This year that will change. I think it’s so important to make personal ideas come to life so that we don’t get too comfortable.

I photographed my first personal session the other day. I am so excited about the outcome. It’s crazy what you produce when you actually make the effort to simply create for yourself. You’ll be so inspired.

I started a tumblr for my personal work. Feel free to follow along. Here I’ll post photos from travel, iPhone snaps, and personal projects. See a few more frames from Jane’s session there. I’ll post more in the next few days.

Below are two favorites.

Find out what else you are capable of. Get uncomfortable. Create.

The shoot that was supposed to happen on the beach? It lasted about 4 minutes. The sun made an appearance, but it was so windy that I had a hard time shooting. My bride and groom for the day were freezing. I was freezing. Hair was whipping in all directions. It was a hot cold mess. On the way home from the shoot, I tried my best to keep it together. Although I did my part on making my ideas come to life, I felt like a total failure.

I know that the weather is out of my control. However, I do have the control on how I choose to look at my shoot on Sunday. On life. On everything. These past two days have been spent saying to myself “Even if you feel like you failed, at least you tried.” At least I tried, right? Out of that 4 minutes on the sand, if I shot 1 or 2 frames that I absolutely love…then I’m happy.

Below is one of my favorite frames from the shoot. It makes me feel warm. Somehow we were able to find a place away from the water that had amazing light/was blocked from the wind. Besides not being able to shoot on the beach, I still had the chance to shoot in the prettiest light. We all know how happy that makes me :)

Will share more photos + a little more about the shoot soon.
Just remember…Even if you fail, at least you tried. That’s better than nothing.

What makes Patara #1 in Chiang Mai (out of many places) is their focus on maintaining health and breeding elephants to support repopulation. Patara is 100% Thai owned and managed. You will NEVER find an elephant playing soccer or painting at Patara. Instead, visitors take part of their “Elephant owner for a day” program. Most elephants on the farm were either rescued, or born there. Chris’ elephant was found in the streets of Bangkok begging for money :( Now, Mae-Kwan is happy and healthy. She has a son that she recently gave birth to. It was so neat to see baby kwan (Chris called him that because they hadn’t named him yet. haha) stick with his mom and Chris all day.

The program is everything it says it is. Each person is assigned their own elephant that they match you with based on your personality. You spend the entire day with them. During our visit we had the chance to feed our elephants, learn how to approach them, check their health, scrub and bathe them in the river, ride them bare back through the mountains of Chiang Mai, communicate with them, swim, play, and learn more about them.  It is truly a once in a lifetime experience that is worth every single penny we paid. If you are ever in Chiang Mai, I highly recommend that you go to Patara. It will instantly be one of the best experiences of your life. On to the images….

I remember being in the car and spotting the elephants. I knew that we had arrived and the squeals started to come. The following photos were taken on our walk through the farm.

We were one of the first to get there. The photo below sums up how I was the ENTIRE day. I. kid. you. not. As soon as I spotted the baby, I screamed.

You may call me the elephant whisperer.

Babbyyyyyyyy! Baby elephants don’t know how big they are. They are so playful. TOO playful, actually. I had to watch my legs while we played in the water because they kept wanting to lean all of their weight on me.

This is my elephant, Ploi. She was swaying side to side when I first spotted her. It was almost as if she was dancing to her own beat. I knew right then that we were a perfect match. Look at that smile on her face. It’s almost as big as mine. She loved me as much as I love her. I miss her so much.
The photos of Ploi and I together by Jek from Patara.

Ploi and my mahout for the day.

We rode our elephants bare back through the mountains. Riding them with baskets on their back actually hurts them :( If elephants aren’t cleaned properly, the pebbles that remain on their backs create abcesses because the baskets rub them into their skins. Anyways. We rode them through the mountains and stopped at a waterfall for lunch. The locals cooked everything that we were fed. My favorite was sticky rice w/ shredded pork and dragon fruit. MMM!

Chris and Mae Kwan. Myself and Ploi <3

I didn’t take that many photos with my camera because I wanted to soak up every single second. What’s cool about Patara is they send you home with discs of photos and video from the day. My mahout and Jek (the photographer for the day) had my camera around their necks throughout the day. They even took photos with it :) All the images on this post were taken by me, Jek, and my hubs w/ the little disposable camera we brought along.

While these are photographs of clients and friends, a little piece of me is reflected in each photo. I see my excitement, my love for romance, and happiness in sunlight. I see my attraction to pretty, my tears of joy, my heart, and my laughter. All these pieces + more make up myself, and my 2011. It was a wonderful year filled with firsts, ups, downs, accomplishments, failures, growth, and a lot of love. If 2012 is anything like 2011, I’d consider myself a very blessed girl.

To my clients- I don’t think I can fully explain just how grateful I am for each, and everyone of you. My heart and mind are filled with memories of love and joy from each of your days. Being there with you on your special day never fails to remind me of my own which is only one of the many reasons why I love this job so much. I want you to know just how special it is to be there with you. A million thank yous times forever. This is truly a treasure! xo

Hubs- You are so patient with me. You are there with my ups, and SO thankful that you stick around with my crazy downs. I don’t think I can thank you enough. Thank you for always making sure I’m happy. But most importantly, thank you for your never ending encouragement and faith in me. You inspire me with your drive to make your own dreams happen. 2012 is your year! I know it! I love you!

My family, my friends, people who read my blog- Thank you for your constant support. I’m so thankful to have you all in my life. Can’t wait to make more memories with you this new year!

Lastly, a big thank you to my Heavenly Father. You are always there to catch me, and keep me going. I am so grateful for my relationship with you.

2012 I’m so excited for you! The possibilities are endless. The future is bright. Let’s make it happen!

We were lucky enough to have a 10 hr. layover in Incheon, South Korea. SO…we took the subway to Seoul and wandered it’s streets…

I <3 Seoul

Seoul was really awesome to see. I loved wandering the streets.  It was so cold, and I loved every single second of it. I could also eat 5 boxes of kkultarae, but that’s another story. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I guess we’ll have to return soon:)

Travel has my heart.

Love you, Liz! SO proud of you! Can’t wait to see all the wonderful things you’ll accomplish!

<3

I.am.ridiculous! I don’t exactly know why I’m sharing this…

Happy Friday!

P.S. I haven’t and will NEVER ask my clients to pose like this. Unless there is a baby tiger involved. Duh! ;)

The people of Thailand have become some of my favorites. No, really. They’ve left a mark on me, and in some ways I want to be more like them. They are kind, and gentle. They work hard. They take time out of their day for worship and thanks (I’m trying to be better at this everyday). Most of all, they always have a smile on their face. Even when life is hard.

On days that I become frustrated about ridiculous things (like today), I’ll think about the people of Chiang Mai with smiles on their faces. They’ll be a constant reminder that there’s so much to smile about. Even on days that make you feel like it’s the end of the world. Ok, maybe that was a little dramatic ;)

I can’t wait to share more photos. For now, I’ll leave you with this frame from the market. Doesn’t his smile just warm your heart?

I miss Chiang Mai more and more as the days pass <3

<3