I’m sitting here and I don’t quite know where to begin. It’s been a week since I attended Justin + Mary’s What’s Next Tour in DC and my brain is still trying to process all that I learned, everything that Mary said that spoke to me and touched my heart, and the amount of LOVE that was in that room filled with photographers.

At one point during the night I stood in the middle of the room and literally spun around in a circle at half speed trying to take it all in and remember what I felt like in that moment. The fact that photographers… AMAZING, inspiring, wonderfully established and respected photographers in this industry were there talking with ME and making me feel comfortable, welcome, and so so loved is something I will never take for granted. It was an incredible honor to sit in a room packed with these photographers being real, transparent, and genuine.

I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs for this day. I knew that it was going to be POWERFUL and I was so excited and nervous all in one that I barely slept the night before. And ohhhh, did it deliver. My world was rocked, my heart was touched, and I was left inspired and even MORE in love with this industry and the power in what we as photographers do.

Mary talked about regret. About looking back on your life when it’s all said and done and wishing. Wishing you’d accomplished that one thing that you’d always wanted to. That you’d taken that chance. That maybe you would have failed at it, but at least you could say you had tried.

She challenged us to remember what it was like when we were little, before we learned to be afraid of our own dreams. There were no limits to what we could accomplish. But somewhere along the way we stopped believing anything was possible. “Just surviving” got in the way and fear of failure paralyzed us and stopped us in our tracks.

But guess what? The thing about success is that it rarely teaches us anything… and failure almost always does. She said that fear lies and says “I can’t I can’t I can’t…” until you do. And fear can’t lie to DONE. Mary challenged us to stop thinking of our dreams as opportunities, but as OBLIGATIONS. Woah.

I want to create authentic, enduring, meaningful images that will last more than a lifetime for my clients. To provide a legacy. To shoot each wedding not just for the bride and groom, but for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. To be intentional about the worth in what I do and to never take that for granted.

I am so incredibly thankful for this day… somewhere I could have NEVER imagined I’d be three years ago. I’m thankful for Justin + Mary, their amazing team, and the incredible photographer friends of mine who were there. I have never felt more BLESSED to be in this industry with such beautiful, genuine, and good people and I’m so thankful for the impact that they’ve had on my business.

I’m also thankful for the future. Oh my, am I thankful for the future because I am ready to take the next steps in making every single one of these crazy dreams of mine come to fruition. ;)