Happy Friday, everyone!  What are you up to?  How’s the weather where you are?

It’s cold here yet, but I’m ready to rock it out and shoot my first wedding of 2011 tomorrow.

I look forward to Friday mornings because Troy brings me a scone from Lazy Jane’s and sets it next to the bed before he leaves for work. Makes my day :)

Have a lovely couple days. xoxo, AM

If an incredibly short bio were to be written about me, I think it might read, she will never get to the end of her ‘to read’ list. I read constantly … I mean, constantly.  Some of the magazines I read are more time-intensive than some of the books I read.  There are so many great authors and so many things to learn.  I read not only for knowledge … but also for escape, for beauty, for poetic lines strung together like songs.  A gorgeous writing style is more important to me than a well-done plot.  I still buy CDs in their original packaging and sit with the liner notes … reading every lyric.

I often enjoy re-reading an old favorite.  Over the weekend I re-read Seth Godin’s Tribes.  If you own a business and haven’t read any of Godin’s books yet, I suggest you head to your local library and get as many as are on the shelf.  I have so many things highlighted in Tribes, but a few favorite quotes that guided me during the branding process (and running my business in general) really caught my attention again:

Don’t try to please everyone.  Great leaders don’t water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger.

Most people would like the world to stay just as it is, but calmer.  You’re not going to be able to grow your career or your business by going after ‘most people.’  Almost all the growth that’s available to you exists when you aren’t like most people and when you work hard to appeal to folks who aren’t most people.

A photographer once mentioned to me that she thinks I’m too bold by saying right on my website the types of couples I do and don’t like to work with and what kinds of weddings I do and don’t like to shoot.  But I think that everyone should be doing just that.  I read some forums where photographers complain constantly about their clients and business.  But I think that is almost entirely avoidable … If you don’t cater to everyone … if you target exactly who you want to work with … if you aren’t afraid to boldly state your WHY and WHAT … if you don’t compromise your vision just for a few extra jobs.

I end-up with clients almost 100% of the time who are completely on-board with my vision.  And that means I can hardly complain about my job.  I rebranded in order for my web presence to match that notion.  If you know me, I say it like it is.  I’m not afraid to write on my blog what I love and don’t love shooting — because the people who hire me already know that.  I left a promising career in order to follow my passion and love what I do every single day.  Why wouldn’t I make what I LOVE shooting clear?  Why wouldn’t everyone else make that clear as well?  A friend of mine always says a brand should attract and repel.  And she’s totally right.  The most common question I get from other photographers is, “How do you get such perfect-for-you, amazing & creative clients?”  And I reply that it’s because I’m clear upfront — I am simply not interested in being everything to everyone.  I want to attract and work with people who are passionate about my artistic vision and the work I create.  It’s an amazing little cycle … I only choose to work with people I like and who love my work, because of this I am inspired and able to create work that I love, because of that I am able to present a visual portfolio online that I love and that attracts the same type of awesome and inspiring people again and again (and that repels the wrong people :))

In my other, non-reading spare time, I like to eat good food and shoot it.  Here are a few snapshots of my final weekend before wedding season starts.  Can’t wait to get this new season rolling!  Happy Monday :)

Ummmm, you have no idea how nervous I am right now.  My hands are totally shaking.  In fact, I’m writing this post at night and not planning to publish it until morning.  I just got off the phone with my friend, Gladys.  I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.  I think I’m so nervous because I’m already anticipating some of your responses.   I get it.  This is different.  Way different than my old “brand.”  Way different than my generic grayscale brand that couldn’t offend anybody.  You may think this doesn’t seem like me.

But, really, that wasn’t me.  I kept wanting it to be me because it was so dang safe and nobody had a real opinion about it.  I’ve very slowly been grasping the difference between a *brand* with fancy graphical elements … and a *brand experience* — about which I thought long & hard this time.  Before I even touched the design part.  What do I love about life, about being a consumer, about not being a consumer, about the subcultures I choose to be part of?  How can I take those elements and pour them into my own business and brand experience?

I’ve worked on this brand for months & months … keeping in-mind both who I am and who my ideal client is.  I already know that my ideal client gets me and will get this new look.  They are looking at this blog right now and nodding along with me.  They will see my new website and understand the format and why it’s no longer flash-driven or wedding-esque and *pretty.*  It’s scary to alienate the others, but I know that is exactly what I need to do as I move forward.

