A bit of blunt honesty time here.  I’ll let you in on a little secret most photographers have.  I sometimes really don’t like my work and get really bored with what I do (the work I produce, not the job itself).  It’s true.  I’m not being overly dramatic or self-deprecating.  I really do, at times, dislike what I have done.  I’ll love a session for a month or two.  And then I’ll go back and it just won’t do it for me anymore.   All I can see is what I did wrong or how I could have done something differently.  And yes, the opposite is also true at times.  A session I didn’t really like, shots I wasn’t really happy with; I’ll walk away for a bit, then come back to them and like them much more.  But I digress.  A lot of the time I can only see what I am doing wrong.  And I get frustrated.  I see in my work the same things that I rely on time and time again.  I desire so strongly to break out of the norm and do something different.  Change how I am shooting.  But in the end, I fall back on what is reliable.  What is expected.  I stay inside my nice little box of “do this, shoot that.”

It’s scary to step outside the box.

When you stay inside the the box things don’t change.  You don’t mess up.  Your work stays the same.

It’s also pretty boring if you never step outside the box.  You never mess up.  Your work always stays the same.  Complacency sets in.

And when that happens over and over, you kind of get the “blahs.”  And the blahs are no good.  Especially when you’re looking at four sessions in 48 hours!!

Amy’s session was my breaking out of the box and banishing the “blahs”.  I had been pretty “eh” about myself and my work recently.  Her session helped me out of my funk and helped me love my camera again.  It definitely helped me love maternity all over again!!  We set up three gorgeous, fun outfits and two locations.  Add to that a beautiful momma-to-be who knows how to stand and who is an absolute natural as well as some yummy light and great backdrops and you have the cure for the blahs.  I didn’t do anything totally ground breaking here.  But for ME it was something different and outside of MY box.  I had total say on locations and a lot of say in the outfits.  The poses were about 50/50.  But I love love love what we came up with together and I hope you do, too.  🙂

I can honestly say that I don’t think I have looked forward to anyone being pregnant and having a baby more than our friends John and Rachel.  (Well, obviously I was more excited about *our* pregnancies and babies.)  But in terms of friends they are right up there at the top.  You have these best friends in your life.  Sometimes they are the people you grew up with (as my husband did with John and Rachel) and sometimes, like I have spoken about before, they are the people you inherit through marriage, like I did with them.  And when these people start to go through huge things like engagement, marriage, pregnancy you cannot help but be absolutely thrilled for them!!  John and Rachel got married three weeks after us.  John was Matt’s best man and Matt was in John’s wedding.  They have had a great six years of marriage, traveling, doing all sorts of things those of us that had kids quickly did not get to do.  😉  But now, they are ready to welcome their first child, who is going to be an absolutely beautiful little girl, into their lives.  So last week when they came to visit us for the day, I took them out for some maternity pictures to document this amazing time in their lives.  Rachel is absolutely stunning, as we knew she would be.  And they are just as goofy as ever  🙂  And we are so, SO very excited for them and cannot wait to meet their little girl!

(John I know you hate this sweater but I actually really love this photo  ;))