My First Time | Hampton Roads Personal Blog

Hi!

It's 8 days in to the new year and with all the holiday's and family time and irregularity of my schedule I realized it's been way too long since I wrote a personal blog post to you all! (almost three weeks too long, in fact! In case it's been too long to remember my latest personal post can be found here.) So I started thinking about what I could write about and what was going on with me that anyone would want to hear about. It hit me that maybe what you wanted to hear about was a little less on my mind than what I NEED to get out into the universe. So here goes...

 

You see, over the holiday's (right before we left for Christmas, actually)we learned that my husband's car is... how do I put this gently... on its way out. :(

 

The day before we were set to leave to see family for Christmas my husband took his 16 YEAR OLD Honda to get an oil change. That's how these things always start you see.... it's something normal, and every day, and nothing unusual and then BAM they tell you that you need $1200 worth of repairs or you have to give up your first born or something dramatic like that. The catch here was that back in July/August my husband's car needed $1,000 in repairs and at that time I made the FATAL MISTAKE of saying "Ok, we'll fix it this time but if it needs another large repair like this I think it's time to just buy a new car."

 

WORDS. OF. DEATH!

 

So here we are, 4 months later, and I'm eating my words.

 

Dislike.dislike.dislike.dislike.dislike.

 

The realization that we will be buying a new car triggered some MAJOR ANXIETY in me- anxiety I haven't felt since ooooh maybe my wedding day? Haha Yes, it was that momentous of a feeling for me. We haven't had a car payment in a number of years- since college, I think- and to be honest with you I have NEVER purchased a car in my life. My first, and only, and CURRENT car was my grandfathers and was handed down to me when he passed. So to think about 1. Financing a car and even worse 2. PICKING a car felt like just too much for me.

 

Picking my husband was easy. There was no choice in my eyes- he simply is and was the man for me. No question (some anxiety, sure, but weddings and marriage hold a lot of pressure and that's a lot to put on yourself...but I digress). But buying a car? PICKING a car?! There's a bagillion and two options out there and once you narrow down which KIND you want (SUV vs. sedan vs. GIANT TRUCK) you then have to choose which size you want. Four doors? Two doors? Butt warmers (totally want those, by the way!)? Navigation? Chrome wheels? V6? V8? (Who even knows what those mean???) Mid-size SUV? Giant, take-the-whole-soccer-team-to-tryouts SUV?

 

The. Options. Are. ENDLESS.

 

And, at least for me, that's completely nerve-wracking. I don't know enough about the car world or car parts to truly understand everything I'm looking at and that makes me nervous. Nervous because when talking to a sales person I don't know enough- I'm not knowledgeable enough- to refute or agree with what they're telling me. So I'm not a fan of this whole process.

 

My husband loves it. John is all for researching and all for going for test drives and all for ME being a part of the process. We've already been to two dealers and we're nowhere near finished. Don't get me wrong: I absolutely appreciate that John wants me to be a part of it and wants me to be involved in this big decision but let's face it: I am not a fan of this! Haha

 

So, if anyone has any SUV's they LOVE (yes, we've at least determined we're headed in the SUV direction) and absolutely would encourage their mother to buy, let me know! And even more important: if you see me out at one of the 1,000 dealerships in the Hampton Roads area, STOP BY AND SAVE ME!

 

Wish me luck!
Best,
Sarah

p.s. I'm sorry, for some reason the internet doesn't want to let me post a picture with this blog today :( So lots of pictures next time!

Sometimes We Just Need a Little Reminding | Hampton Roads Refresher

Hi.

 

Yesterday I woke up to a message from a Sarah Elle Photography family member. In it was a link to a blog and a short note about how it reminded her of my "Life: As it is" project. So, of course, I'm intrigued! It wasn't until I got to the picture at the end of the blog did I realize I've read it before!

I was SHOCKED! I had read this blog before but none of the words triggered any kind of memory for me. Now I was sad. Clearly this means that despite my own words and efforts and projects I, too, needed a refresher on the point of living Life: As it is.

