There is no easy way to begin this post...

There is no easy way to begin this post... I guess I could start things off with a big "I'm sorry." I am sorry for the extreme lack of communication, for the distance between us and for the possibility that I made you feel neglected in any sort of way. It was not for a lack of love. I do love you all, very, very much. You all have made my past year that I have committed strictly to photography as a profession truly rewarding. And your dedication to coming to my blog every few weeks, days or even hours in some cases (Aunt Cathy) is so encouraging. Hence the dramatic apology. I have neglected you. I have let my last post sit at the top of my blog for over two months now with not a peep from me. If you didn't live in my town or know me personally (or have been one of the many people that have hired me as your photographer in the past few months) you may have thought I dropped into the deep chasm of underwater photography never to resurface again. This is indeed not the case. I have come up for air. In fact I have been doing a ton of really cool photography over the past few months that did not involve any water what-so-ever and can't wait to share some of this with you all. Soon. Very soon.

But I really do feel like the next step for me in this post is to ask for your forgiveness and as a gift to you (a.k.a. bribe) I will be trying (trying, being the key word here, don't you just love my non-commital vocabulary) to give you all a blog update daily (or every other day) throughout December leading up to Christmas.

And if that doesn't help in your decision to forgive me I can now offer a string of incredibly insufficient and overly dramatic excuses. Here goes...

1. I've been insanely busy. (I never feel comfortable offering this as an excuse as I do not have children. And all of you parents out there are either curling your lip at this excuse or deliriously giggling in your own sleep deprivation over the absurdity of it. Right, I know, this is all relative and I will be giggling in my own delirium one day in the future every time I hear this excuse from anyone without kids.)

2. I struggle with perfectionism. (You see, ever since I started "full time" in photography and updating my blog "semi" regularly I hear from you all on facebook and in the grocery store that you checked out my blog and I panic. Oh boy, people are actually looking at this thing and some people even go as far to read my incredibly long-winded, rambling posts. I started putting WAY too much pressure on myself. The weight of choosing the images, pairing them together in clever and profound juxtapositions, and including a commentary that surprises, delights and evokes emotion as well as tells a parallel story alongside of the images just became too heavy for me. So I stopped blogging all together. Horrible excuse. I'm getting over it. Just don't expect any of the above in the coming posts.)

3. I've been doing extensive traveling. (Ok, so this is technically true. I have been doing a bit of traveling which really just involved one trip out of the state that was one part business and one part pleasure. I visited clients, and dear friends, the Dowd family in Knoxville in the height of the fall season for some gorgeous family photos, which you will be seeing this month, and for some time catching up with friends, stepping back, taking a breath and re-evalutating things, realizing what was important again. That was a true blessing.)

And if you still find it hard to forgive me after all of this groveling I offer you a single photo, of an adorable Dowd girl, Lucy. We were location scouting around Knoxville which had a plethora of possible beautiful photo spots but we wanted to find the oh-so-perfect one for our Dowd family shoot. We had been eyeing this specific spot for a full day. Just down the road from Lucy's school was an open field of rolling hills and giant hay bales all nestled in colorful fall trees complete with a mountain scape in the distance. It was perfect but we didn't know if we were going to be able to access it. We explained to the girls that we were on a "mission" when we set out that afternoon. As we pulled down the side street and up to a tall fence our hopes were high but diminishing and then there it was, to our right, a wide open gate into "our" field. It was as if the heavens were singing. (Insert angelic chorus here, "Ahhh Ahhh Ahhhhhhhh!") I don't know who was more excited out of all of us. Emily, Edy, Lucy and I poured out of the car, through the gate, and into the setting sun across the rolling hills. Lucy, with her princess backpack in tow, in complete abandon began to run ahead and there I was to capture this image.



This past year in photography has truly been a blessing in the midst of a re-building time for me. This is why I feel so bad that I have neglected you all here on my blog for a bit. You all, my faithful followers, clients and friends mean so much to me. You have no idea how much of a blessing it is to me that you invite me into your family for a bit to tell your beautiful, genuine, real life story. And as unexpected as a year in my hometown has been for me in what I thought was the story of my life I have no doubt that I am right where I need to be right here, right now. I am not quite sure what lies next for me on the horizon. I haven't really given myself the chance to raise my head from the day-to-day to take a peek, but I pray that when God does gently put his hand beneath my chin to lift my eyes to that horizon that I run with such abandon and excitement into the glorious setting sun as Lucy did that fall day in Tennessee.