This beautiful journal was given to me by my mentor, and I love it! Besides its beautifully understated and classy design, the simple wording on the cover has so much meaning. These three words are a goal of mine that I really put into place about a year and a half ago.  The older I get, the more I realize that life really is what we make it. We all have choices. Everyday life is full of little choices, and sometimes big choices. All of these affect our tomorrow’s, some more than we realize.

For me personally, a lot of the “escaping the ordinary” is about the type of career I decided to pursue. I highly encourage you to look at the career you have and make sure you don’t consider it ordinary.  Even if other people do, that’s fine, as long as you don’t. I believe we owe it to ourselves to spend our days and years doing something that matters to us, something we believe in, something that challenges, grows, and rewards us. There is so much more to life than “ordinary”, and I believe every person deserves to find more.

Today I want to share with you how I apply this to my business. I don’t want to just have an ordinary photography business. I strive every day to find new and exciting ways to make my business better. It takes me forever to fall asleep at night because my mind is always buzzing with ideas and I have to get up and write them down. I always have 10+ tabs open on my computer.  I do all I can to make the best experience for my clients…to find new and better ways to serve them…to stand out from the crowd and let people know that I care. I do this because this work sets a fire in my soul, and I have to share it.

This past weekend while I was shooting a wedding, I was gathered around the dance floor with the other guests to watch and capture the Father-Daughter dance to the song “I Loved Her First.”  So many tears were in the eyes around me, and in my own. The Mother-Son dance to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (by Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole)- one of my favorites- came up next. I have to tell you seeing this sweet groom dance with his mother, you could just tell they loved and cherished each other so, so much. It was almost hard to see through my viewfinder with my misty eyes at this point, but I just thought to myself, how lucky am I? I get to witness this beautiful moment…several of them that day, and have the honor of capturing it for this family to have forever? I am truly blessed with this work and promise you I will never take it for granted.