IF IT FELT SAFE

I first watched this short interview when it came out earlier this year, and its words have stuck with me and I resonate with pretty much everything as a person trying also to express something creative. So I thought I'd share it here. I even keep at least one thing from every wedding we photograph somewhere around our house :)You know, Dave and I often tell the wonderful people we are lucky enough to work with that the reason we love documenting stories through this black box we hold to our faces is the exact same reason we are so drawn to traveling, seeing new places, meeting new people, experiencing new things.. you don't know quite what you're doing there, what to expect, everything is new and I kind of stand there in awe trying to take it all in, trying to show what it's like to be hit with that newness for the first time. And that newness can be found in physical location, but it is also in the people, their stories and insights and perspectives, the family dynamics, the little things that are so normal to you but so exotic and wonderful to me. There's no formula or place of safety in that, and while that's scary it is also exciting and I think it keeps things true. And that's what I think is worth documenting and helping people see and remember about themselves, so any scariness that comes with it ends up being worth it, I think. That's what I hope for anyway.Whenever I get antsy feet and want to take off and travel somewhere new, I remind myself of a saying I heard somewhere, about how your own backyard is the farthest and most exotic place away to someone in the world. We are all so wonderfully different, and photographing the stories we do is really like traveling to an exotic land for us.May has come and almost gone and it's been a month where we've been hit with a lot of newness and the continual challenges of balancing and compiling these stories in the best most true way we can.. but it's safe to say that I continue to be so excited to be doing this job :) Hope this month's been treating you all well too! Also hope a piece of the clip above speaks to you in some way too. More soon. x