So if you like what you see, my guess is that we already get each other.  And I like you :)

New print collateral is so fun.  Here are my new DVD inserts (front and back).  If you open them up, my print release is inside.  Clients get these with their image DVDs.  New sleeves for the DVDs are on the way in a couple weeks.

New business cards:

I’m packing my business cards in little clear bags … filled with heart confetti and 1-inch buttons (all unique, based on my mood/interests at the time :)).

And … new postcards!  Excited that I finally have branded correspondence.  Until now I was using generic notecards from completely random stores and desk drawers. Go ahead, give me your address.  I promise to write.

Along with a new look comes a new portfolio website.  It was important to me that my new site not be flash-driven.  I wanted it to look just as good on a 27 inch iMac as it does on the iPad and iPhone.  And nothing drove me more crazy than waiting for my old flash site to load each individual image.

**Updated to add**  It looks like there are still a few kinks with my new site’s servers and sometimes the portfolio link will bring you to my old flash site (you will recognize the old branding, obviously) and other times to my new portfolio site.  Sorry about the confusion … should all be good in less than 72 hours.  Until then, feel free to keep trying.  Lots of people have gotten it to work.  All works here on my iMac, Macbook and iPad :)

Ahhhhhhh…I did it!  A huge thank you to my talented in-house designer and husband, Troy.  I think he did a brilliant job of really listening to what I wanted and executing it so well.

Thank you for being here.  I hope you stay around. xoxo, AM.

If you read my blog a lot, you know I’ve been wanting to get more into boudoir photography.  I think it’s so feminine, empowering, beautiful, and artistic.  I recently hung a new inspiration board in my office … filled with magazine tears I’ve collected over the past year.  What I noticed was that 98% of the images were artistic close-ups of women (either grainy B&Ws or dreamy color), very stylish, ethereal and oftentimes with wind-blown hair (wind has always been my muse).  Knowing that I’ve been collecting the same type of images over the course of an entire year … rather than over the course of one day or a week wherein my current mood dictated my inspiration … made me rethink my brand and the direction in which I want to steer my business.

To embark on my new endeavor I attended a boudoir workshop with the talented and lovely Jennifer Williams and Leah Aubrey.  We shot at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel and it was so gorgeous … I mean, really super gorgeous.  I’m staying there for WPPI next year for sure.  Jen and Leah demonstrated a few of their favorite poses and then for 3-4 hours we had time to direct and shoot the models alone with one other workshop attendee.  I was super inspired by some of the more dreamy Anthropologie/hippy looks my shooting partner and I styled the model in.  Here is a small handful of the shots I got while working 2 on 1 with the model (who rocked it out, btw).

I’m keeping it PG-13 (actually, probably closer to PG or G, even) and showing mainly beauty shots. Once I launch my boudoir business it will have it’s own special, private place on the web (basically, on a separate blog).

Once upon a time I earned a Masters degree in Library & Information Sciences.  During those grueling (ahem, boring) two years I made a friend (whom I had met previously as an undergrad, working at the same library) named Kathy.  A couple years later Kathy saw my photography work on Facebook and left a comment predicting that I’d soon be shooting weddings all the time and simply moonlighting as a librarian.  Fast forward another few months and I’m a fulltime photographer not even working as an academic librarian at all anymore.  Kathy’s friend, Liz, gets engaged and Kathy tells Liz about me.  Less than a year after that I am in Austin, TX shooting Liz’s wedding.  Kathy is a bridesmaid and so is Meagan.  Meagan is the assistant editor at BRAVA magazine.  We all have a great time on the wedding day.

Months later, I get an email from Meagan asking if I’d like to submit some weddings for consideration in BRAVA’s wedding guide.  I submitted Ryann and Tim’s rustic country-vintage wedding and it was chosen to be featured as one of three weddings in the guide!  I was extra-extra excited when my image of Ryann and her vintage bike was chosen for the cover!!  Yay!  Ryann and Tim had an amazing wedding — simply beautiful, creative and so reflective of who they were.  I felt so honored to be chosen to capture it; it will forever be one of my favorites.

To top it all off, BRAVA’s art director, Kristin, has asked me to start shooting fashion and cover stories for them — which is awesome!

And it all goes back to Library School…there is a reason I got that degree after all :)