The other night, on Facebook, an amazing photographer and friend, Mike Hill, posted a status:
What is your great challenge at the moment with regards to photography?
And it really made me think. My answer was:
Making sure I get to the heart/depth of my subject, rather than staying shallow (not just clicking and clicking, but really making meaningful art). And also allowing myself to be joyful that I get to do what I do.
I have my daily struggles, too. Other people mentioned not losing lens caps (amen to that), having a better workflow, how to continually evolve, work life balance (yes), standing out from all the new photographers... Mike said, "Its about finding time and boredom to process my own thoughts and try to create something for myself, to push deeper into the personal path of craft with the by-product being better results for my customers."
These are all really amazing thoughts and challenges, and I hope that we all get to find solutions to them. As for me, one way that I realised that I wanted to make more meaningful art was getting to know my couples better, which in turn gives me better ideas on how to make my art meaningful to them. I like contributing to peoples' lives in a positive way.
So, with this particular wedding, I was blessed to work with Aleesha when I was still at Coca-Cola. She is such a fiery and yet gentle soul. You don't want to mess with her, but she's also one of the kindest persons I know! Her and her now-very-hilarious-husband, Matt, have a son (Sean) who had some very serious medical concerns a few years ago, and I saw how they teamed up to make it all work for their beautiful family. Sean is better now, Aleesha and Matt have been married a few months, and I'm so happy I got to capture their beautiful day.
I thought I knew them well, but I thought wrong. Their wedding day was SO hilarious and fun and bawling-my-eyes-out-beautiful. I didn't realise how much these two truly love each other. It goes beyond the physical, I believe it's a spiritual connection that these two truly have. Matt posted on their honeymoon: "Everything feels complete, I love the shit out of this girl" and yeah, well, that's what you want to hear in every marriage, really.
There's more to say, but for now, I'll let the wedding films speak. Enjoy :)
P.S. Don't forget to watch in HD!
Have a wonderful week ahead, friends! ♡