I awoke from a dream, and something ancient within myself did too. In this dream I walked into an art school and signed up for a year of art classes. They would be photography based mixed with figure drawing (my favourite subjects at art school). I was so excited to dive into creativity and had flashes and visions of colour and what I would create.
For me tourism photography is around 70% good planning, and 30% being present and seeing what unfolds in front of you. Letting curiosity take the wheel and being ready to pull over at a moments notice. Being ok with passing a place by if it just isn’t giving you the right vibes. I have captured magical moments in mundane places, and been unmoved by some of the must see attractions. For as long as I can remember I have loved to travel…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future. It’s a bit hard not to when the countdown to motherhood is constantly on my mind. There’s so many unknowns right now about how much my life will change. What will motherhood by like? What will my child be like? How will this shift all things in my life, especially on a creative/career basis?
Sometimes I feel like art is less about directing creative energy, and more about getting out of the way. Allowing it to come to life just as it wants to. It becomes a lot like giving birth. You can set up the safe space or structure for when creativity arrives, but the artist is simply the vessel to channel it.
As someone who has worked in a creative field for most of my life, I have seen my share of ups and downs. Things like trying to balance passion vs. income, fighting insecurities around capabilities, and finding your niche are just a few of the tough struggles us creative types go through. Over the years I’ve read a lot of helpful books on how to get through these battles and not give up on my biggest dreams. Here’s my top 5!
I found myself feeling unsettled and irritated. I’ve talked in the past about weighing too much of my self worth on how productive I can be, and here I was doing the same thing to myself during such an unknown time. One day after turning off the TV in boredom and annoyance, I asked myself “What is the best use of my time?”
And to my surprise, I heard a reply.
It’s been a strange week on planet earth, as global anxiety becomes palpable. It’s hard not to let our imaginations run wild with “what if” situations. And why not? Hollywood has been telling us what this looks like for a long time now, and there is always that question of the overall agenda. We all need to play it safe right now, that is certain. But I suggest using this time to check our own realities and think about what matters most.
In a world where we are inundated by idealized perfection perpetuated by social media, TV, advertising, etc. sometimes it’s hard not to hold ourselves up to some unrealistic standard and ask ourselves the question: “Am I Enough?”. I myself have had a bad habit of measuring my self worth by what I accomplish and the level of success of those things. Its taken a lot of work to get comfortable with who I am and recognize that I am not what I do. But I still have days where I can’t help but compare myself to others, especially those who are doing the things I want to be doing, successfully…
I can’t believe 2019 is almost over! It has been such a special and exciting year for me personally and for my business, and I am so incredibly grateful for all the learning, triumphs and challenges this year has brought me. So grateful in fact that I felt like I needed to tip my hat to a small sample of my favorite client moments…
As many of you know, I’ve recently fell ass-over-armpit in love with night photography. OK, I realize that’s a weird way to say that, but my obsession with this cannot be understated. Not only am I walking away with photos I never thought I’d be able to take, but I’m totally digging the experience of shooting them too, so I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve learned so far.
One of my favourite things about the photographers life, is often ending up in places you may have never gone, doing things you’d rarely expect. Me being a naturally anxious person however can make this quite interesting. On August 24th, I’m boarding a plane to Tofino to work on an awesome and uncharted project (that I can’t wait to share with you all, by the way), and I’m hella nervous. Excited! But trying to calm my worrisome mind by attempting to envision the finished project, and how I can accomplish it.
