We celebrated Genevieve’s birthday last night at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. Last night, which was April 29th. It was a heck of a lotta’ fun being with the family. Today, I check my Facebook and someone asks “(I thought) she was more April 30th?…..I thought sometime in May?” With me being so sure of her birthdate, I was going to make some funny sarcastic response along the lines of “You know let me check…Yeah no, I’m pretty sure it’s April 29.” And then I am suddenly reminded of that childhood memory when my mom forgot my birthdate and the many MANY times my husband tells me “you are so like your mother”. I walked over to my file cabinet with my personal family files, looked up “Birth Certificates”, pulled out Genevieve’s and then wham! There it was. April 27th. Not the 29th. The 27th. Man did I feel like a total sucker. I forgot my own daughter’s 1st birthday. But then I thought, there are things worst than forgetting your daughter’s first birthday. Like leading your daughter into believing that she chose her own birthday.

Here are some pics from last night. Happy 1st Birthday, my little Pumpkin.

Next, we have Charlie, my oldest. Charlie just turned 5, and is way ahead of his years. He loves to read, loves his violin, and has a better memory than myself and Alin put together. Charlie is counting down the days that he gets to go to Kindergarten this Fall. His eyes gleam & sparkle when he is excited about something and he has a zest for life that I just adore in him.

Then there’s Tristan. Tristan just turned four and my favorite feature is his giant almond-shaped eyes. We call him “Emo” because he sometimes gets into that “zone” where he’s just in his own world and at the same time, he can be the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen or heard. When my hair is at its frizziest and ugliest, Tristan never fails to tell me “Mommy. I love your hair. I love ever-body’s hair in the whole wide earth.”

The last of my boys is Oliver who just turned 2. Oliver is nicknamed “ursule” by Alin’s dad, and tranlates to English as “bear”, because well -frankly his stocky frame & walk resembles that of a bear. He’s quite the bully, and when he gets upset, his voice gets high-pitched, which we laugh at and makes him even more upset. We love our little bear.

Here’s my three brute boys together.

Last but not least, is little miss Genevieve. Our little baby princess. She’s the baby of the family and our only girl, so you can imagine how spoiled she is. When I greet her every morning in her crib, she gives me her “E.T.” finger and waits for me to touch it with my index finger which she then gets a huge kick out of. When she’s tired, or just wants to be held, she puts her two middle fingers in her mouth and sucks on them. Bad habit? Maybe. But I think it’s adorable. I’m so glad that I have a healthy little girl.

Here’s my four precious ones all together. I love these kids with my whole heart and would do anything for them!

The Stand

You stood before creation
Eternity in Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what could I say?
What could I do?
But offer this heart, oh God
Completely to You

So I’ll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what could I say?
What could I do?
But offer this heart, oh God
Completely to You

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul, Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

A while back I had seen some of Carol Hanna’s gorgeous wedding creations on a wedding blog and then I remembered her from Project Runway Season 6. I noticed that the images of her dresses were nice but I knew they weren’t doing the pieces justice. I played with the idea of asking her if she wanted to collaborate on a shoot using her gowns, but then I quickly dismissed the idea. I mean, she’s Carol Hannah. Why in the world would she even take the time to read an email from ME? God only knows why, but something inside me kept pushing me to just ask. So… I emailed her and sent it without any expectation of ever hearing from her. About a week later I get an email from her saying that she would love to have her gowns photographed by me and that she trusted my vision. What a compliment from a designer who I have grown to adore and respect from watching her on Project Runway.

With all that said, she had done a fashion show in Charleston a couple of weeks back, and went back to New York, leaving her gowns there for me to use in this photo shoot. I arrived with Alin, my favorite assistant and best husband in the whole wide world, and we took the gowns over to Rouge of Charleston. Angie and Chad are the owners of this full-service salon and one of the nicest people that I have EVER met. They had so graciously allowed us to use their space to get ready, and on such short notice without even knowing us. I mean, who does that?? Angie also did the models’ hair and what an impeccable and perfect job she did. Thank you Angie and Chad from the very bottom of my heart!

Anyway, here are some behind-the-scenes images we took throughout the day. I will post my personal favorites from the actual shoot itself either today or on Monday, so come back for those. You DO NOT want to miss those, trust me!

Doesn’t Angie look a lot like Juliette Lewis?

