When my good friends Issac and Courtney asked if I would document their 5th anniversary celebration I gladly accepted. Little did I know I’d have to get before the sun to do it.

In all seriousness the couple decided to ring in their special day with a hot air balloon ride. I couldn’t have been more excited! I have been on a few rides but none with such meaning behind it. There is nothing more peaceful to float above everything in the early morning dew before the rest of the world wakes up with the love of your life.

Sadly, when we got to the balloons we realized I wouldn’t be able to fly with them. So I switched gears and had fun shooting some pictures of them before they launched.

So, to my good friends, Happy 5th Anniversary! Here’s to another 50 or 60 years!!

Thanks for inviting me along and I hope you enjoy the photos.

I always say that things happen for a reason. It may be timing or circumstance but life always seems to figure it self out. It could be for good or for bad, but it’s part of this wonderful gift that God has given us to explore.

Last month I had an epiphany of sorts.

Wait, wait, wait, let’s back up to January.

My friends and I were in the middle of planning a trip to Vegas for WPPI. I had gone last year and was ready to make it an annual pilgrimage. January was one of my slower months and when I started to budget the trip, it just didn’t make sense to take it. Bummed about not having this creative experience for myself I started to brainstorm better ways to use my money and my time. I also started to connect to Dane Sanders. If you don’t know about Dane he is this very humble leader/photographer/writer that resides with his family in Orange County, California. He’s pretty amazing! To be honest he was the only person I saw in Vegas in 2010 that I felt really spoke to me. His vision and ideas were similar to mine. Our backgrounds are vastly different but the core of who we both are was very much the same. Anyway, we emailed back and forth for a month or two and then he called me. He wanted to invite me to one of his Roadshows in Ohio this spring.

Fast Forward to last month.  So, after 10 minutes on the phone with him I knew I needed this workshop for my business. Being a good friend, I dragged along one of my besties, Elise Schreiner.

The three days started with an open invitation to his talk at the Dayton Art Institute. One of the first things he said is, “Reality is your best friend.” I realized right then and there that this workshop was going to be more than just figuring out work flow for me, it was going to be about changing my life. My current state of being.

This is hard to admit but when I was laid off from my newspaper job almost 2 years ago, I lost a big chunk of who I am. I had been identified as a news photographer for over a decade and before that I was a student of photojournalism. It had been my world. Sure I had married, had children and other life experiences but nothing had defined me so much as that title, Staff Photographer. Believe me I’m more than excited to now be out on my own, but I felt like my identity had been ripped from me. I love being home with Liam and also running my own business, but something has been missing. I didn’t realize what that something was until I experienced this workshop.

Don’t get me wrong the roadshow stays on task, talking about how to build your business from the start, how to take your vision and make it work, all very useful and exciting information. But what I realized in all of this was I wasn’t happy. That I wasn’t in a good place. That none of what he was talking about could ever be possible unless I would talk about what had been eating at me. That I’m not over being laid off. That I’m probably still a little depressed  about it. That all of that has been tied together with my real dislike of myself. Kind of crazy that you can go to a workshop in hopes to bring your business to the next level and walk away realizing I need to take my reality seriously.

So, I did. I made a declaration in Ohio that I would lose these last 10lbs of baby weight I have been fighting with for 2 years.

When I got home I started on the Four Hour Body. I’m on my third week and have lost nearly 5lbs and also lots of inches. I also joined a running group to train for my first 5k on June 11. I’m not loving the training. But I’m committed to it. I also contacted a therapist and I’m going for my first appointment on Friday.

It’s funny that people have already started to take notice. I have amazing friends and family. They are my biggest cheerleaders. But sometimes they just tell me what I want to hear, and I’m not blaming them, believe me, I do the same thing sometimes, but I needed to figure this out on my own. I needed to be ready if I was ever going to succeed at any of this. So, with the help of my new friends in Ohio and with the leadership of Dane. I’m finally ready.

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, guys!

Ok, enough mushy stuff, here are a few photos of my gorgeous friend, Elise, that I took at the workshop. Love you!