Celebrating the Ordinary
This weekend was a rush that left me in a state of both physical and emotional exhaustion in the name of celebration. A long time friend and the lovely woman he found, were married. And it was so beautiful. It was also tiring. Tiring in the sense that I had to take the long way to the reception to have a moment in the car. To breath, and cry, to be alone for a second. (Sorry Tyler, I work to keep my emotions at bay, and all the emotions coming out of you just about knocked me out!) For everyone else who had the honor of bearing witness to the celebration I am sure it was life-giving. For the second shooter (me) that had to remove her tights at one point, because with all the running around they had become too hot and restricting, it was a roller coaster of a day.
But as always, when everything is speeding quickly and chaotically around you, life finds a way of slapping you with a simple truth and stopping you in your tracks. While at the reception I ran into an old friend and mentor, Joy. She asked how married life has been, and in my state of exhaustion, all I could do was express the joy I was finding in slowing down, settling in, and just living life with Rich. She responded, yes, isn't it amazing to just celebrate the ordinary.
It is amazing. So so important and beautiful and amazing. To take a step back from all the lights, and decor, and rush, and energy of a wedding and just take a moment to recognize that these are two humans who have chosen to commit themselves to each other for the rest of their time here.
My hope is, that this morning Laura and Tyler can sit and share their cups of coffee, snuggled up on a couch, and continue to celebrate. A quiet celebration of how even the simple ordinary moments in life have been transformed by love.
Best Picture
Immediately after our wedding (as in the day after) I started yet another photography class. Why? I knew that fall was going to be filled with beautiful weddings and engagements to capture, but it is always short lived here in MN. So I had to find a way to fuel my soul for the long winter. And sure enough the first assignment; Share the most important photo you have ever taken. Woah.
First, anyone who knows me knows, I am terrible at picking favorites. I am indecisive, highly spontaneous, extremely reflective, and far to self aware about all of the above. Basically, the perfect cocktail for not being able to make any definitive statements about what is best.
Second, well that photo better be a good one! I am literally flooded with hundreds of beautiful photos everyday. Spectacular, emotional, mountaintop kind of photos, and now you want me to share my personal best? Yikes!
I paused, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let that "extremely reflective" previously mentioned kick in.
When I take photos for couples what am I trying to create?
I will guiltily confess that there are moments I am trying to get a over the top, that is so cool, Instagram that and it will for sure get 30 likes, type of photo. It will be the first one I pick out when I open up your images after our session and quickly post online.
But more so, I am dreaming of that book that will grace your first apartment. The tangible pages in your hands. Images of the little laughs and touches and love you share. The book that will follow you to your first home, the one you show your aging grandparents or your growing children. The images that at first may not blow you away, but with age become more and more precious.
The fabulous thing about this is that I don't know what image in that book will make your heart sing most. I must simply capture you. Maybe it is the way your eyes crinkle when you really laugh, or the way he was looking at you while you were distractedly doing something else, but it is just so spectacularly, simply you in that space and time. You can run your fingers over that image year after year and be reminded of that beautiful, simple moment in your life.
So here is the image I chose. As far as lighting, and composition, and all that jazz...it really isn't anything special. But it has a story.
Rich and I continuously joked that we were bad at wedding planning. We literally asked our engaged friends, what are you doing?! We were not doing anything! We had 4 boxes of spray painted bottles and 1 giant chalkboard, we had no idea what would be cooked by the caterer, hadn't picked out table clothes, had never definitively picked colors (I liked the gold spray paint, and rich looked good in a navy suit, and these ivory bridesmaids dresses looked better then the pink ones...told you I couldn't pick favorites) And it was in that stage of beginning to panic that Rich and I decided to sneak away to his cabin for a weekend. While the car ride up was full of lists of tasks we should probably do, as soon as we got to that peaceful place everything changed.
Here was where we always found a weekend to spend each summer, where we had got engaged a year before, where we would be coming after our wedding. That place, there with him, was all that mattered. The tasks, and lists, and stress fell away and we sat and laughed, and swam, and read, napped way to much, snacked way to much, and loved.
And when asked what the most important image I had ever taken was, that particular day, it was this. This silly image, taken on accident (when the remote shutter would not work and I started laughing as Rich gave me the "why do we need another picture" face) that resonated in my bones. The one that with age, will always remind me that it was never about planning a wedding, but preparing for a life.
