MEF Photography Blog! &raquo; San Francisco-Based Wedding, Family + Portrait Photography

Mar 08 2012

Meg + Greg | San Francisco Engagement Session

Filed Under: Engagement

If there is one quality I cherish in the best of my clients, it is an ability and willingness to laugh. Maybe I reveal a deeper part of my own marriage in saying this, but I believe the strongest and most bewitching relationships are forged in the fires not of conflict, but of the joy and ease of deep laughter. Have you ever noticed how people often cover their mouths when they laugh? (I think this urge is stronger in some cultures than others.) It’s because you open yourself up to a person who can make you lose yourself in a giggle. You are vulnerable to the person who causes the well of glee inside you to bubble up and overflow.

But okay, that’s kind of a lie, because really I cherish couples that truly love each other. Laughter is just a beautiful symptom of that, and my ultimate goal in my work is to show those genuine smiles. As I was selecting photos for Meg + Greg’s post, I felt so affirmed in this belief because they’re smiling and laughing in every single image. :)

These two. Where do I even start? First of all, Greg opened my car door for me. Uh, hello? Gentleman, calling! And Meg’s smile? Absolutely infectious. I’m sitting here, editing their photos, grinning ear to ear because of her sweet face. They are the type of people to engage you, draw you in, make you feel important. They sing to each other, they encourage each other, they calm each other — and I know this because I saw all of it in just two short hours!

They also love baseball (Greg’s family has Giants season tickets), so we started their session at the most appropriate place we could imagine. Enough of my yapping, let’s play ball. :)

The beautiful marina opposite the park. :) We tried to sneak in, but failed, so this photo is our consolation prize.

Remember that laughter I wouldn’t shut up about earlier? Get ready for an overdose!

That’s the ballpark in the background of the next photo, by the way. What you can’t see? The bearded guy in daisy dukes doing yoga directly behind Meg + Greg — thanks, San Francisco!

FAVORITE #1! Seriously, I look at this photo and I can’t help but grin like a fool. Miss Meg, you are preeeeeeety! :D

Can you guess their wedding date? ;)

This? This is maybe one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken, from their smiles and posture, to the colors and the sunlight. Ugh. Love it. FAVORITE #2!

“Greg, just pull her toward you!” Haha.

Hands say a lot. Love her grip on his arm.

After we finished wandering around the ballpark, we headed across the bridge to Treasure Island, which may be my new favorite go-to spot for engagement photos. Seriously, that place is crazy filled with great backdrops. But the wackiest part of this photo is what’s through the windows on the right. First gaze at this lovely image, then check the next photo for proof.

Whaaaaat? By being nosy, we learned that this building was actually a warehouse for an antiques dealership. This was just a small snippet of the bonkers stuff inside. :)

BUT BACK TO THE BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS! :D

Last but not least, FAVORITE #3! Meg + Greg, let’s please print this on a big ol’ canvas and hang it above your couch, k? I MEAN, COME ON! LOOK AT THAT SEAGULL!

Meg + Greg, I hope these photos are a ray of sunshine in your lives. I know you’re dealing with far greater and more important issues right now, but I sincerely hope that when you look back at these photos in 20 years, you’ll see how joyful this time was and how much you love each other. Enjoy these, and know that I am so looking forward to your wedding and giving you a big fat hug when I see you. :)

by Molly

3 comments

Mar 01 2012

March 2012 Goals

Filed Under: Personal

Sherman and a well-timed yawn.

I write and post goals (almost) every month because I am a flawed person. I don’t do it to show off, or to force content for this blog. I do it because I am flawed. I am flawed. Were I perfect, I wouldn’t need or want to write these goals. I would already have everything under control; I wouldn’t need to remind myself to do this or that; I wouldn’t skip, ignore or struggle with any of my plans or hopes. But I’m about as far from perfect as one can get without perhaps being actively set ablaze. I am flawed.

While I may not start fires, I don’t always succeed in putting out existing ones — especially in the absence of little reminders. And that is why I write these goals for myself. So that in the mundane details of vacuuming up cat hair, visiting the post office, preparing meals and folding my underbums, I don’t forget where I would like to be, where I plan on going, where the unflawed version of me would already be right now (with a cat-hair-free drawer full of perfectly folded underbums, to boot). Because the cat-hair-covered version of me could use a reminder.

I also write them to connect with you (hi). Because I have a feeling that even though sometimes it seems I am talking to the void, you and I aren’t that different. And perhaps knowing why I do what I do might inspire you to embrace your layer of cat hair and fight to be better, too. :)

My focus in March is a complete self-assessment — a scarily honest and honestly scary task. With the help of a good friend and business mentor, I am taking the first steps to pull apart my business and put it back together, piece by piece, in the right order, in an order that better reflects WHY I do this, WHO I am, and WHAT exactly I do. If you’ve never sat down and frankly assessed your strengths and weaknesses, on paper, for another human’s eyeballs to read, I recommend it. But only if you’re willing to take the resulting exhilaration, disgust, hope and excitement and do something worthwhile with it. For me, March will bear the first steps of that journey.

