No question one of the great joys about a career as a photographer is exceeding expectations of clients.

So many times folks tell us “We’ll never get the dogs to ‘pose’!”

But we ALWAYS get the dogs (and humans!) to look terrific in the photos!

Pro Tip: Double Check to make sure you’ve packed a few fun squeaky toys….!

We often say that a week is “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Wedding, Sunday”.

While there are variations and nuances, the quote has a great deal of truth.

Why do we photograph so many weddings?

They’re fun! The days are filled with laughter and love. We meet thousands-and-thousands of awesome people. There are no uneventful days. We’re proud to give our all for 30-35 days a year to help good folks and wonderful Hoosier families. We love giving back positivity to quality people….

(The flip is that if we don’t feel a positive connection with you, we’ll decline the request to photograph your wedding, and often do, in fact. If we do bond with you, however, we’ll all have an awesome day and you’ll get a couple thousand fantastic photographs to memorialize your once-in-a-lifetime wedding day!!!)

Laughter. Love. Support. Positivity. Joy. Fun. Celebration. Faith. Goodness. Smiles. Partnership…..

I love music every bit as much as I love photography.

This is key, as a normal wedding is roughly eight hours of photography, whereas editing a wedding is roughly 40 hours of computer-based work.

For those 40 hours, however, my soundtracks are extraordinary. One day I’m in 1974. The next I’m in 2012. The following I’m in 1958. It’s transporting and magical and moving and a wonderful companion to the intricacies and deliberation of Lightroom.

And, by the way, Grace and Jake (shown above) were/are a terrific couple. The Mill is an awesome venue. Bloomington is a remarkable small market. AND during this wedding reception, we picked up a new cocktail recipe, which I’m sipping as I’m typing…. Thank you very much, One World Catering!

All morning before this session it was raining heavily. During the session it was raining, though only intermittently and lightly. Following the session it rained heavily again the rest of the day. We had the briefest of windows to get some images out for this couple’s Save-The-Date announcement, and, thankfully, the heavens gave us just enough time!

Sometimes being lucky is about the best thing there is!

Much like corporations and seasons (and probably a combination of the two), we very much sort a year into quarters.

January, February and March, to us, equates to travel.

April, May and June are non-stop, frantic, exuberant and a cascade of weddings, graduations, family sessions and others.

July, August and September are “balance” months, where we strive to not get so busy that we can’t pause to revel in the splendors of life in summertime.

October, November and December are all about appreciation and gratitude. Our photography calendar is full, but so are our personal lives.

Next week summer begins, followed shortly afterwards with the Q3 of July, August, September…. While the springtime season has been extraordinary, I’m always at my personal nirvana in the sunny, hot, long days (and gorgeous Hoosier sunsets) of summer….

End of an insanely busy week — Whew!!! Four weddings in nine days, engagement sessions and a couple professional headshots…. AND we had two family portrait sessions postponed due to rain (fortunately, as it turns out)!!

I’m behind in just about every To-Do category of life and business, but certainly had an incredible time doing so!

If at the end we’re judged, at least in part, on whether we share more smiles than we share turmoil, I’m getting a high mark in that particular category….

As we were strolling and capturing images with a client last week, I was looking around at all the positivity around us, and spontaneously said, “Bloomington is a town of smiles”.

I like that. The phrase and the truth that B-Town really is a town of exceptional joy.

With only about 75,000 people here (and a national top-3 of whom, by ratio, are highly educated), we’re then host to another 50,000 young adults for eight months every year (thank you, Indiana University). The unique combination is extraordinary to experience, and rejuvenating to feel each year. The smiles are genuinely everywhere.

Elliot, shown above, had his first-ever drink while at IU, at the iconic Crazy Horse on Kirkwood. Naturally, for his senior picture session a few years later, he asked to return for a commemorative portrait there….. Smiling (see what I did there?), we shot his images….

Share joy. Share appreciation. Share gratitude and kindness and blessings and your own unique, special, one-of-a-kind smile.

I had a photojournalism professor at Indiana University years ago who said to the class one day, “If I give your photograph an ‘A’ you will think I’m the greatest professor at IU, though if I give your photograph a ‘C’ you will think I’m an idiot.”

He gave A LOT of ‘C’ grades. Mostly ‘C’ grades, in fact.

For him — and I later learned he was 100% correct — a ‘C’ is an “average” photograph that one would see in a publication. A ‘B’ grade would be a better than average photo, that would catch the reader’s attention. While an ‘A’ was reserved for whether you could submit it with a straight face and clear conscience to ‘National Geographic’. Very, very few ‘A’ grades were awarded….

Siobhán and I were asked to be the jurors for the Bloomington Photography Club’s annual exhibition this year. Part of the task is to whittle down X-number of photos to simply the top 80 images, which will then be on display at the Waldron following a cocktail reception.

I have no doubt that Y-number of the folks who submitted photos that we didn’t select for the exhibition will think us idiots for not seeing their talent. I have no doubt that the photographers who captured the top three photos (chosen as such) and those who shot the top 10 images (again, chosen as such) will think us to be the greatest judge of photography talent in the Midwest. Both may be right or wrong, but, the message is this….

The field of photography has an odd element whereby a percentage of folks who take pictures don’t seem to want to get better at their craft. They want, instead, to tell you that what they’ve done is already noteworthy. They won’t improve. The people who didn’t have a photograph chosen for gallery exhibition can learn volumes by asking questions, listening carefully, taking the advice and stepping back out with renewed purpose. Some will. Most won’t.

I will personally sit down and talk with any and every person who submitted an image that was rejected. I would be genuinely enthused to help you with your craft. Contact me and let’s talk about how you can improve.

To those selected as a top 80 photo in The Bloomington Photography Club, and to the 10 top awards, I salute you and encourage you to enjoy the pat on the back but get right back to work. The next photo should always be better than the previous. Keep shooting. Keep learning. Keep improving. Don’t get too low. Don’t get too proud.

This a a gorgeous art form. We’re blessed to have the technology, equipment, freedom, free time and financial wherewithal to pursue photography. Encourage one another. Take constructive feedback. Grow.

And smile. It’s all supposed to be fun.

There’s a legitimate chance that, on an annual basis, I smile more than anyone else in Bloomington, Indiana.

Maybe the owners of The Comedy Attic could give me a run for my money, but I work more hours than they do, so that gives me the decided edge.

“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent, with a tremendous spirit of adventure and love of play.”

Henri Matisse

Matisse did a pretty good job of describing me there…. In addition to each configuration, I absolutely love being both persistent and flexible simultaneously. That’s been the key to my success.