Because this love story would be incomplete without a few moving pictures – here’s a little video of Jena + Steve’s gorgeous Lutsen Wedding:

The post this is the day jena + steve got married overlooking lake superior and everything was beautiful. appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

I have this friend, and she lives too far away, you see. It’s only a few hours, but with life and work and spouses and family time fills quickly, and the spaces left for each other are few, as it is with most things these days. But her and I, she and me, when we do find the time to connect it’s real. It’s whole and wonderful and complete. And it’s as if time really is simply turning in a circle. Friendships like this are rare, and space that can be filled with easy quiet or raucous laughter interchangeably, is even more so. I could sit forever in silence with this gem of a lady and still feel as though I’ve shared my soul (though I thoroughly enjoy our conversation, and the laugh-until-your-face-hurts-and-your-muscles-give-out humor that comes with it). I wholeheartedly treasure her presence in my life, and every single fleeting moment we spend in each other’s company.

A few snapshots of morning coffee with my dear friend, Anda (more to come of this girl soon!):

“…..and both of them remained floating in an empty universe where the only everyday & eternal reality was love…..”
.                                                                                                                                                                        ~Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Edited to add these Polaroid 440 film scans from our time together:

xo

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Here are a few frames from our evening together.

The post Catie + Tim’s Madison Engagement | An evening at Tenney Park appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

Id’ like to introduce you to Story Company (and my five minutes in the modeling industry!) Story company, like most things that start small, and with ample heart, had humble beginnings. Started after a trip to Africa, the company aimed to present women with opportunities otherwise not available to them. Women who live in extreme poverty and have no access to the global marketplace. Women – artisans, creators, weavers, potters, bead workers – who create amazing art. Through the sale of their handmade items, they are able to live a different story. A better story. A story with more opportunity and a brighter future.

These women are given the chance to change their story.

But what does any of this have to do with you? Or me? Or this little blog? The short answer is: Everything. It starts with us – each and every one of us – striving to give back. To do more. To act locally and think globally. To support and encourage and promote things that are and do good. And Story Company makes it really easy to do that. Go take a look at some of the incredible jewelry there – and you’ll likely recognize this:

I wear this necklace almost non stop and is one of my most treasured  accessories. I love it so much in fact, that I have no shame in being a self-proclaimed ambassador for it.  Story also has an incredible Home Goods line, worthy of it’s own blog post. But we’ll save that for another day.

Because today….I have a circle dot necklace to give away!!! Yes. Story Company has graciously sent me a necklace to gift away to one lucky winner and I’m soooo honored to share it with you guys! So here are the details: To enter, simply visit the Story Company website and have a look around. Browse. Window shop. Fall helplessly in love. Then go to facebook (make sure to “like” Story Company) or Twitter or Instagram and let us know which is your most coveted item, making sure to mention @storycompany! Then, leave a comment here telling me you did so!

Because the best way we can give back and pay forward, is by spreading the word about this company – the women behind it – and how each of us have the ability to be a story changer.

xoxo

(Contest will run from now until 11:59pm on Sunday and is open to residents of US + Canada. )

(Top photo by the amazing  j. stoia portrait design)

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With deliberate and utter intention.

But I digress.

I love film – I’m mildly obsessed with it in fact – and if I had a constant stream of hyper disposable income I’d likely shoot a whole lot more of it. I like not having to edit. I like embracing the mistakes, the flaws, the imperfections, the inconsistent consistencies. And most of all, I love the honesty of film. The color. The grain. So without further ado – and prattling on by yours truly – here are a few frames from my time in Colorado.

Perfectly imperfect.
Completely unedited.
Solely on film.

(Black and white images shot on Fuji Neopan 400 and Color images shot on Fuji Superia 800 with Nikon F100. Processed and scanned and Richard Photo Lab.)

The post Light Leaks | Colorado on Film appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

I talk often about how blessed I am – how lucky I feel to be able to make images for people, to document such miraculous and wonderful and amazing moments in their lives. As trivial or trite or contrived as it all might start to sound, I truly mean it. I AM so lucky. I am thankful for photography partly because of what it does for my soul, but mostly for what it allows me to do for others.

These images become our legacies. Someday, they will all be old photographs. They will outlive us.

Last Saturday I spent a few hours with my friends Cortney and Trent, and their five week old little girl Colie. My uterus contracted, tears welled up in my eyes a time or two, and I made a few photographs for two people who just became a family of three. And with every single click of the shutter I became more and more convinced that what I am doing with my life – where it is that I am right this moment – is exactly where I was created to be.

xo
athena

The post an afternoon with Colie | MN family + lifestyle photography appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

The post One Hundred Million Years | Jena + Steve’s Minneapolis Engagement appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

This photograph is nearly two years old now. This is my youngest daughter Stella at six or seven or nine months old, in a dress my mother wore when she was a baby, staring at me as I documented her awkward and determined attempts at learning to crawl. I sat on the hardwood floor of our rented townhome on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, I gazed at this beautiful creature as though I’d never seen a baby before – as though I was a tourist in Papua New Guinea drinking in a new and wonderful and rich and foreign land and its people – and soaked it in. I drank this little girl up, and swallowed hard with the full weight that came with the knowledge that this – that she – would be the last of my babies I would ever watch grow.

