He is definitely the motivational speaker for photographers. He asked all of the photographers (there were thousands!) the question: Do you remember why you started taking pictures?

For me, I started taking pictures to capture the amazing moments that I had with my family. I know that I was a big picture-taker in elementary and middle school. Then, finally in high school I asked my parents for a “nice” camera. Thankfully, I have parents who love and support me and had the ability to see that my picture taking wasn’t just a fading hobby, but much more than that. I know that the treasured moments we share with our family and friends pass by all too quickly and if we don’t document them, they could fade away.

I don’t want those special moments to pass by for you or your family. I have a heart for people, I love to become part of your family for a day, get in your world, find out what you’re passionate about and capture all of the emotions that come with those things.

He called letting life pass you by “going on automatic.” For photographers, when we shoot in automatic mode, it means we’re not in control, we can’t manually adjust the settings to make the photo the way we want. So for a life-analogy, not going on automatic means living your life awake at the wheel, being alive and active in every aspect of your life and going ALL IN on anything that you’re doing.

So for 2010: I’m going ALL IN. I am taking my photography to a whole new level. I’ve had some amazing mentors over the past 6 months walking with me, helping me learn more about the craft of photography, learn more about how to run a successful luxury photography studio and to treat your clients the best. Bottom line: you’ll see changes in how I do things and all for the better.

This shot is taken in front of my lovely friend Jordan’s house {shoutout!} when it felt like zero degrees.

Fast forward to this morning when we wake up and find…. NO snow on the ground. None is even falling. So we all go about our day & then finally just before lunch it starts coming down really hard. Throughout the day it just gets worse & worse and then tonight it gets down to the 20s so now it all freezes and is just ice.

Well at least it makes for gorgeous photos. I think snow and black and white photos is ridiculously beautiful. Enjoy!

{P.S. I’m posting this a day late because I’ve officially gotten bit by the Twilight bug & I was up last night reading the last bit of New Moon.}

I never claimed to be a food photographer, and I’m not even sure if you can make really GOOD mexican food look fantastic, it just tastes good. So here’s a photo of our chicken fajita meat!

This photo is from our fun ride home today… enjoy!

Also, I’m reading my camera manual & will begin posting what I’m learning from that too.

For more in depth info about Sun Flare and how to achieve it, check out this post by Melissa Jill – it really helped me and I hope it helps you too.

Setting the scene: several weeks ago hubby and I watched the fabulous movie Julie & Julia — if you haven’t seen it, go rent it today! I promise you won’t regret it. To steal from another one of my favorite movies, The Holiday, Julie in the movie really has gumption! Her determination to cook through the entire Julia Child cookbook was inspiring.

Fast forward, last week I was listening to the F-Stop Beyond podcast and in the interview with Tasra Dawson she discusses how Scott Bourne encouraged her to improve her photography skills by 300%. How you ask? He said that if she were to read one page out of her camera manual every day and take at least one photo every day, that her photography would increase by 300%. She started a website, www.tasra365.com, to document her journey and more than 200 other photographers are taking on the challenge with her!

Put two and two together: my new year’s resolution is to do the 365 challenge. Today is Day 1 and I’m heading out to greet 2010 with my camera in tow. I have a feeling I’m going to have to get a new purse if I’m going to be carting around my Canon 50D everywhere!

I hope that you will enjoy looking at a photo a day from my life: I’m hoping to bring you interesting things like traveling, outdoors activities, beautiful details of flowers and many happy memories. Here’s to the journey!!

Day 1: January 1, 2010
The Blue Ridge Mountains, what a view.