Growth – Tina + Andrew

It’s been over a year (HOW?) since I’ve started taking my photography seriously as a business & it has been better than I ever could have dreamed (and lemme tell you, I dreamed pretty big!!)!

I’ve been privileged to capture some beautiful memories, to meet some wonderful people that I now get to call friends, & now get to be apart of a larger photography & wedding vendor community! It’s been something I never could have imagined.

I think that it’s so fun & so important to be able to look & see how you’ve grown. We all sometimes need proof that we’re not the same person we were a year ago. With some growth, it’s hard to measure (if you’ve become kinder, more patient, etc.), but I’m lucky enough that photography growth is one that’s usually pretty easy to see.

February 18th, 2019, I headed out to Tina & Andrew’s house. I had put up a post in Facebook marketplace group, offering free shoots for couples to build my portfolio & to get MUCH needed practice. I was lucky enough to have Tina take the call. She said that her backyard becomes a winter wonderland & they’d love to capture it, along with her & her husband’s love for each other as well as their dog, Remy.

I panicked so much on the way there. But once I got there, I couldn’t have asked for kinder & more understanding people to be my first couple. Willing to be guinea pigs, constantly laughing, & trying their best to understand what I was prompting them to do (which I’m sure was a task in itself!) as I tried to achieve the look I wanted & using things I had learned from The Heart University that I had just invested in!

Oh man.

Tina & Andrew.

Thanks for trusting me a second time.

It’s a really good thing that they’re such a good looking couple.

Since then, I’ve done TONS more shoots, done a lot more education & research, & did SO MUCH PRACTICE. A year can do a lot for a person, & I’m so glad it does.

This year, I reached out offering to do another shoot for them, so I could see how I’ve grown and changed with my style, my ability, & my confidence. Sometimes, it feels like nothing has changed. Like I’m still the same.

They said that Andrew’s family had a beautiful property by Eganville that we could run around & take photos in the snow. I cannot tell you ENOUGH how much I love it when couples have an emotional attachment & a love for the location we do it in & these guys have had that BOTH TIMES & I love it.

I made my entrance to their family’s place by getting stuck in a ditch, but it was SO. WORTH. IT.

We went inside for a little bit at the end for a few cuddle photos next to the fire (his parents are seriously the kindest, his dad even helped me out of the ditch that my dumb butt got myself into, so SHOUT OUT TO ANDREW’S DAD for that!).

I think we can ALL agree that the one thing that didn’t change is how absolutely BEAUTIFUL Tina is. Right? Right.

We got Remy in on a few, had some snow fights & climbing, & it ended up feeling like I was hanging out with old friends instead of a “client”.

If you feel like you haven’t grown in WHATEVER area you’re chasing, take a look back. At who you were a year go, two years ago, FIVE YEARS AGO. I guarantee that you’ve made progress.

I know I still have so much more growth ahead of me! This is going to happen through a workshop in California in TWO WEEKS (!!!!) and a wedding in Iceland this September (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) & things that I can’t even imagine.

No matter how slow your growth is, how long it takes for you to get to where you’d like to be, please don’t forget to celebrate it.

And don’t forget to thank those who helped you get to where you are now.

So Tina & Andrew, thank you.

To every other person I’ve had the opportunity to meet & be apart of your moments & memories, thank you.

I can’t wait to see what I’ll be posting in 2021.

Warmly,

Caroline