The Circle of Life

There is nothing more special for a photographer than developing a relationship with a client that results in repeat business. Entirely apart from the importance of building a client base committed to you personally as their photographer, it goes much deeper to knowing that you are walking with your clients through their lives. Developing a special connection with them, watching them grow, watching them change...To photograph different life milestones as an intimate insider is a profound opportunity I am learning to cherish deeply.

My very first wedding was for a young couple named Mike & Stephanie. To say we were both nervous on their big day doesn't even begin to cover it. It was there that we first struck up a business relationship, but even more importantly, a friendship. I was honored to capture the love of this special couple and indebted to them for giving me the chance to prove that I could do this.



You can imagine my delight when they asked me to do maternity photos as they were expecting their first little one! This was also a first for me, and learning to highlight the beauty of pregnancy with grace, creativity and just the right balance of modesty was a challenge and a joy. Seeing the two of them together, the love they shared and the beautiful roundness of Stephanie's belly and the life growing there was moving for me in a way I can't properly put into words.



And then little Lily arrived. I have about a million pictures I could share of the newborn session with Lily. It was a comical dance of two new parents and one clumsy photographer working silently to position a tentatively sleeping baby in just the right way to catch the light and highlight her tiny features without waking her. Seeing the life created before me, and remembering the first time I met Stephanie and Michael was a shining moment for me. As we laughed together and oohed over tiny toes and one giant tutu, I found we had become friends. And I realized that I was sharing in their life. And I understood why I do this.



In just a few weeks, I will have the opportunity to meet little Jack, the newly born son of my second wedding clients, Stephanie and Jim. I can't wait to congratulate them and meet this little man and remember what it was like to see the two of them get married and share in their joy and anticipation at the life before them. I am truly blessed to do this. Humbled to see life right before me in its brilliant vibrancy. Life doesn't get any better than this!