Speak + Inspire

This past weekend I took a nice little roadtrip back to Sioux Falls, SD to visit my family for the long Easter weekend. On the way down there I was of course taking use of my Pandora app on my phone and had it tuned to my 'Kutless' station for most of the trip. Within the 3 hours it took me to get to my destination, I had heard countless songs that tugged at my heart. So many of them had such incredible messages to share and so many of them I have not had the opportunity to hear yet. As I was listening to a few of them I began to realize that there are so many great songs out there that SPEAK to us + INSPIRE us. Music has a way of touching our hearts in ways that no other way can. I honestly don't know what it is about some instruments being played and someones voice singing that can draw out so many different emotions from us.

Therefore during these 3 hours of nothing but the open road and of course some incredible music, I came up with the idea for a new weekly/biweekly blog post. Speak + Inspire posts to be exact. Not only do I want to be able to share some good music, but I also want to help inspire anyone that might need a little extra inspiration at that moment. If anything, hopefully it will help you smile and relax for a few moments during all the craziness life sometimes brings. :)

The song for the first 'edition', if you will, of this topic is from an artist by the name of Matthew West. Some of you may have heard of him before but Thursday was actually the first time I had ever heard any of his music. And I have to admit after hearing this song, I'm hooked.

The song is called "The Motions" and below I have incuded a youtube video of the song with the lyrics. Each word is so powerful and can relate to anyone wherever they are in life. So many times we get in a rut where we are just going through the motions. Doing whatever it is we are supposed to do with no life, no passion, no emotion. Whether it is with our family, our job, God,
or any of our other relationships. We have all met at least one person in our lives that seems so 'dead' on the inside. There is no passion, no fire, no emotions in their daily lives. It's almost like they are on auto-pilot and just trying to get by. It's so incredibly sad to meet people like that because in our lives there is so much to be passionate about.

Have you ever met someone and thought, "Wow are they such a happy, full of life person"? I want to strive to be THAT person everyday for the rest of my life. Just ok is NOT enough for me. I don't want to just go through the motions, I don't want to go one more day without that kind of passion for life. There have been so many days that I have wasted by being grumpy and just being.

I feel like I have always had that kind of passion within my work. Come with me to a session and I am in my element. I love all the interactions with people, I love capturing their real passion and real emotions. My whole world becomes better when I get to see their faces when they see the images I created for them.

Now the real goal is to bring that passion to the rest of my life. I want to have that passion everyday when I wake up and keep it all day no matter what happens. When people see me I want them to see fire and passion in everything I do.

So now the real question is, can YOU bring that passion to your everyday life? Don't spend your whole life asking, what would have happened IF I had given everything, instead of going through the motions. Start now. :)

A real cute 'chick'

So last week I had the privileged of once again photographing little Miss Ella, pretty much the cutest baby around. I'll admit I'm a little biased but look at that face, she is pretty dang cute. I was a little worried going into the season because for one, Mom wanted some baby chicks in some of the images. I had never dealt with babies and chicks but I had some friends that recently bought some chicks that said I could borrow them to see how well this photo shoot worked out. For 2, it was windy and chilly that day and we had to be outside with the chicks. The last night which I didn't find out until 20 minutes before the session was that the poor sweetheart had an ear infection. Now what do you think of when you think of a 7 month old and and ear infection? I think of one crabby baby. But this was so not true with little Miss Ella. From the moment she woke up she was all smiles and laughter, and boy was she into this baby chicks. She never wanted to look at the camera because she thought they were so interesting. The poor baby chicks also handled everything beautifully. Will I start this whole chick photos thing for every Easter, probably not. Ella got to be the only one to enjoy this. It was fun, but only fun for that one time! :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Enjoy these sweet photos of dear Ella!