March Goals (February holdovers in italics):

Finish my self-assessment on paper
Read “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
Order a print I’ve been eyeing for my office
Organize my office so it makes me less sad to sit in there
Spend good quality time with my husband (who was out of town for more days in February than he was home)
Finish and send some thank you cards I’ve been procrastinating on
Bust out my adult version of a kids’ chore chart and begin the implementation of a refined schedule by getting my house in shape! — I performed so-so on this (our kitchen and bathroom are clean, our floor still has that cat hair I mentioned on it), so I’ll leave it up
Schedule a physical — I am avoiding the doc like the plague (which, thankfully I don’t think I have)
Finish painting the interior of our house (~~office~~, bathrooms, ~~closet~~)
Reupholster our couch
Blog about our wedding!

Completed February Goals:

Begin each weekday morning with either 45 minutes of reading or yoga — If given a choice, apparently I will pick reading over exercise almost every time.
Finish “How To Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
Embrace my newfound vegetarianism and explore my options

What are your greatest strength and greatest weakness? Can you write them for another human’s eyeballs to read?

by Molly

no comments

Feb 01 2012

2012 + February Goals

Filed Under: Inspiration;Personal

One of my favorite images from our wedding last October, by Bobbi+Mike.

For Glen and me, 2011 was a year of changing circumstances. A whirlwind of upheaval and emotional movement, of clashing and coalescing desires and dreams. Neither of us could have predicted a year ago that we would stand where we are today. But hindsight helps us take stock of the steps, leaps and jumps that brought us here, and (hopefully!) affords us the boundlessness of optimistic vision required to plan for the next 12 months.

My personal highlights of the last year boil down into five simple, life-altering events: Moving to California; Glen’s new job; Birth of our goddaughter; Buying our first house; Getting married.

If those were the only things I did with my last year (and at times it felt that way), I would still be happy. And I SHOULD still be happy, because I am lucky to have loved and lived the way I did in 2011. But I won’t lie to you. Even in spite of all the change, expansion, beauty and joy I experienced in my personal life, last year was downright awful for me as a business owner. Moving a new, small business — particularly one that relies heavily on word-of-mouth advertising — 3,000 miles is a monumental task. I fully expected it to be difficult; it would have been naïve and stupid of me not to. But the lull of obscurity born of starting over in a new market was long and lonely. But I am thankful to acknowledge there were a few bright spots (namely our styled shoot from last spring, and beginning and fostering sweet and meaningful relationships with some wonderful local vendors who have become dear friends), without which I’m not sure I would have survived the quietness of last year.

But! Patience and hard work seem always to win out, and things are beginning to pick back up for me. I’m three weddings away from meeting my bookings goal for this year, which is a wonderful feeling, and bodes even better for 2013. On the horizon, I also have a couple more potential feature shoots in collaboration with some of the local industry’s finest that build excitement in me in a way that little else does, and I am starting now to prepare for the upcoming year.

I give a little chuckle whenever I hear people eschew new year’s resolutions or goal setting. I have for a long time viewed goal setting as the creation of a roadmap toward betterment. The new year or a new month may be a more common time to use reflection as a source of renewal for the future, but their states of cliché make them no less opportunities for change. And really, no matter how big or how small our goals are, don’t we hope for the same end result: to be better, happier, kinder and more giving people? Nothing about that is worth dismissing, I say. So, during the course of January, I sat down and thought about where I’d like to be surprised to find myself one year from now. Here’s what I came up with…

As I look at 2012, some of the overarching themes for my year’s goals are:

Work on self-discipline as a means of deeper personal improvement
Grow, nurture and strengthen my personal relationships
Seek out and embrace opportunities for learning
Face successes with humility and failures with aplomb

And larger goals for which I plan to lay out smaller monthly steps are:

Live by a more regimented schedule, including setting aside specific times for
- Reading
- Journaling
- Exercising
- Working
- Blogging
- Cleaning, etc.
Attend one photography workshop
Create a more engaging presence through this blog
Craft a stronger brand and brand experience for my business
Complete one major house remodeling project
Continue a quest for physical health and wellness

And of course, for the month of February specifically, my goals are a bit more short term and measurable:

Bust out my adult version of a kids’ chore chart and begin the implementation of a refined schedule by getting my house in shape!
Begin each weekday morning with either 45 minutes of reading or yoga
Finish “How To Win Friends & Influence People” — Anyone whose business it is to work with or serve customers should read and reread this book.
Embrace my newfound vegetarianism and explore my options — Yep! I took the plunge!
Schedule a physical
Finish painting the interior of our house (office, bathrooms, closet)
Reupholster our couch
Blog about our wedding!

Completed December Goals:

Take written stock of 2011 and write new goals for 2012
Finish Christmas shopping by December 15th
Purchase and decorate our FIRST Christmas tree!
Start writing smaller, actionable to do lists each night before bed
Write all of my wedding thank you cards
Start planning our next winter styled shoot
Print and hang some of our wedding / engagement photos
Instate a new lead-tracking system
Build up to running three miles
Set up the new office / studio

One of those tough lessons that life keeps teaching me is that the only way to change is to actually get up and make changes. And as is so often the case, the theme of the daily affirmation I read this morning was pitch perfect: “With peace in my heart, I step forward on my life’s journey.” My life’s journey this year is to be a better, kinder, more conscious person. So, where are you going, and what’s your plan to get there?

by Molly

2 comments