Posts from the ‘Strategic Concerns’ Category

Nate and I are going to be out of town for the weekend so whether you’ve emailed us late last night or today, are planning on emailing us tomorrow, or wait and email us on Sunday, we will be answering them all on Monday. ;)

Nate and I are spending the weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida to see Dave Matthews Band live in concert for the second year in a row. (That’s a photo of us at the concert last year up above.) Nate has been a HUGE fan for years and this is his 8th and 9th times. This will be my 2nd (and 3rd, because we’re going to both the Friday and Saturday shows). We’re so excited to hang out with friends, lay on the beach, and listen to some of our favorite music. Hopefully I can coerce Nate into making me his homemade and oh-so-delicious mojitos. Nate was a bartender for a while and he has a special knack for mixology. In the summer, mojitos are my absolute favorite (maybe it’s my Cuban roots coming through) and I love when he makes them from scratch, without any pre-made mixes. I asked him if we could share his recipe on the blog and he said yes so here ya go…

The West Palm Beach coastline, and Nate’s homemade mojitos

Nate’s Homemade Mojitos

Ingredients:
1.5 oz rum
3-4 slices of lime in the bottom of the cup
2-4 mint leaves torn up finely
1.5 oz simple syrup
Sprite

Combine in a glass with ice and serve. Bonus points if you can find sugarcane! MMMMMM!

If you’re a dreamer, come in,

If you’re a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…

If you’re a pretender come sit by my fire

For we have some flax golden tales to spin.

Come in!

Come in!

-Shel Siverstein

Have a happy weekend!

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I’ve heard before that wedding photography should not be considered an art, or a fine art. That wedding photographers are not artists, but businessmen. I kind of get it. Our industry revolves around business. Our work is not signed and numbered. Fancy people with martinis don’t “hmmm” and “interesting” as they walk by blown up works of our art strategically lit by gallery lights. But at the same time, I’ve known myself longer than anyone and I’ve known since I was young that I would have to be some sort of artist in my life or I’d never feel fulfilled. So I do feel like an artist. It started with music. And energy.

I sang in my youth group’s choir. I was never really cool and was always on the outside. But I still felt special for being part of the group. We toured because we were good and were the biggest in our area for our denomination. We led HUGE services and campmeetings and I thrived on the energy given back to us by the crowd. People dancing, clapping, singing, jumping… I was addicted.

In college I stumbled into another band. The band that held my heart for many years. I wasn’t really good enough but somehow they let me stay around and the space the provided me helped me to grow a lot. I found my voice in that band, albeit a timid one most the time. And again, I thrived on the energies. Whoever said that energies are foolishness has forgotten what it’s like to stand in a crowd of thousands and feel everyone sing the same lyrics. Energies are strong, and powerful. I digress…

I wrote. I painted. I cooked. And I took pictures. And then I painted those pictures in computer programs that give you the freedom to take the real world and turn it into whatever you’d like. Then I wrote or collected poems to caption my pieces of art. The world, closest to my heart, has always been an artist’s world. Whether or not I was making money for what I did, I was still a fledgling artist. An artist looking for a new source of energy as my inspiration, the way designers search for a muse.

The band broke apart. And my source of energy to vibe on was gone. And then… weddings. Weddings with their people and their raw emotions. A different energy, to be sure, than what I felt when I was singing, but an interesting energy all the same. And, a supply for my addition to the energy, and an outlet to take the things in reality and transform them. A way to make people feel an energy that I felt just by looking at a picture. It’s magical, to be sure.

So I consider myself a student of energy, and the way it brings people together. Energy and the way it affects them. Energy and it’s power to move perfectly capable people to jump up and down, to laugh, to cry, to get caught up and carried away. It’s what you feel when you drive with the windows down and sing your favorite song at the top of your lungs. It what comes over you when you stand in the surf at the edge of an ocean and feel the rhythm of the waters. It’s what you feel when you watch two people completely in love commit to each other. It’s whatever courses through you and gives you joy. Except, instead of hiding it and keeping it to yourself, I’m asking you to share it with me. I am searching for it. Raw energy. Calm, loving, exciting, tearful… whatever energy it is, I want it opened up to me.

So please, let your walls down. Let me see into your soul. It’s scary, I know but take me into those places that you keep to yourself and let me see you. I’m in search of genuine energy. And consider this me taking my walls down to show you that side of myself. Let me see your soul.

xo,

Becka