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Her name is Kelsey, she recently turned 7 and at some point last year a few grey hairs appeared above her eyes. In a few short months it moved down her face towards her snout but thats okay I don’t care. She leaves hair every where she goes but thats okay I’ll just clean it up, she’s the most loving animal I have ever known. She doesn’t care about my flaws, insecurities or shortcomings; her love for me is unconditional. We have driven thousands of miles together, climbed mountains, waded through the emotional turbulence of life only to discover brighter days and survived near death experiences. She’s a therapy dog that works with patients in hospitals and the best swimmer you’ve ever seen. She’s my best friend!

Everyday I truly feel blessed to have the opportunity to make a living at something I consider the driving passion of my life; then there are those days that seem to stand out a little more than others. Recently I mentioned that I had the honor to shoot for Southern Weddings Magazine and I’m excited to share that the sophomore issues has hit newsstands. Ladies and gentlemen they have knocked it out of the park and you should run, not walk to pick up a copy. This is the first time in my career that my work has been published in print which makes it even more special for me. Here are the scanned tears from my portion of the Watercolor feature . If for some reason you can’t find this magazine on shelves at your local stores then here is a link to order one online.

I’m just getting back into the studio from shooting a wedding this past weekend in Colorado and this album got loaded on the iPhone before I left to head west. If your a Train fan your going to love it and if you’ve never really followed the band check out a couple of my favorite tracks below.

Hey, Soul Sister

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If It’s Love

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In late August I had the honor and privilege of shooting a feature for Lara Casey and the amazing women of Southern Wedding Magazine in Watercolor FL. The fall issue will be on newsstands soon so I figured I would share an outtake from that amazing weekend. It was a long day in the heat and our crew was spent by the time sunset came around. After wrapping for the day I had one more concept I wanted to pull off which is the image you see below. With the help of the amazingly talented Joy Thigpen, the sacrifice of our legs to about 1000 mosquitos and some fun running around in the pitch dark we came up with something pretty cool. Keep your eyes out for the fall edition of Southern Weddings, it’s going to be an amazing issue.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

I came across this image from a session and it made me think of The Crazy Ones campaign from Apple. If your not sure of what I’m talking about see the original advertisement here. Hands down, it’s one of my favorite advertisting spots ever. I’ve seen it countless times and I’m still inspired each and every time I watch it. I don’t remotely consider myself  Einstein or Picasso but I do consider myself “crazy” enough to go after the things that I’m passionate about in life. It’s not easy, I never expected it to be; there have been significant sacrifices in every aspect of my life and I expect many more.  It’s easy to get down on yourself when things don’t go your way or you lose something that had defined your existence previously but I consider it life’s initiation to the next level. Ground yourself in the faith that you are capable of accomplishing whatever you put your mind to. Surround yourself with those who truly believe in you, it doesn’t take many and NEVER look back.  Challenge the status quo, set yourself against the grain and hold on; the road is going to be a bumpy one but some of life’s greatest treasures are waiting on the other side.

We had driven around Iceland on The Ring Road and the only thing left on our agenda before heading home was a test shoot for Nick’s portfolio. Here are some of the behind the scene images and a video that I shot that day. Make sure you head over to his site to see the entire story which you can find here.  http://www.nickonken.com/Stories/IcelandHoppipolla/

Iceland Hoppipolla BTS from conk. on Vimeo.