Spring usually reminds us of words like renewal, refresh, rejuvenate, sunny, blossoming, awakening, clean, anew, active, and energizing. This particular spring season as been anything but, for me and I’m sure for a lot of people. Possibly due to this insane Midwest weather (accumulating snow and windy as heck as I write this.) Soooo, the words to describe my last 6 weeks would be more like confusion, cloudy, exhausting, and conflicting…with a sprinkle of hope and belief.
I got a text message from a dear friend this morning, “Good Morning!! Is everything ok? Been noticing your posts lately and wanted to check on you. Love you and know you can call me anytime. XOXO”
First of all, she’s the best. It’s a blessing to have friends like this. Secondly, Oh crap. I did NOT mean to send the message that I’m losin it over here. Because that is not the case! I went through my IG feed and realized that I had shared a handful of images or thoughts that weren’t the typical social media “highlight reel.” And I’m okay with this because I’m just being real. And real is what connects us. If only one person can relate to something I put out there via social media and that helps that one person feel not so alone, then I’m good with that.
I also took some time today to reflect on why I’m feeling so conflicted this particular spring when I usually feel very different during this season. (Besides this poopy weather) It has a lot to do with my photography and a lot to do with being empathetic towards people I know and love who are experiencing health issues, hardship or heartache. My photography is the only thing in my control right now so I will choose to focus on that.
One of the things I’ve been struggling with these days is in which direction to head with my seniors. I see so many images of high school seniors on social media daily and many of those images have the same airbrushed, overly-edited, highly styled, super model look. Although, these images are gorgeous, they just aren’t real. Here’s my struggle. We tell these beautiful young people that they are enough and that they are perfect just they way they are, then we completely make them over for their senior pictures. I don’t agree with this! I was starting to head down this road myself with my photography. Ahh! How did this happen?? It happened because I was trying to fit in and keep up with everyone else in the industry. I’ve been working on my next big model shoot and starting to have some pretty intense freak-outs in my head about the hair, make-up and styling. When the truth is, it’s just not necessary. My girls are beautiful inside and out and I’ve been given a gift to highlight their beauty. I’m very lucky to be able to work with the caring, talented, intelligent, giving, and fun girls on my model team. They seriously are beautiful inside and out. No need to fuss. Although getting “prettied up” is lots of fun, I will aim to strike the perfect balance so that the images of my girls reflect their true selves and not some overly done up super model!
Let’s do this seniors!!!
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