I wanted to share with you a bit of an e-mail that I received from my father today. He finished the message by simply noting: “love and be loved.” How powerful is that? As I thought about it, it came to me that at the end of a hurried day, if you know that you love and are loved, what else matters?

I hope you have had a wonderful v-day, whatever it means to you and whomever you share it with. As for me, the plan is to weave the “love and be loved” message into my year, starting today. Coming home to these fragrant bits of spring also soothed my soul.

Every time I photograph, I learn something new. Often it’s about the technical or the artistic sides of photography, but sometimes it’s also about ME. These images helped me to learn about patience and the beauty of a second take. You see, I was invited to photograph the newest addition to Adrienne and Mike’s family earlier this summer. There were many ideas for photos swirling in my head. However; we followed the baby’s lead to end the session when it became clear that it was not the best day for them. As I reflected on the session and the flow of the day, I appreciated how much I learned about listening to baby cues. Turned out that the little one was not feeling well. Photos can be taken on another day, and that is exactly what we did. During the second session, we enjoyed a visit and got some lovely individual shots. I learned that even though photography captures a particular moment in time, it’s sometimes best to step back and reschedule for another day.

Dorothea was quoted as saying: “photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Incorporating the meaning of that quote into my business name felt like a natural extension of being inspired by Dorothea’s work. I would love to hear who inspires you in your passion….

In January, I found myself taking stock of where I wanted to be headed in 2010 (after all it is a new decade!) and a look back at how my photographs have changed over the last while. One of the things that I’ve struggled with is being critical of my own work and in turn sometimes losing sight of how much fun it is to go out and shoot. So, one of the goals for the year is to have more opportunities to take photos for the pure joy of it, without expectations or limitations.

I wanted to share my first “Sunday drive” shoots from last week. I not only got to make a new friend who shares the same love of abandoned places and entropy, but we came upon this gem where we spent two-and-a-half hours of pure enjoyment of photography.

Here are a few shots from the day:

I felt recharged and renewed in my love of photography after the day. My fingers and toes, on the other hand – they were screaming for a hot chocolate and a warm indoor spell!