The BLOG

GAPINGVOID

I have returned home from a long, wonderful trip to Mexico. Max and I traveled all day yesterday, got to New Orleans around 10 pm and discovered that my luggage had been lost in transit. Still no word on the mysterious disappearance. Lucky for me, Walgreen's is open 24 hours a day and I was able to buy deodorant, a hair brush (ha!), toothbrushes etc. Life...what a fun trip it can be.

I thought I would catch up on editing while out of town, but I quickly determined that I do not trust the laptop for such detailed work. Not to mention, I was spending my days dosed up on mango daiquiri's and Pina Colada's...weeeeeee!

First of all, I want to apologize to all of my brides and grooms for the long delay in getting their photos completed. Now that I am home, I promise to focus myself 20 hours a day and try as I might to finally catch up....as close to catching up can ever be for me. All of my editing has its downfalls...it takes TIME. Add to this that New Orleans never really has a slow season. It has it's slam bam thank you ma'am seasons and then the months where I book only 3 or 4 weddings. Now, add to this that I do fully intensive portrait sessions with each couple and all of those photos must be edited within a certain time frame in order to have books and prints created in time for their receptions. So, you see, my life is busy. And I must say, that several days in Mexico with no connection to the outside world was...well...needed.

I have rebelled for the last 4 years when it comes to finding a quicker means to editing. It just does not sit well with my soul if I try to blow through a wedding and bust it out like some conveyor belt system of quantity over quality. I need to feel that I have done the best that I can do...always. Perhaps this does not make me a millionaire or create an industry or even follow the mainstream of what industry tells us that we should do or be, but it is the way it works for me. And as it turns out...thats not such a bad thing.

I came home to find the March 2008 issue of Shutterbug sitting in my pile of mail. Within its pages was a web profile article about, of all people, ME! I was blown away. And I must admit, I had a moment of sitting back and looking over my last decade of life, thinking about all of my struggles and hard work. Remembering and still living what feels like a constant stream of blood, sweat and tears as I try to maintain, keep up and keep on keeping on in the grand scheme of things. And then the sudden realization that I am, indeed, living my dreams. Oddly enough, that thought terrified me. Maybe I am afraid that if I achieve my dreams, then there will be no more dreams to dream. I need dreams.