vacation this past week and spent some much needed time with my family.

I’ll start with the one thing that has given my family more joy over these past three years than any one other thing – my godson Connor.  I just have to say that although I may be biased, he has got to be the cutest kid on the planet!!  I mean really people, look at this kid – I have no idea how his parents ever say “no” to him…

And, he LOVES giving hugs and kisses – this is him trying to hug me while I’m trying to take his picture…

Seriously people, look at this face….and this is just about 3 seconds worth of faces…

This one is my favorite….yes, he is showing me his ‘Muscles’…

And, he now has a new little sister,  Hannah,  for my mother (a.k.a. the baby hog) to spoil… images are being saved for the blog until my sister makes her final decision on Hannah’s announcement, but I think I can post this one because it isn’t an announcement candidate…

In September of this year my brother John is getting married to his long-time love Julie Ogden.  Julie has reminded all of us how fun mini-golf is so it was only natural that we headed off to Pirate’s Cove for their engagement session.  I still have to post the images, but here’s a sneak peek…

My style of photography has been evolving over the past few years and has taken itself to a whole new level in so many ways.  I absolutely love photographing weddings and portraits and am blessed to have found this talent within myself at such an unexpected time in my life.   This year I bought myself several new toys including a 35mm lens.  This is not the typical top of the line lens that I would purchase – but I bought it on a whim and I L.O.V.E. it.  This images are soft and almost translucent.  I used this lens extensively for Bentley and Sara’s wedding as this type of image fit their style so well. These two are straight out of the camera -  no retouching…

Yes, I made my husband hang out in a field of dead flowers for those images  He’s such a good sport – and wickedly handsome if I do say so myself.

I have always had an ‘artsy’ side to myself, even as a small child.  I was interested in crafting and collecting flowers and things like that, but I also have a very analytical side.  I remember two very specific things about my earlier years specifically related to my love of capturing life through a camera lens…on one trip to Cape Cod with my family we went on a whale watching tour.  I was in love with those dolphins and couldn’t put my camera down for one second.  I looked around and realized my cousin Darlene hadn’t taken one picture.  When I asked her about it she commented that she was taking pictures in her head, and had her memories – I was dumbfounded by this response and totally did not understand.  I now understand a little better, as I have spent the past 5 years capturing life through my camera lens, and have missed out on some ‘living’, but my need to do so hasn’t changed and although her memories may have faded, my prints will last forever.  The next thing I remember was backpacking Europe with my good friend Sara.  We graduated from College together and while she moved to the city to work, I stayed in school for one year to complete my Masters in Business Administration (remember my analytical side).  30 minutes after I had my degree in hand I was off to the airport to meet her for our trip.   I was going through my scrapbook’s the other day and stopped at this picture…

Looking back on it I realize that I dragged her all over Europe, capturing every place we went, but not slowing down long enough to experience any of them.  Check out the date on the Eiffel Tower, it’s taken me 10 years to realize this….

I am getting to a point here, my New Year’s Resolutions!  I have two – to spend more time on myself and to spend more time living.  I am now officially in the worst shape of my life.  I look nothing like I did in the image above, and when I see pictures of myself now, I wonder what happened.  I was always a very active, very fit person.  Then I graduated from College and started working for Arthur Andersen.  One high pressure job that I was totally in love with led to the next and I spent 95% of my 20′s working 15 hours a day – and I loved it.  I have a type “A” personality and I need to be the best at everything I do.  For 6 good years I worked for the most elite companies in the country as a construction litigation consultant, doing work that only a very small population is qualified to do – and I was good at it.  But as my body tired  and I met my husband and we bought a home here in Bolton Landing, my love of the outdoors was reignited.  So I lived ‘up North’ and worked in the city for several years…and probably would have continued to do so for a long time, had our home not been severely damaged by a flood.  After that, my career moved ‘up North’ as well.  Around that same time my brother in law married his long time love, Cynthia Claravall.  To make a long story short, Cynthia convinced me to photographer their wedding, and I was amazed at how much I not only enjoyed capturing their day, but giving them wonderful photographs that are proudly displayed throughout their home.  Here are a few of my favorite’s…

My style really defined itself on that day.  Capturing a mix of formal portraits, real moments, and amazing details.   Mixing modern with traditional.  Since then, it’s just gotten better!  Your wedding day is definitely something you experience.  Your mind is not ‘taking photographs’ so to speak.  That is my job – no, that is my passion.  To capture images that tell the story of your day and artistically put them together in an album for you to cherish – that will let you relive your wedding day over and over for years to come.  This makes me happy beyond explanation.  Each time I present a bride with her album, and her eyes fill with tears, I know that I have given that couple something that they will have for their entire lifetime.  I could just shoot and burn, like some photographers, but as I said, I am type A and have to be the best at everything – anything less is not acceptable, but clearly I also need to spend more time living, so I will taking on fewer clients in the upcoming year….I have never turned down a potential client – I am not good at saying “no”, but I need to find a balance in my life and I am excited about the prospect of forming relationships with a limited number of couples each year – sometimes, less is more.

Happy New Year everyone!