It’s a typical Tuesday evening in the bleak suburban dreary, lifeless midwest Novembery autumn, and I’m staring at a blinking cursor desperately hoping that inspiration will strike. That all of a sudden I will write with a fury, words pouring out of me in violent waves of prose and poignancy. But it doesn’t. It hasn’t. The cursor is still blinking. I promised myself I would blog more regularly once the new brand was launched and I had a pretty new home to house all of my…me. But I haven’t. Not really. I haven’t started the columns I’ve been hoping to start (fashion! design! featured creatives!). I haven’t been curating hip, design-centric things for the new home, or even sharing that process. I just haven’t really been. Life is just sort of happening, and I guess I’m busy out there living it. Which is sort of the point if you think about it....
an afternoon with colie | MN family + lifestyle 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...
love is a place | on finding – and holding fast to your why
I’ve owned a camera since 2008, which I suppose means I’ve been a photographer for 4 and a half years. In that time I’ve been asked why I became one more times than I can count. People don’t ask that question because they are curious, but – in all honesty you guys – because it’s what matters. It’s been a resonating concept in everything I’ve done, and every person I’ve sought advice or guidance from since I decided to pursue photography as a business. I’ve read about finding my why on blogs and in books, and have been consistently motivated to dig deep. To have a purpose. To do things for a reason. To start with why. And to make it visible in everything. A month ago – in a gorgeous lodge in Colorado – I came back to my why. I wrote it down and forced myself to be accountable to...
darielle + isaac | moving pictures
Darielle and Isaac are the kind of people that you fall helplessly in love with the second you meet them. They are warm and kind, laid back, incredibly funny, and they exude happiness and joy. Their wedding day was an absolute reflection of the love that radiates from within them and lives in everything around them, and I was honored to tell their story. Here is a preview of the first part of their wedding day – Darielle getting ready, her and Isaac’s first look, and some amazing portraits under a bridge in downtown Saint Paul. A few still images of their monumental love. Darielle + Isaac from athena pelton on Vimeo. Music “Bella” by Angus + Julia Stone. Download it here....
