This has been my view for a couple of days…

I’m here because I helped my great friend Meg Perotti shoot a wedding yesterday. It was beautiful and took place in one of the most amazing locations I have ever seen in person. Seriously? This is real?? And it’s my job??? The past couple of days have just been so amazing… spending time with a great group of people here for the wedding, relaxing a little by the pool, and getting to look at this view all day… I have spent a lot of time focusing on what an incredible opportunity this has been and feel very fortunate to have been asked to be here. I am so, so grateful and will write more about that gratitude in a later post. Experiences like this truly make me realize that life is incredibly good and leave me changed as a person.

I am so looking forward to sharing more about this trip soon! Until then, I have a couple more days to explore the rainforest and beaches of Costa Rica - ¡Pura Vida!

P.S. – I apologize if you’ve emailed me, but Internet access is less stable in locations like these than they are back in the highly networked land of Los Angeles. I will be returning all email by early next week.

I was sitting at home last night trying to reflect on the whirlwind of the past three days at WPPI- mingling with and learning from photographers from all over the world. It’s always a bit overwhelming being at WPPI… but this year was overwhelming in the best way. I always learn so much from attending the convention- this year the most important lesson was to fully embrace who I am in order to create better work. This may seem obvious to some, but it’s something I have struggled with over the past year because I feel myself changing and growing everyday and didn’t know how much to allow that to seep out into my work. It’s also scary to put myself completely out there- it’s an incredibly vulnerable place to be…

Knowing who I am is important to me. Knowing who I want to be is also important. I’m constantly striving to grow and adapt and improve so that the former becomes the latter- and that constant drive for personal growth is what truly inspires me on a daily basis in all aspects of my life. My experience during these past few days at WPPI have truly helped me to more fully embrace that philosophy and not only allow, but encourage it to spill over into my work. I have learned to embrace the change in myself that I feel daily and let that manifest visually in my photographs… and I feel very good about that.

To all the photographers I was able to reconnect with and meet over the past three days: This year at WPPI was phenomenal for me because of you. I am coming home this year feeling extra lucky that I am part of such a great industry where socializing with one another is such a fun, interesting, educational and inspiring experience! That is pretty unique to our industry, and my gratitude for that grows everyday. At the risk of sounding sappy, if I was given the opportunity to talk to you for even a few minutes in Vegas, you helped to shape my experience there and for that I am grateful because it was exceptionally positive. For those of you I spent more time with, I am especially grateful for you for the conversation, the insight, the inspiration, and most importantly the friendship. I look forward to these relationships continuing to build over the next weeks, months and years.

I cannot wait for next year to do it all over again!

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Note: I will be traveling for the next week and will have limited Internet and email access. I so appreciate your patience in waiting for a response should you try to contact me while I am away!

It’s finally here! For the past couple of months, I have been working hard to update the look of things around here. The last logo I had was the same I had used from the very beginning of my business. I have grown a lot as a photographer since I began and I wanted a new look to reflect that growth and to help take my business and my work to a new level. When running a business, especially a creative one, growth and change is vital. I wanted something that reflected who I am and want to be as an artist- and because I have a background in graphic design, I wanted to do it mostly myself. Designing for oneself is one of the most difficult things I can think of, which is why it has taken me this long.

I love modern and simple logos contrasted with fun colors and fun imagery– I think this look feels like me. That’s my goal; to create my own little space on the World Wide Web that looks and feels like me so that people who visit, including everyone from fellow photographers and blog perusers to potential clients, get a glimpse of who I am in addition to the work I do.

I designed the logo and created the visual concept for the blog. A very talented and awesome programmer named Pete Medina made my visual concept a functional reality. He is super fantastic, so great to work with, and I highly recommend him to anyone who wants a custom blog. Contact him for more information.

I used Showit to design my main site- and love it for the fact that I can create a site on my own and change  and update it whenever I want. I want the control and I also want the freedom of not feeling locked in to a certain design or layout. There are still some minor changes that will be made, and because I’m one that likes to continually improve and change little by little, I think that will always be the case. I hope you like what you see here, and I truly hope that you can better see who I am.

In other news, one of the biggest events of the entire year for international wedding and portrait photographers is about to commence in Vegas! WPPI is a mixed experience of photography education (for both creative and business aspects) and a huge social extravaganza. This will be my 4th time attending the convention, and each time I have come home inspired, exhausted, and with many new friends. If you’re a photographer, I really encourage you to attend for yourself! It is an experience for people in our industry like no other… I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared for it yet since I’ve been so busy, but I’m so excited for the experience this year!

If you are a photographer attending WPPI this year and you’re reading this, it would be fun to get together as I always love meeting new people! You can email me, leave a comment here, or just find me on Twitter. Or, maybe I’ll just run into you on the tradeshow floor or at one of the many parties that will be happening. Make sure to say hi if you see me around!

Finally, I have a great engagement session to post very soon. Until I post the full session, here’s a Sneak Peek…

Happy Thursday, everyone!