So today is the final November morning and I can’t wrap my mind around time and timing. I’m always thinking about it too … how it moves, how its speed is amplified in proportion to the number of days we are alive, how it places us in certain places and next to certain people, and how it’s not really linear at all. Maybe I’ve just been reading too much Haruki Murakami lately … but parallel realities and timing/time have always engaged my mind.

I’m done shooting for a month; I always take December off from weddings and engagement sessions. Working on my accounting/taxes/insurance/other exciting paperwork items until the New Year. Also planning to hibernate the last week or so of December … spend time with family and friends and nothing else. Recharge for 2012 and my first wedding of the year in San Francisco mid-January.

I’m all booked up for 2012 weddings now so I’ve been reflecting on how the 2011 wedding season was wonderful and surreal as always. I was able to travel all over the country once again to shoot engagements and weddings and portraits. The people I’ve met have proved to be one-in-a-million yet again. It’s A LOT of hard work (believe me, none of this just *happened* to me) and ups and downs (read THIS ARTICLE for an idea), but mostly I still can’t believe this is my life and I’m doing what I love every day … for a living. I hope I never lose that feeling of awe.

I was so honored to be featured on some of my favorite wedding blogs in 2011. Below are a few select features from the past few months. Thanks to all my clients (and now friends) for having beautiful and inspiring events and letting me into their lives to document them.

Holly & Kohler’s Wedding on Style Me Pretty

Katie & Ben’s Wedding on Green Wedding Shoes

Jody’s Bridal Session on Perfect Bound

Victoria’s Bridal Session on Perfect Bound

Megan & Brent’s Wedding on Style Me Pretty

Megan & Brent’s Engagement Session on The Loveliest Day

Holly & Kohler’s Engagement Session on Perfect Bound

Several more of my awesome clients’ weddings and engagements will be featured in the coming months in both print and online. If time doesn’t escape me again, I’ll be better about updating the blog with those new features :)

I’ll leave you with a beautiful song I discovered late last night and cannot stop listening to this morning. xo, AM

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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For the most part it’s chill and not about buying stuff or running all over to parties and whatnot. This week I’m racing to get all my print orders, album designs, and DVDs done so I can sit and enjoy a day with family and football and food. I have a lot to be thankful for and I’m definitely thankful for the amazing and talented friends I’ve made since beginning this photography journey.  Nikki N is one of my favorites.

She has a new website launching in the coming weeks so we spent 30 minutes hanging out with her awesome car, house, and boyfriend … just capturing some relaxed images for the new site. Nikki said she wanted photos that felt like we were just hanging out and I love to shoot that way (I hate posing and don’t even really know how to do it) … so it was perfect.

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So what’s the difference between going somewhere and leaving somewhere?

There is never enough time with my favorite people and I didn’t take my camera out enough either. But what is ever really enough anyway?

Tomorrow I’m headed to the very bottom of the Okay State of Texas to spend time with some of my other favorites. Life is good. Yeah, I just said that, ha.

Let me tell you a little story about a perfect little morning engagement session in New York City. The sun is rising and I’m walking with coffee & a camera in my cold hands … the West Village still quiet, a stark contrast with just hours before. At the High Line I meet two stylish lawyers who give lawyers a good name. We talk, laugh, shoot, joke … they are interesting and interested. I feel like I’ve known them longer than just a few hours; everything with them is so natural. After a clothing change we’re back out in the city and the noise and activity has all returned to the sidewalks. I love it. Shoot, talk, laugh some more. There is dancing in the glowing light and reminiscing about law school in between. After all that, Melissa and Jordan take me to their old stomping grounds where we have coffee, breakfast and more conversation. I could talk to them all day.

Thanks, Jordan and Melissa, for being perfectly awesome. I absolutely cannot wait for your wedding!

<3, AM

The End.

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The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. — Nietzche

Friday morning, 11.11.11, feels like a good day to write something and wear fuchsia on my lips. Heading to Milwaukee for the weekend and feeling grateful for all the moments that build upon each other and weave together into this experience called life. Learning to live inside each of those moments … where it’s more beautiful than future or past. Is this the story or is this the end … doesn’t matter right now. Soaking up life … not focused on the proverbial finish line … but rather on where I am now.

Have a beautiful weekend, at wherever and however you are right now.

PS — I’ve been streaming the new Los Campesinos album since last Monday morning. I hope NPR Music doesn’t eventually kick you off because I’ve listened over 100 times.

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