No, this is not Jesse James. Meet Chad. Angie’s wonderful head–over-heels-in-love husband. Angie told us a funny story about some women on the street commenting about him as though he were Jesse James. Poor guy. LOL!

Lia of III Jay Productions is an amazing makeup artist and also brought her friend who was a huge help that day. Also helped that both those girls were hilarious.

Emily was one of our two models that day. Not only is she talented and beautiful, but she has an amazing heart as well.

Then we have Cissi who just like Emily is just as beautiful inside as she is on the outside. I LOVE this shot of a biker going across the scene.

I also love these men walkin’ with their wine in front of Cissi, all non-chalant about what was happening.

My sweet husband Alin proves to me every day that chivalry is in fact -not dead. He was very helpful throughout the day and always made sure the girls were comfortable and safe.

By the end of the day, I really grew attached to these girls.

I will also be looking into buying film cameras and doing a lot of personal work with them, as well as some wedding and portrait work. In my gut, I feel that one who can be amazing at shooting film, is more amazing than one who can shoot digital. Think about it. I shoot digital & even though I shoot 100% manually, I have the instant gratification of viewing my images on an LCD screen, which takes the fun out of it all. And if it’s over-exposed I can fix it right there on the spot. Or when I pull it up on the computer, I can “fix it” in Photoshop. I’m not saying anyone can just pick up a camera and just “be” a wedding or portrait photographer, because there’s obviously more to it than just that. But in a world where digital photographers are presented with bigger and better and faster technology all the time, I feel like some of us are losing ourselves as real artists. I am not saying I will be doing film 100% from now on either. But I will be introducing it into my personal work and some wedding and portrait work and see where it goes. And who knows?

On the subject of film, the WPPI class that has changed me most was Jonathan Canlas. This guy shoots all of his weddings, commercial and portrait work 100% film. Before his class started, I looked through some of his albums. And though the albums themselves were beautiful and beautifully printed, the first thing I noticed were his images. I was consistently blown away with each page I turned. These images gripped my heart and soul. No Photoshop. Simply art. And that’s when I knew. This is what I want to give my future clients. Images that make them feel something. Images that are timeless. Where in 20 years, 50, and even a 100 years, their pictures make them and their families ‘feel something’. And by the way, for those of you photographers who are just starting out and would like to learn from the best, Jonathan offers workshops and though I’ve never been, I can tell that he would be an amazing teacher to learn from. And honest to goodness, one of the nicest people you will EVER meet. Here’s a picture of him and I, before the class, and just to warn you, ALL the pictures in this blog post are taken with my little point and shoot, so don’t dog on the quality, k?

One of his many gorgeous albums.

Jonathan speaking.

Another thing is, since family is the most important thing to me, I will be Twittering and Facebooking less. It is apparent that there are some of you who think you know me, and assume “I leave my children in a room all day while I edit, Tweet & Facebook”. Kudos to you for your genius detective work (you know who you are). Not that I owe you an explanation, but when I Twitter and Facebook, it is MOSTLY from my phone. I also edit mostly when my kids are asleep during their naps and bedtime. And yes, I Tweet and Facebook while my actions run and I have dead periods of waiting. But since the appearance of me Facebooking & Twittering often from my phone, leads to incredibly ridiculous and dramatic accusations, I have deleted the Facebook & Twitter apps from my phone. And we’ll leave it at that. Plus it’ll be nice to maintain some level of mystery and might encourage me to enjoy real people and pursue real social relationships in the real world more often. On the same note, I have 2,580-some friends on Facebook AND a Facebook Photography group. I am going to be separating both since they serve different purposes. As mean as this may sound, though not intended, I will be deleting friends from my personal Facebook account whom I have never met. Any photography fans will receive an invitation to my photography group and we can then keep personal and photography separated. The ones who will remain on my personal Facebook page will be my family, friends, and photographers/people I’ve already met and that I care to know about my personal life. I realize this might offend some, however, I feel it is necessary in the steps I am taking towards getting my life back.

Though my social networking will be less frequent, the blog, however, will still be my platform for my creative and personal outlet. I will still post updates from my current work and my personal life and will treat it as if writing my own biography in real-time. I will spend one day a week scheduling Monday-Friday blog posts, and am hoping to have a blog post for you every day. This way, it will be more consistent for myself and my blog-readers.

