I will warn you now this may be a long post as I have just written a whole paragraph off topic of what I sat down here to write about. This is what happens when you don't blog for a year.
The little things in life are so huge. The big things are huge but all the little things are huger. Yes, huger. Some people would arguably say what I am about to tell you is not little; it is and it isn't.
A few weeks ago one of the professional printing labs I use advertised a contest that was being held by Kodak. There were two parts, you could enter up to 5 images and from those entries there would be one winner selected from each Kodak lab and they will be sent to Kodak where they will then pick out one grand winner's image. The winning image will be displayed in Times Square in New York. I entered these images posted below.
I posted a link on my Facebook account and asked everyone to visit the site where all the images were and vote for mine. When I saw the newsletter in my inbox last week with the winners announced, I anxiously opened it and did not see my prints staring back at me. I admit my heart did sink a little. "Oh well, I thought." So when my phone rang yesterday and on the other end was Mark from JD Printing lab I had no other assumption but that he was calling about an order I had placed. "Are you sitting down?" he asked. I thought to myself, "Crap, what did I screw up and have to do over?" He continued, "You not only won 1st in the competition but you won 1st and 3rd." After that was a blur of crying, shaking and a little screaming. You would have thought I won in New York already. Turns out there were two parts to this competition as well. There were one set of winners for the public vote, whom received JD canvases, and then the other set of winners were judged by photographers and the top image would be sent to Kodak for the final judging. We also received canvases from JD. The image of the sisters kissing won 1st and the image of the older man in the cowboy hat won 3rd.
My dear friends Joel & Sonya LaGore are the proud parents of those two cuties. They came for a few shots of the girls for their business Thanksgiving card. Check their financial business out here. They are amazing people! We got some great shots of these two. When I told them to kiss the older sister just grabbed the younger one and gave her this big smooch I busted out laughing. Luckily they held it so I could take a few. :) I do not have the fashion sense Sonya does, I wish I was confident enough to think to put leopard prints with heart prints and plaid but I don't see it like she does. Amazing. Seriously, I'm thinking of making all my clients go to a fashion meeting with her first. :)
The other image is my cousin from Colorado. He was here on a visit and was actually visiting with his dear friend Nancy to get a portrait of the two of them together. That is a love story all its own but ~ another time.
As I showed them their images, Kenneth commented he would look a whole lot better if he had his hat on. :) I explained that was not possible with the two of them together but we could take another shot with just him. I'm so glad he said that because I never would have thought of taking one with his coat & hat! After seeing how I edited the sepia version of this image he said he looked really old and didn't really like it. lol I told him I did that on purpose to bring out his wrinkles and enhance his character. He opted for the color version, un-characterized!
The next few hours after I found out were filled with phone calls to my family and friends. I had permanent red marks on my smile lines for hours from smiling so much. I was feeling very good about myself.
My dad had said at one point in our coversation, "Just think of all the business this is going to generate for you". Even though I knew I wanted to cut back it was still exciting to think about. I never thought in a million years I would be amidst all of this. I all of a sudden was coming off my high a bit. It's easy to get a big head quickly when things like this happen. What an amazing gift I have been GIVEN. It's never been about me but within this last year it some how became that way.
At the beginning of all this, as I sat for hours trying to figure out which images to choose for the contest, I began to get frustrated. Going through hundreds of images and trying to decide which one the judges are going to find worthy is very mind stressing. At one point, more out of exasperation then of actual need, I said, "God please, just let me find one." The image I choose next was the one of the sister's kissing.
With this incredible gift I've been given, comes great responsiblity.
Oh great, you're saying, here she goes all religous over winning a competition but I can't help it. It's who I am and what I believe and plus if you knew what I know in my head and then see the images I produce you'd know it was God given too. I feel humbled to my core. There were some really amazing images entered, images I would have voted winner in one glance. I'm not saying that to boast about who I beat out, I'm saying that because it humbled me. Some of these photographers have been doing this for 20 years and, to me, their talent and confidence is so obvious. They've worked hard and they've earned every bit of how good their images look, it wasn't an accident or fixed in photoshop. Not that I haven't earned mine, I'm just saying that I want to acknowledge the fact that it is only because of God that I am in this position. Here I am with an amazing husband who talked me into this business, when I'd still be a hobbyist today if he hadn't had faith in me and helped me get the things I needed to start out, I've not gone to school for this, I still have so much to learn and this just has me recognizing in a clearer way how very, very blessed I am. I asked for His help, He gave it, now what am I going to do with it? I have an amazing supportive husband and children, family and friends. I could not do this without you. You cheer me on and are my fire. I may not win New York but this was all it took to make me take notice and give praise where it is truly due.
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