An Open Letter to My Clients
At the risk of being entirely too cliché...
I've been pondering the idea of writing this post for quite some time. It crosses my mind every time I get that giggly schoolgirl high from an engagement session or spend ten straight minutes making that obnoxious noise I make to try to get kids or dogs to look at my camera (if you have either kids or dogs - you've heard the noise, trust me.) I start writing it in my head a bit every time I'm watching a "first dance" or "first kiss", and become instantly enamored with the love story being written right before my eyes. Cheesy, I know.
Truth is, as I sit here just having finished bawling through the fifth episode of "Night Shift" that I've listened to today while editing (with the occasional interruption from my one-year old - who I'm convinced will NEVER sleep straight through the night), I am beyond humbled. I am utterly in awe of this fantastic journey I have been on over the past 3 or so years. And it's all because of you guys...
Just last month, I decided to "dive in head first", so to speak, and quit my "day job". This was not some run of the mill dead-end job that I was just in to buy time until something better comes along. It was a job I actually loved, with people I really admired and learned from daily. It was a career path I stumbled upon, and ended up actually being pretty good at. I miss it still, despite this beautiful path that I've been following these days. At this point you're probably thinking, "You miss waking up early to go sit in an office all day?!". The answer to that is no, I do not miss that part. But I miss the importance of what I was doing, and the value that I brought to my team, and the companionship aspect of being in an adult work environment on a day-to-day basis.
But here's what I didn't get from that job. I didn't get the ability to create. You may or may not know (depending on how much time we have spent together), but I am a creator. Before photos, it was music. My mission in life has always been to create something that captures an emotion so that you can relive it, share it, heal from it, revel in it... whatever you need. I thought the only way I could do that was to write songs. And then I started taking pictures.
Photography has filled a void that I never knew existed. It hasn't replaced music, but it has given me that artistic outlet that has a further reach and stronger pull than my music ever did. It allows me to freeze that little moment before the first kiss, when you can practically see the electricity between a couple that is over-the-moon excited to start the next chapter of their lives together. It allows me to capture the small amount of space between a three-year-old's shiny dress shoes and a warm summer sidewalk, so their parents (and eventually even they) can remember what it was like to skip across cement without a single care weighing them down. It allows me to show the people in front of my camera that they are so much more than they see in the mirror.
YOU are the ones that gave me the courage to jump off the ledge and truly become an artist. YOU are the ones who are pushing me to follow this insane dream. Every like. Every comment. Every shout-out. Every share. Every time one of you have made one of my photos your profile picture on Facebook. Every tear, and moment of laughter, and kiss, and twirl... All of YOU have built this business. I've merely been soaking up all of the energy you have given me, and using it to become the best that I can be. I can see the growth, in every session; every wedding; maybe even every photo. It's absolute insanity what happens when you have so many people supporting you.
So thank you, in the most sincere way. I am truly indebted to you all for the amount of belief that you have shown in what I am doing. It truly means the world.