I also want to note that I will shoot no more than 25 weddings per year. There will be no way around this. I want to make sure that I have all the time I can get with my family and feel this will be a good number to provide that balance between work and family. I currently have 7 slots available for 2010, and so if you are a bride and are wanting me to shoot your 2010 wedding, contact me asap. I will also be raising my wedding & portrait pricing real soon, so that’s another reason for you interested brides to contact me soon. Since more than half of my 2010 weddings are not in the state of North Carolina, I will not be accepting any more destination wedding bookings that require more than one night’s hotel. And another thing. From now on all destination weddings that require 1 or more nights’ stay, will be charged an additional fee on top of actual travel costs. I need to make sure I am not constantly paying out of pocket for miscellaneous expenses and also be compensated for the time spent on traveling back and forth. This includes Phoenix, Chicago, and Houston which previously had discounted travel rates.

Whoo! This feels good to get it all out on the table….

I will also be taking Jonathan Canlas’ advice, and will stop following other photographer and wedding blogs. He is right when he says that you shouldn’t look to other photographer’s or wedding blogs for your own inspiration. And although I wasn’t following blogs looking for inspiration, I found that it can subconsciously inspire your shots when you are out shooting and may not realize that you have seen it done before. I will be getting my inspiration from my crazy thoughts, movies, art, music, books, and non-wedding-related magazines & blogs from now on. Please remember that I do value my blog reader comments and I read every single one and even visit your sites, but I probably won’t be following regularly, in order to maintain some level of originality with my own work.

And on the note of originality, I will be working towards using less and less of other people’s actions and eventually not at all. I LOVE Totally Rad Actions & Nik Software, and think they are amazing for the photographer who wants to achieve a real finished look and save some time. But I think it’s time for me to move on and possibly create my own actions that will serve as part of my invisible Photo-shopping. This way, the pictures have a less processed, more natural look and won’t look like they were photo-shopped as much as they were before. I am really hoping to achieve film-like qualities with my photos from now on.

Let’s see what else…

I will be working on a system to meet my wedding and portrait clients in my home studio for consultations and presentations from now on. This is to make sure they receive the ultimate personal and emotional experience from beginning to end. My job is to provide my clients with the most beautiful pictures they have ever seen and to help them “feel something”, in the words of Tamara Lackey, when they view their images for the first time. It WILL be the ultimate viewing experience.

Although there are a few other small changes to the company, these are the ones I will be sharing right now. I know I may lose potential clients and maybe even some blog readers, but I have to be true to myself and listen to my heart. And this is what has been on my heart.

Now on to some random images from WPPI!

I roomed with Jenny Tarau, who is one of my very best friends and I couldn’t have spent my first time at WPPI with anyone better than her. What I love about her is her ability to be honest with you even if you don’t want to hear it. Some don’t like that quality in people, but it’s one of the two biggest reasons why I have to have her in my life. She consistently holds me accountable and she makes me laugh like no one else can. She is also a budding photographer and I already see GREATNESS in her and cannot wait to see what this year will bring to her. On top of that, she is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G mother, and her twins are lucky to have her in their lives. Here’s Jenny and I.

LOVED meeting Matt & Katie of Matt & Katie Photographers formerly know as Shadowplay. They are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and uber-cool. You have to check out their work! In the following shots are Matt & Katie, Christine & Vania from Simply Bloom Photography, and myself with Jenny.

We also hung out with Amanda from Ruffled Blog. Amanda, I LOVED watching your outfits change each day. You are one stylish chick!

Again with Miss Christine and Vania of Simply Bloom Photography. We had loads of fun with you girls

Diana Radoi of Absolutely Captivating was a friend of Jenny’s introduced to me and one of the sweetest girls I’ve met there. Would love to keep in touch with her!

Jerry Ghionis talked a lot about album design and shooting for your albums. Funny guy too.

I loved listening to Tamara Lackey. She was witty, funny, and offered a lot of insight to how she does things when it came to photographing families and children.

And instead of attending a WPPI platform class Wednesday morning, God really put it on our hearts (Jenny and mine) to attend this Photographer’s Unite meeting, started by the amazing David Jay.

We listened to a little bit of the Word by Mike Larson.

Then we sang worship songs led by the very talented Brian Wurzell who happens to be married to Promise Tangeman that I just recently found out about at WPPI. The worship time was amazing! I wish I hadn’t lost my voice a couple of days before Here’s a teeny tiny video clip from one of the songs.

And now, let’s end with the random creepy window-washer at our room on the 17th floor of the MGM Grand.