Today, on the precipice of nothing in particular,and everything all at once, I wonder if that’s really the truth.

If Stella really is the final fruits of my womb. If she is the last kidlet my uterus has to expel. The last first cuddle I’ll feel as a mother. The last first tooth. The last first day of school. The last poorly lit and improperly exposed baby photo I’ll take. The last stretch mark and vomit covered t-shirt and sleepless night. And I wonder if I’m ready for that ship to sail. If I’m ready to watch it slip quietly into the blanket of night, and not feel remorse or the crushing weight of regret as it drifts off into forever.

As I sit here typing this garbled mess of feeling and uncertainty that has absolutely-nothing-related-or-to-do-with-photography, I am convincing myself that I am okay with that. That my life is chaotic and wonderful and whole and perfect and imperfect and crazy and every little thing left in between….just as it is. That it’s time for the third baby ship to sail. That it’s time for me to let that go.

I just don’t know if I should. If I’m being honest, I don’t know that I can.

I don’t know if I want to have another baby, you guys. But the scary-as-hell truth is, that I don’t know that I don’t. I don’t know that I’m done nurturing or being puked on or kissing scraped knees or losing baby weight or hating myself pregnant. I like that I’m not doing any of those things right now – but that’s because my sister ship is still safe in its harbor.

It seems, however, the the tide is coming in, the winds are picking up, and it’s time to set out to sea.

Which means I have one hell of a decision to make.

So I find myself seeking out advice. From anyone who has any to give. Even though I know that the answer I seek comes only from within. From my heart, and my womb, and everything that my soul is telling me. But still, I go in search of clarity. I’m grateful for Cheryl Strayed, and her advice to a gentleman who was teetering on the edge of whether or not to have his first child – and I’m trying as hard as I can to heed her words. To remember that fear of regret is almost always the only reason we need to go out and do exactly that thing, and that “I’ll never know and neither will you of the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.”

Proverbial night is falling, friends. The ship is setting sail. It’s time for me to get on, or let go.

Gulp.

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These women are all beautiful. They are all flawed and imperfect. They are all funny and unique and special. These women are real. They are you and me. Your mothers and sisters and best friends, and strangers behind you in line at Target. They are faces in a crowd. Commuters. Worker bees. Dreamers. Lovers. They are each and every one of us. And they are remarkable.

So, let us revel in their beauty. In their flawed perfection. In their exquisite and profound beauty.

If only for a moment.

And let us allow that moment to last a lifetime.

To the ladies in these photographs, thank you. For giving yourselves over to this project. For showing me your insecurities, for trusting me with them, and with your beauty, and for your vulnerability. You’re all so wonderful, and my life is richer because each and every one of you wonderful girls are a part of it.

If you’d like to know more about the Beauty Collective, please read this post. And if you’re a photographer and would like to set up your own Collective, please contact me.

xoxo

The post The Beauty Collective | April 2013 appeared first on MN + WI Wedding + Portrait Photographer | Athena Pelton Photography.

If I’m being completely honest, the truth is that I’m tired of giving things up. In January this seemed like such a great idea – only having to keep a resolution for 30 days. But now, four months through it, I’m realizing that I’m giving up things too large for typical resolutions, and it’s a lot of work. Shopping, Facebook, sugar, junk food…all the things I’ve resolved to go without have been the right things, and I truly am better for choosing to be free of them for a month. But as I sit here typing this, on the precipice of a new resolution, I really just want to quit. Give up. Reassure myself that four months is a valiant effort and to be proud of what I have done and that it’s okay to say enough is enough.

Which is exactly why I’m not quitting. Why I’m not done giving up.

For May, I was going to give up buying fabric, with the exception of whatever I need to finish all the current projects I’m working on. Which got me thinking about all of the things that I do with caveats, and as such I’ve changed my mind.  This month I’m going without exceptions. They’ve become too much of a crutch.

In January, I gave up shopping, with the exception of the few items I needed for a business conference. I invented that need. It wasn’t real. In February I gave up Facebook, with the exception of my business page and the group started for the Don’t Give Up attendees. In March I gave up sugar, with the exception of the three days I was in Colorado as I wanted to make sure I experienced everything the workshop had to offer. Exceptions are really just my way of saying one thing and doing another. The perfect way to commit to do something scary while still having a safety line.

It’s like claiming to be a master swimmer, while only ever sticking one toe in the water.

It’s faking it.

And I don’t want to be a safe faker.

I want to spend every day living with intention. Knowing that I’m doing things for a reason – with a purpose – and not because it’s what is easy or comfortable or safe. I’m done sticking one toe in the water. I’m jumping this month – and I’m not claiming “with the exception of” anymore. I’m done with that nonsense.

It’s time for all or nothing. In the immortal words of Jim Morrison, “The time to hesitate is through.”

Let’s go.

(The image at the top of this post is a film photo I made of my friends Jenn and Dave, and is a perfect example of what happens when you open your camera to change film while in the middle of a roll. Happy accidents like this one makes my heart swell. As do the two people in the photograph.)

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