…i love this family.
1. i’ve known them for almost a decade and each year they’ve managed to flourish and become even more remarkable

2. ashleigh sends the best birthday cards (thank you, ash!!)

3. pierce is just as comfortable upside down as rightside up

4. they love travel just as much as i do

5. george can go to that deep, heartfelt place immediately – he can instantly answer questions about what he’s most proud of about ashleigh…and even me, well, i need a millisecond to go through the rolodex of memories.  he’s one of the quickest thinkers i know…but it’s not hasty, it has laser focused accuracy.

6. they make the most amazing team together…i’m not sure i’ve ever seen a more successful yin/yang couple

7. pierce is a bomb of cuteness that makes my heart explode with happiness whenever i see him

8. they share. examples: their csa box when they went on vacation and got us hooked forever more, and news of the most amazing yoga studio (sharon tessandori’s classes are life & spine changing!)

a dozen more reasons are coming to mind but i already know ashleigh will be blushing for the next 2 days so i’ll stop!

just got back from an *amazing* wedding conference at the biltmore (i spy colin cowie & mindy weiss above) and had to share…

biltmore rolled out the red carpet, i visited with dear friends in other states i don’t have the chance to see often, and tried to be the best note taker possible!

i loved the speakers, the design of the tablescapes at something as simple as a morning snack, and the great reminders about so many things like…

- it’s often the little stuff that makes an event so special [ darcy miller nussbaum of martha stewart weddings ]

- go back to the basics: great vows, toasts…it’s not about how many roses are hanging from the ceiling [ darcy miller nussbaum of martha stewart weddings ]

- always let there be a surprise at your event [ david stark ]

- don’t get caught up in what or who is shiny & new…work with creative partners that deliver consistently [ todd fiscus ]

- pinterest ideas can be so ‘done’ (ie: seen a million times) by the time a wedding arrives 18 months later – draw from fashion for color palettes, give your floral designer a pin board of architecture, etc that you love [ mindy weiss & todd fiscus ]

 
- the return of glamour has arrived (ushered in by the duchess of cambridge, the crawley family from downton abbey, baz luhrman’s gutsy, movies on princess diana and grace kelly coming out in coming months, etc) [ keigha minor, brides magazine ]

i adore weddings that are personalized to the bride and groom so those seem to transcend certain trends but it was intriguing to hear what was likely around the corner style-wise.

image notes: there were three pro photographers covering the event so i left my camera behind so i could soak it all up! thank you, carla, allan & jeremie!

images top left to right: carla ten eyck 1, 2, 5, 8  /  allan zepeda 3, 4, 6, 7 / jeremie barlow 9, 10, 11

it’s the last day of school…i’m so excited for summer and an extra dose of time with my girl!!  what are your favorite regular summer activities?  we’re making up our routine to include time at the neighborhood pool, trips to the library (audrey looooves audiobooks), arboretum and working our way through some recipes we’ve wanted to try!

i’ve heard through the grapevine some questions about organizing your digital photos so i thought i’d share how i do ours…

first, make a template folder with a sub-folder that you can copy over and over again.

mine looks like this…(look at the bottom folder)

the inside of that folder looks like this….

now, even though your process will likely differ from mine and you’ll just need the ‘email/facebook size’ folder, i’d still suggest making the template folder because it sets up a routine.

my process (optional reading…just an explanation of the two folders):
the folders marked 1 & 2 are only temporary.  when i download a card from my camera, my images aren’t jpgs like yours likely are so i select which ones i’m keeping, and then export them as jpgs.  i might bring a couple into Adobe Photoshop – the finished files are then placed in the main folder (when you name them, i’d suggest including the date as well as a description of where and/or who you’re with). images that have been resized to send to grandparents via email or post on facebook are held in the separate ‘email/facebook’ folder.

a word on deleting
is this hard to do?  i promise it’s a good thing…don’t delete too much but those blurry, super dark, out of focus, unflattering images don’t need to see the light of day!

why?

because just like clutter in your home eventually drives most everyone crazy, doing any sort of project becomes much easier if you’ve done a quick edit.  and here’s my tip: select the ones you love and want to keep, and delete the rest.  it’s faster.  this will help you devote less resources to storing images that you don’t even want to use.

now, if the moment is epic – ie: you’re in a country you may never be in again, or you’re introducing a new child to a sibling, obviously keep it even if it’s not super great.

but the halfway closed eyes or weird smiles, come on ;)

the story is so much clearer if you look through the duplicates to find the best shot.  when you do this, keep an eye out for sequences however that might be sweet framed together and leave that series in.  i’m thinking of a kiddo running towards dad and you have them half way there, the tackle hug and the giggle afterwards.

so, what’s the pay off of getting your digital photographs organized and not keeping everything?
- it’s SO much more fun to look through images
- it makes working on projects much faster
- keeps your collection manageable & requires much less room on your computer/external hard drive so you’re devoting less resources (when we talk about this a bit more in another blog post)

as a temporary solution, feel free to create a folder called [ deletes ] that you place images in temporarily…and then just wait to see if you have any second thoughts.

