A few months ago, I decided to take a break from blogging to focus more deeply on my art.  Most of the time I love to hear all of your thoughts and reactions to my work (both good ones and bad!), and I use that input to grow as an artist.  Recently though, I felt like I needed less input and more quiet self reflection.  A break from blogging and social networking has given me some much-needed time to listen to my own creative inner voice.  Today I am interrupting my own silence to share some pretty giant news: at the end of this month, my husband and I are moving to California.

I have lived, loved, and worked in the Indianapolis area for most of my life.  For me, this city holds cherished friends and family, amazing nature and wildlife, and countless happy memories.  To all my clients: you’ve been amazing.  Thank you for letting me share in your lives and witness your most important moments.  Thank you for giving me a chance to do what I love most in this world and call it work.

What’s next?  If you’ve already booked a wedding with me for any time in the future, our plans are still on!  I’ll brave the TSA checkpoints to get back to Indianapolis for your wedding.   And no, it’s not too much trouble- I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  If you’re a portrait client, please stay in touch.  I’ll be making a few trips to Indianapolis every year, and I would love to see you and/or schedule your session during one of those times.  If you live in the San Francisco area: please give me a call!  I will be continuing my photography work when I get there.  And if you’re a California squirrel, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Wondering if you’re in the right place?  You are!  I’ve been hard at work creating this brand new web site and blog.  Aside from the new look, the new design features wide pages so I can show you bigger images.  You will also notice some new images in most of the categories, and a couple of personal messages from me to you explaining my philosophy of wedding photography and portrait photography.  I am still working out a few visual quirks in a few browsers, but overall I hope you’ll enjoy it.  Please let me know what you think!

I would really like to thank Amanda Cullen of Zoo in a Jungle Marketing for her design of our beautiful new logo!  Reflected Spectrum is a lot more than a business to me, and when I needed a new logo I knew that if anyone was able to meet my unrealistically high expectations it would be Amanda.  She listened to all my ideas and asked some great questions, and in the end she created something totally different and better than any of my doodles.

In other news, last night this image won first prize in the October contest of the Photo Venture Camera Club!  I actually created this image at one of the Photo Venture field trips to a dress rehearsal of the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre.

And this image won an honorable mention:

Last week, fall officially began! It has always been one of my favorite seasons; in so many years it has marked the beginning of new adventures with new books and new pencils, wedding bells and birthdays. This year autumn marks the beginning of some exciting new changes for Reflected Spectrum. I am finally able to reduce my other time commitments so I will be able to devote more of my time to the pursuit of awesome photography and to making this business as perfect as possible for my wonderful clients! This means you can expect shorter turnaround times on proofs and print orders. You can also look forward to more frequent blog posts, more fine art images, and a brand new web site full of great new features to be phased in over the next few months. I will also be able to schedule consultations and portrait sessions during week days in addition to weekends and evenings.

Over the next few weeks I will be making some major changes to the format of this web site and blog. I will try my best to keep the disruptions to a minimum, but please pardon our dust and feel free to speak up if you have any trouble.  And thank you, to all my clients, friends, and mentors for being a part of this amazing journey!

This past week, I started to reflect on my past year with Reflected Spectrum.  Although I have been working as a photographer for several years now, it was only one short year ago when I officially formed this company and started pouring every ounce of energy I could spare into building the company and learning new skills and working to become the best photographer I can be.  Although I had been planning my move for months, thinking about names and reading all the books I could find about small business ownership, building charts, projections, and business plans, and researching competition, I found myself completely surprised by the way this first year has unfolded.  It has been a roller coaster of suspense, excitement, and learning- so much better than I ever could have hoped.  I owe all of this to you- my customers, my readers, my friends, my family.  You have supported me, welcomed me into your lives, and allowed me to share some of your most special moments.  For all of that, I am grateful.  As my way of saying thanks, I’m offering 50% off portrait sessions and portrait and wedding prints or digital images for the next two weeks.  Just call or email me any time before March 14 to set up a portrait session for any time this spring, or to place a print or digital image order from a previous portrait or wedding session and mention this blog post.  This offer is open to anyone and there are no limits on order size or number of orders, so feel free to share it with your friends and family.  And thank you all for giving me one of the most amazing years of my life so far!

A club I belong to, Photo Venture Camera Club, hosts a contest each month with a topic that changes each time.  It’s always an exciting event, they bring in a successful experienced photographer to judge all the entries, and we all wait in suspense as the judge critiques each and every image, saving the winners for last.  This month’s topic was “Unusual Perspective,” and this month I was the winner!

You may recall a post from last month, Fighting Flamingo Style in which I talked about winning third place in the club’s January contest.  I am completely elated to have received these awards.  I think oftentimes people see a piece of art that they admire, and they assume the artist already knows their work is good.  Well, let me just tell you, we don’t.  I, as well as most of the photographers I know, constantly question the value of our work.  We go through processes of self-critiquing and examination, all part of the growth cycle that drives us to refine our art, to become better, to take risks, to distinguish ourselves.  However, it is so easy to be too hard on ourselves, as I often am, and over time that can become discouraging.  But these moments of success make me realize why I hold myself to such a high standard, it’s for the quality of my work.  I am driven to continue to become better and better at what I do, not just to win contests, but to be proud of the work that I produce.  Winning contests is not my reason for creating beautiful images, but receiving this honor makes me feel like I am on the right path.

There is a story behind this image.  My husband and I took a weekend getaway to Chicago this past October to see one of our favorite bands, Poster Children.  We had a few hours to spend between dinner and the show, and let me tell you it was a rainy, cold, miserable night.  Finally, the rain stopped and the sky cleared, and we went to the Willis Tower (though it will always be named Sears Tower to me!) for a different view of the city.  Now, I am a big advocate of having a camera with you at all times.  I carry my camera almost everywhere I go, but I didn’t have it with me on this particular night.  I anticipated being out in the rain past 1am in an unfamiliar city, on the train and in a club where people may or may not “mosh”.  This particular night I decided it was safer to leave my camera in the hotel, and boy did I regret that decision!  When we got to the top of the tower, I looked out on the city and saw the incredible night time views, it was breathtaking!  So I asked my husband if he would mind revisiting the tower with me the next night, and he agreed.  So the next night we rode to the top again, this time with my camera and tripod, and I got my images.  This particular image was taken out on a ledge with a clear bottom.  I put my camera (Nikon D700 with Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens) face-down on the see-through floor and let it expose for about 30 seconds.  After 25 seconds of exposure I felt a tap on my shoulder.  “Time to go” said the security guard.  “Just 5 more seconds please,” I said.