Changing Me.

Have you ever had a moment where you knew your life just changed drastically? 

I don't care if it was a good thing or a bad thing. If it was a tiny thing or a huge thing. You just knew it changed you. Changed your perspective. I did. I still can't get over it. My heart is beating in my throat. My stomach is filled with butterflies. My head is spinning. I can't figure out how reading one thing can change my outlook on everything I do so quickly. 

What caused my vision to change so drastically? Clayton Austin . He is an incredibly talented photographer. His work will have you weak in the knees. I promise. 

Now how could one photographer I've never met in my life change my idea of photography so drastically? I read his bio-page. No joke. His clear, honest take on love and the way he views the world had me in tears. "Lets face it. Love is an animal. Though my grandfather told me once that love is more like a bird, if you hold it tightly it dies, if you hold it slightly, it flies. People often ask me how I capture such intimacy in the couples I have the honor of photographing. The key is looking from a different perspective. I don’t see them as who they are that day, happy and carefree. I see them as they will be tomorrow. I see them in the road ahead, in both the good times and the bad and all that they will endure. Together. "  

Wow right? My heart clenched when I read that. I realized I've been photographing my clients, not how they will be, but how they are now. Which-I admit-is okay, but that is all it is. Okay. Cookie cutter-if you will. No. I won't be copying his work if that is what your thinking. I am going to be making my own. It is going to be a lot of hard work. That kind of vision doesn't come as easily as people like to think. You have to train yourself to see it. Make yourself pay attention to those tiny little details. Most importantly you have to let your clients feel it. I think too often we photographers are so focused on getting our names out there that we forget about our clients. We are so focused on getting that pose just right that we smother the them in them. From this point on this business will stop being about me and my"name". It will be about my clients. Photographing them in the good and the bad. Caring about them. Being there for them. Seeing them. 

I know, some may say I am being overly dramatic. I might be, but better I be overly dramatic and be right than ignore it and going on like I am. Honestly. I don't expect this to be easy. I don't expect me to be able to pick it all up right away. I don't expect me not to become depressed and discontent with myself, but that is okay. It is how you know you are ready to learn. How you know you are about to move to the next level. I am expecting a lot of levels. Most of them steep. I know only the Lord will be able to help me through this. I won't be able to do it with out Him.

I want to invite you to join me. I don't care if you are a photographer or not. I think this applies to all of life. Don't be afraid of the right kind of change. Never lose that ability to learn. It is so important.