A New Start for a New Year

I follow a lot of other blogs, I mean, A LOT! Photog blogs, wedding, home design, mom, business, ministry… A LOT! One blog trend that I absolutely love and have wanted to start for some time is posting monthly goals. I am definitely a task-driven kind of person, so I’ve been setting goals since I was about five years-old, but I’ve never had the guts to post them for the whole world to see. Well, today is the day I’m manning up!

I want to make a little bit of an introduction before I get started. First of all, these are not just business goals, but personal, too. Since I work from home and I love what I do, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between work and fun, so I’m just going to include all of them. Secondly, I’ve decided to make three lists of goals, one for the month, one for the season and one for the year.  I’m just trying this out I may abandon this format, but we’ll see. Finally, this is not a strict list. I’m constantly learning to let things go and not be too terribly hard on myself if I don’t meet every goal I set. Well, I think that’s it, so here goes!

January 2011 Goals:

• Finish up my 2010 edits and designs
• Transfer all of my pc files to my new Macbook Pro! I am finally a Mac!
• Attend Genesisters!
• Update my web portfolio
• Reveal my new headshots by Simply Told Photography
• Start a new Journal
• Take more photos of my family
• Start a menu plan

 Winter 2011 Goals:

• Design and Decorate my workspace
• Read Reason for God
• Order new sample albums and books
• Do a shoot with my Brownie Box Six-20
• Purge for our church Yard Sale
• Help organize our churchYard Sale
• Paint the rest of the house
• Revamp my business (big changes, people!)
• Move to Kinston!
• Potty-train McG (yikes!)

 2011 Goals:

• Stop working when Josiah gets home
• Book 50% more weddings and 100% more portrait sessions than 2010
• Take a vaca
• Sell our house!
• Keep my inbox to 0
• Submit weddings and engagement shoots to my fave blogs, including Southern Weddings!
• Be completely organized

That’s a lot of goals! Do you have goals you set for the new year of for each month? Let’s hear them! You can do it! Type them out in the comments or send me a link to your blog. Happy New Year!



Rebecca ∙ Bridal Portraits ∙ New Bern, NC

It is so, so, SO hard to wait to post Rebecca’s bridal portraits. So I thought I’d give a little taste of the session at Jarvis Mansion in New Bern, NC.  These images tell a little snippet of Tyler and Rebecca’s proposal story. Rebecca is a pharmacist and loves what she does. Just check out Tyler’s creativity. Make sure to read the prescription directions.

Check back in about three weeks for the rest of the bridal photos and let me know what you think!

Rebecca, I am so thrilled you chose me for your wedding photographer. I am looking forward to meeting your other half and sharing this joyous occasion with both of you and your families.



“All Dressed Up” ∙ Joe, Kristi & Kara ∙ New Bern Wedding Photographer

I got a very excited email from Kristi in March with lots of CAPS and exclamation marks. She was asking about my “Trash the Dress” sessions.  This, in turn, made me super excited because I desperately wanted to shoot a trash the dress with a bride.  So we emailed back and forth all those months while she was busily getting ready for her wedding day. A little bit after Joe and Kristi got back from their honeymoon, I got a very sad email that she just couldn’t “trash” her dress and she was going to have to cancel the session.  

I was sooooooo disappointed, but I didn’t give up. I wrote her an email encouraging her to reconsider and assuring her that we didn’t have to “trash” the dress. In fact, I had been thinking about renaming my trash the dress sessions because most brides just don’t want to trash their dress.  Actually, I already had two failed attempts at getting brides to trash their dresses.

Well, I was successful with Kristi and we did the session, which I now lovingly call “All Dressed Up.” It is a watered down version of “trash the dress” (maybe “watered down” is not the right phrase – haha!). It is a just-for-fun session after the wedding day with the happy couple dressed in their wedding garments.  We can go to some places that may lead in a little dirt or sand on the dress, but nothing serious. There is always the option of really “trashing” it, but it’s definitely not mandatory. It gives the couple some images that they did not have time to get on the wedding day.

Kristi still wanted to trash a dress, so her sister, Kara, and her brought a couple bridesmaids dresses. They took a little dip and we got some awesome photos. I could have gone on all day with these guys! They just kept firing new ideas at me that I loved.  

Thank you, Joe, Kristi & Kara for coming out to New Bern and having a bit of fun with me! You all are hilarious! I wish you lived closer so we could hang out. Kristi, thanks for going through with the session. Joe, you are one of the best grooms I’ve ever photographed and you had such awesome ideas. Kara, thanks for your help and for getting drenched. Call me when you need some senior photos!

 I had such a hard time choosing which photos to post today. I think I posted nearly half!