 

The blog post talks a lot about weight being a big factor in avoiding photos; and I agree, that's a lot of the reason I hear that people don't want to be involved in the shoot. Okay. I get it. I've heard it. I've lived it, myself. I, without fail, get those ridiculous unflinching butterflies EVERY.SINGLE. TIME. my picture is taken because I'm worried that I'm not going to see it before it gets posted in order to run interference because I *gasp* MIGHT LOOK FAT.  But I think the author hits it on the head when she responds with "if the magical day does come when you're acceptably thin you'll still REGRET not having any pictures of you with your kids from ages 5-10." This. This right there. This speaks to me.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it forever and ever and ever: Don't wait. This is your life. This is who you are and this is the person your family loves. Don't let yourself get in the way of yourself and of capturing and cementing this time in your life. Maybe you're not a fan of YOU right now but I promise you the people you're having pictures taken with most certainly ARE. Do it for them- you'll thank yourself later.

Oh, and maybe, just maaaaaybe try to give yourself a little credit when looking at your images. Don't be so hard on yourself. Life is hard enough. (And, as I've said before, it's all just preferences).

 

So here's the blog that was shared with me and the author, Teresa, was so gracious enough to give me permission to share it with you all ( I asked her!). So go on, read it. It might just be good for you ;)

http://myfriendteresablog.com/so-youre-feeling-too-fat-to-be-photographed/

With love,
Sarah

p.s. I'd love to know your reactions; so if you don't mind please share them with me, below!

Life: As it is.

Hi!

I have a new project; maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called “Life: As it is.” This project is very close to my heart as it attempts to illustrate my philosophy behind portrait photography.

Photography, to me, is about capturing life’s moments- carving out that moment in time and documenting the way you smile, your chosen hairstyle that year, the way Uncle Bill crinkles up his nose when he laughs after telling a joke, or the way your daughter stands on her toes to be bigger than her brother. It’s about truly capturing your life as it is in that very moment- a moment we never get to relive- except through those photographs we took to capture them.

Almost 100% of the time I get inquiries for portrait sessions from individuals and families who want to document a particular milestone (an anniversary, a birth, a homecoming, etc.). Don’t get me wrong, I think these are fantastic reasons to hire a photographer and I hire photographers when I have a milestone, too (we take pictures on our anniversary every single year and I’ve already planned out who I want as my homecoming photographer and my husband doesn’t even have orders yet to deploy!)! But with these inquiry’s I also often hear that people “haven’t had pictures since [their] wedding” or “I’m always the one taking the pictures; it will be nice to be in front of the camera for once” or even “oh no, I’m only interested in pictures of the kids;  I don’t like to have my picture taken.”

 The goal behind Life: As it is is to encourage people not to wait for milestones or wait to “lose a few pounds” before they get in front of the camera. Life is now. This is a moment you will never get back…it is who you are and is a part of who you will become. Don’t wait until your hair grows back out or you fit into those jeans from high school or you wake up and realize it’s been 7 years since you last had photos. Today is your life. Today is your chance to capture it exactly as it is and keep it forever.

With that mentality I have set out to document the life of individuals and families in the area who deserve to be reminded that this part of their life is worth capturing on camera. My hope is to do a segment of Life: As it is every season and in doing so document different portions of life as it is in this world. To do that I needed help….

So, to get the project rolling I opened it up for nominations and I was extremely humbled by the response. It was great to see others nominating people they felt deserved to be featured and it was even cooler to see people nominating themselves and admitting that perhaps it was time to get back in front of the camera. I am so very pleased to announce that the chosen nomination for the first installment of Life: As it is is...........


 actually it's two people!

In one case it is a mother nominated by her daughter and in the other case it is a daughter nominated by her mother. So join me in my excitment as I am honored to announce that Mary Tigner (nominated by daughter Rebecca) and Lauren (nominated by her mother Marie Banner Lewis) are the first two individuals who will be featured in Life: As it is. I am sincerely looking forward to getting to know them both and am eager to document their life as it as and share it with you all this Fall.
  
Stay tuned to the blog because I want to make this project into something BIG and I hope to be able to showcase each individual/family that was nominated.

Best,
Sarah

p.s. new to the blog? be sure to check out my first "welcome" post here or my crash course to Sarah post here!

*for the first installment featuring Lauren, click here !