{Personal Favorites, 2015} | Maine Portrait, Lifestyle, and Children’s Photographer

Tonight I’m excited to share part 2 of my favorites of 2015. Last year was an important year for me with my clients, but also in my personal life. One of my 2016 business goals is to be a bit more personal here on my blog and on social media, and most importantly, to be more real. Prior to last year, I didn’t often photograph my own family. As a result, I had thousands of photos of everyone else’s family, and just a handful of mine that were not from my phone. I made it my goal to start carrying my camera around more, motivated by my ongoing 52 weekends project. In January, I took Ginger Unzueta’s amazing class “Everyday Beauty” through The Bloom Forum, which got me in the habit of photographing at home. Little by little throughout the year, I found myself grabbing for my camera more and more, and not only for an assignment or for my project.

Insecurity has held me back for years when it came to photographing for myself. The excuses rolled in constantly. My home is tiny. We have crappy couches. Our kitchen cabinets are gross. I don’t know how to decorate. My house is messy. My house doesn’t look like the ones other photographers have. We are too busy. There is too much clutter. People will judge me. People will not want to hire me. I can’t share my life.

That, my friends, is ridiculous.

So, I forced myself to get over it. To find light in my tiny home. To photograph our poorly slip-covered couches. To create images that show our life in our kitchen with peeling cabinets. To embrace the clutter, the chaos, the REAL. And, you know what? One year later, I have literally thousands of photos of my family, (well, mostly just my kiddo – I’m still working on getting my husband in front of the lens more). As far as I know, nobody has unfriended me due to the state of our cabinetry, and it has actually helped me to appreciate this little space we have just a bit more – because I know when we leave, we’re taking some pretty amazing memories of this house with us. It also forced us to get out in the world and create images in this amazing and beautiful area we live in, instead of sitting on our bums wishing we had something to do.

A year later, I am so grateful that I took time to capture my life. And as an added bonus, I’m discovering my own style for lifestyle imagery, something that I will continue to incorporate into my own photos, as well as yours, and something that I am so excited to continue to grow and improve upon.

So here are my favorites from my year. Thanks for reading, thanks for looking, and I can’t wait to create and share more as 2016 gets underway.