i tend to do a very tight edit of personal images because i know which ones i’ll want to use and i’m often thinking as i shoot so it’s an ending shot that i’m happiest with.  ease into this deleting stuff if it doesn’t come naturally – but don’t be surprised if it reduces the number of images by half or more if you shoot a lot at a specific event.

i love looking through our old photographs – and it’s such encouragement to take more!

i didn’t realize that i became the de facto historian for my family when i got married – i have a pretty good number of clients where their husband is involved in taking photographs of the family but it seems like it’s typically one of you and not both that have an interest in it…so if it’s you, let’s get it all organized!

and just like you’d set a goal/make a plan if you were going to run a half marathon, set a manageable project you’d like to accomplish…for me, it’s a digital frame of family images for my husband’s office for father’s day.  i have some major work ahead because that subfolder [ 1- originals ] is my landing place…i may not come back to make selections and edits for a while if it’s a busy time of year but i’m trying to carve out some time on sundays to stay on top of it.  it’s a perfect quiet sunday project to do once audrey is in bed.

feel free to leave questions in the comments – i promise i’ll give you a reply!

some notes -

if you prefer not to group your photos by year, you can date your images so they’re still chronological (2013_05_20 santa maria beach vacation)

file renaming – i wanted to pass along that some people like to rename their images with the date…i don’t search for images this way but i just wanted to mention it as an option :)

one final tip: add digital photo organization/memory keeping as a recurring item to your calendar once a month so you can remember to set aside some time

hope this has been helpful and you get some time soon to sit down and savor some sweet images of the ones you love!!

image note: a great senior session (taylor, i looooved all the images of you growing up!)

friends,

i wanted to share something that has been rolling around in my head for a while…so you know those new years goals that sometimes feel like they aren’t the right fit come mid-year?  danielle laporte talks about shifting from goals to the feelings you’d love to have more of in your life…and it struck me as incredibly important.

because what if you keep working towards ____ or ____ ‘thinking’ that it will bring the feeling of ______ only to find it doesn’t.

so, i’ve been letting that idea sit on the backburner for a while…jotting down words that resonate, and while it shifts by the week to a better version, i wanted to share the work in progress in case it’s something you want to explore, too.

the goal is to pick 5-6 words that describe how you’d like to FEEL (ie: what would your perfect day feel like)…i put them on my iphone wallpaper so i’d have a reminder more often.

these words are multi-taskers for me…

light – light represents truth to me.  i also think of people who shine, and whose lives are an example of what works.  it feels peaceful, uncluttered and free.  completely fits my mantra of traveling light ;)  and how i feel inside when i eat wonderful plant-based foods.

content – oh, how i love this feeling!!  it’s sublime!  those moments where you take in a 360 view of all the goodness around you.  where you don’t let the part that isn’t right overshadow what IS so very right and beautiful.  it speaks softly of gratitude.  of ease. of simplicity and slipping on a lifestyle that nourishes & sustains.  insulated a bit from commercialism.

purposeful – all of us want to live lives of purpose.  but sometimes our choices make our days/weeks less purposeful than they could be.  i feel really guided my purpose and see it unfolding in new broader ways as years bundle together and this word feels like pure rocket fuel in the right direction to me. acting intentionally.  in alignment.

legacy of love – a few books have touched me in a deep way in the past year.  one is love does – a beautiful, funny, easy read.  and the second is no greater love by mother teresa.  i want the story of my life to exemplify love.  i adore the stories of my ancestors – the courageous and strong things they did and i hope to add to that.  i think sometimes words like ‘love’ are used so frequently they become a bit commonplace but when you’re in the presence of deep, loyal, exquisite love you know it.  i’m thankful for the opportunity i had a few weeks ago to see a particularly exquisite display of love from a mother of the bride to everyone around her.  and the second best thing was seeing that quality handed down to her daughter, the bride.  they loved in a unique way and i was so moved and lifted by it.

joyful – to me, joy is gratitude.  it feels like a recognition and affirmation of the good in my life. i adore seeing what makes others happy – for me, it’s travel, adventure, great books, forming traditions, being outside, conversation, having the house smell like baked bread…and yet, joy is something that can be cultivated *all* the time…not just when we’re lucky enough to spend some time doing our favorite things.  it’s not as transitory as happiness.  there are definite principles to keeping joy hanging around.  i’m pretty lucky to be inherently optimistic/joyful but putting this on the list made me remember to ‘be me’ – and continue being a spokesperson for joy.  (it’s also what makes me feel inherently comfortable with children because i feel like we’re speaking the same language)

your final words are likely an expression to some degree of the goals you *have* been working on and are already inherent in your life.  but clarifying them has been a really illuminating process.  i know mine don’t ‘flow’ but hopefully that will come with a later version – it’s a work in progress and should continue to change.

so, what do you think some of your words might be? it was *hard* to choose at first so i made a big list…and then the ones that felt most right seemed clearer after a couple weeks.

image: my current iphone wallpaper (my monogram below the words was made by claudia engle a decade ago and i continue to love it – merci, claudia!)