some random thoughts...

Corey and I have been talking a lot lately about photography and how it makes us feel. As he has gotten more and more into photography himself, it has been fun to process these things together. We were having one of these conversations the other day and I couldn't come up with the words to describe my experience.
I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite books, A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeline L'Engle. The book is so rich and so real for a million reasons but one of my favorite parts has always been a poem that she quotes by T.E. Brown called "Indwelling." The first line of the poem says, "if thou could'st empty all thyself of self, like to a shell dishabitated..." It goes on to say, "but thou art all replete with very thou..." I spend almost all of my time being replete with me, thinking about myself, consumed my own thoughts and feelings and desires. But the biggest gift that photography has given me is a break from myself. I really don't know how else to describe it. When I am taking pictures, I feel like I am totally in that moment and nowhere else. Somehow, it is like being emptied of self and yet feeling more like myself all at the same time. A mystery, I guess.

All that being said, I really loved spending Saturday taking pictures of two really fun, really in love couples. I've only finished one slideshow so far but couldn't wait to get it up on the blog. Tiffany and Noeun met and got engaged at Montevallo so I thought it was a great idea when they wanted to do their engagement pictures there. (The pictures where they're in the white gazebo-ish thing is the spot where they got engaged!) I LOVED doing pictures somewhere new and felt like I could have explored new places all day long. I am so excited to be shooting their wedding in May!

Also, it should be said that the Patty Griffin song on their slideshow is my new super favorite song that I listen to on repeat all the time. I have been waiting to use it on a slideshow since the first time I heard it and today was the big day! I hope everyone else likes it as much as me because I am going to be using it a lot. I wanted to save it for a wedding slideshow but I couldn't resist using it today. Anyway, this is officially my longest post ever.