I have a new found appreciation for maternity portraits.  This time in a families life is truly a special one–there is so much excitement and anticipation around carrying a baby and then bringing one home.  It’s also insane what the female body can do and photographing it is pretty amazing.  Nicole and Eric were gracious enough to invite me to their home to photograph a “day in their life”.  I approached this pregnant mama with reverence and asked a million questions, knowing that I too, will soon be experiencing what she is.  It’s a miracle.

“In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. there is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.“  John Steinbeck

I am a little obsessed with the writing and philosophy of John Steinbeck.  I’ve always said, Man, if I could photograph like Steinbeck wrote, then I’d really have something”.  The quote above pretty much sums up my goal as a artist and human being, and sometimes I’m lead astray from this.  I get caught up in comparing my work to fancier more “artist” work–work that “promotes social change or punishing injustice”,  and yet I’m always reminded why I love photographing weddings after photographing a wedding  like Cambria and Anson’s.  Cambria and Anson had such a beautiful, honest, down to earth wedding at Planet Bluegrass.  What I loved about this wedding, besides adoring Cambria and Anson, and the fact that Planet Bluegrass is one of my favorite venues, was that there were tons of moments full of kindness and empathy.  Honest moments, like the image of Cambria’s father kissing her mother in the background.  I don’t need anything fancy to capture something like this–I just have to be present and intuitive, knowing my clients and knowing when a “moment” is in fact “an honest moment”.  This wedding had no fancy frills, no nervous pretentiousness–just pure love, joy and celebration.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was one of my very favorites of the year, in fact.

Thanks, Cambria and Anson for letting me be a part of this day…