I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of remembering and its role in our present perspective. I often am frustrated because I am not where I want to be, where I swear I should be by now. I am just not there yet. When I quiet my impatience and frustration and turn my attention to remembering… my perspective changes drastically. It turns to thankfulness, valued moments, thoughtfulness towards those I love and my frustrations become silenced. Our culture is so hurried to get to the next place, the better job, the lesser weight, to find “the one”, but when do we sit and remember. Remembering who we were, where we came from, who traveled with us along the way.
In a lot of ways I’m in the business of remembering. I capture the way new love looks after ” yes” has been said, how new parents are insecure and so in love, how children’s eyes look at any given age, what her mom looked like a few weeks before she was gone, and how love has grown into a lifetime of devotion and committment. I want to remember how it was. That is why my philosophy is to come as you are, because it IS extraordinary without any extra doctoring. You will want to remember his dirty 5 year old face , not combed hair and polo that he only wears when you make him.
All of this goes along with both what my personal life and business is built on. Beauty is in the ordinary all around us. Reading books on the sofa with your love beside you is magical. It shapes you, forms you and it never happens quite the same again. Time keeps passing, children keep growing and we all get older. I want to live in reverence towards each day I’ve been given. Don’t you? Why do I so easily forget where I was one year ago? And the friend that selflessly gave to me? They are all fibers in this colorful tapestry that is being woven.
So today I remember. I remember the day how he proposed under the magnolia tree with string, our first ugly house, the family I left behind that I miss so dearly, my failures and many tears, my friend’s deep losses, the witness of new life, eating dinner together for a year, a kitty on my pillow every morning, the hope of possibility, painful changes, and the gift it is to be alive. Each moment makes me who I am today and who I will be tomorrow.
Our Muted Love Woodland shoot was featured on Ruffled! Thank you thank you to all the wonderful vendors! If you’d like to see more of this inspiration shoot, click here to go back to the post on the blog!
Elizabeth Anne Designs is one of our favorite blogs and we were thrilled to have Lauren and Matt’s beautiful day featured!! If you’d like to see more of this wedding, click here to go back in the blog and have a looksie.
In keeping with the natural melancholy aesthetic of shoot, the film by Put Down the Bourbon was shot in an dramatic raw perspective with an original music composition by Paper Door. We didn’t want a smooth over-produced video but the edges a bit unkempt and an intimate perspective into this bride’s waiting. Muted Love. from … Continue reading
I am so very excited to bring you this Woodland Inspiration Shoot. A group of talented vendors got together wanting an inspirational shoot void of pastels and pretty pinks to bring imagery to the bride with a love of nature and the beauty in the barren winter months. Katie from Jayne Weddings first hatched this … Continue reading
One shot as a fun Sneak Peek to what I will be posting on Thursday!! Katie from Jayne Weddings , Kelly from Fleur and I got together to brainstorm a wedding inspiration shoot that was void of pastels and appealed to a love of nature and the barren months of winter. This gorgeous dress was … Continue reading
This week started my yearly class at Chicago Botanic Garden teaching Macro Photography in the greenhouse. It is always a welcome change of pace for me to communicate the technicalities of the camera, meet new students and spend some time away from the computer. I wander with my class in the green humidity and it relaxes … Continue reading
Awesome Jessie.
Okay my friend….first of all – I love you dearly. I have always known some things about you…you are an artist, you LOVE people deeply, you are a faithful friend, an amazing wife to an incredible man….BUT I had no idea you could write like this. Thank you are sharing your heart – you INSPIRE me!!!