RITUALS OF ROMANCE

The unexpected gesture wins out every time — champagne on a Monday, or flowers delivered on just another Thursday…

I don’t talk about romance on this blog as a rule, but I’ll going to bend that a little bit today. My partner is the kind of person who lives every day like it could be his last, and fills it with good food, great people, excellent music, and as many enjoyable things as possible. I should temper that statement by saying that he lives with a fairly mild form of this mindset — but even so this definitely clashed with my mentally for a long time; coming from a Protestant upbringing that focused on working hard, not complaining, and reaping any rewards from said behavior way, way, way down the road. One of my the important lessons of my 20’s has been to open myself up more to the joys of life, to be a little reckless sometimes, to say yes instead of no — tempered with just the right amount of responsibility. It’s a balance I’m constantly working on, but when I get it right the day begins with the same expectations holidays used to bring me — that today is something special, to be cherished and to make the most of.

So if I promise to not get any cheesier than that — can we agree to talk about the things that really only come once a year? I’ll start — my favorite time is cherry blossom season; that comes in with rain and lengthening days, a slight chill in the air, the promise of warmth, and pale pink blossoms blazing alongside the Victorian bay windows with their cake-like facades; glowing with the light of their own sunrise. Because of a particularly bad draught here in California, the cherry blossoms came early, and I almost missed them. I’ve been cooped up inside day after day since the new year, taking advantage of an unusual peak in business before I implement my 3 day weekend plan. As a freelancer business is feast or famine, and I try to remind myself I’m planting seeds that will pay off in a few months, but this added stress on top of a couple horribly timed external factors have really brought me to an all time low (we’ve got so much adrenaline over here right now we’re cooking with it instead of coconut oil). I’ve been so focused on fighting battles and keeping up with my work load, I haven’t left the house in days, and when I did finally get out for a run yesterday I noticed with a lump in my throat the pale white-pink blossoms have already come and gone, they’re tinged now with darker tones of cherry, and some have even been replaced by leaves already.

I missed the beginning of the season, and will have to wait until next year to catch it again, but in the meantime there are a lot of blooms out in the world to stop and smell. This is my long-winded way of saying, you don’t need Valentine’s day as an excuse to make time for romance. M & I celebrated earlier this week because we finally accomplished something we’ve talked about for years — we started our own wedding photography company, finished the website, and made some major headway on a series of ways to advertise. Which is why you find us here in our studio on a Monday evening at sunset, with a bottle of bubbles and some twinkle lights.

A friend once asked me what was my favorite thing to photograph, and at the time I didn’t honestly know. In the past months and years of working my way around a camera I’ve come to realize it’s the details that draw me time and time again; the small pieces that make up the bigger human stories. Threads — and bones — the elemental things that knit together to build larger scenes and stories. A lot of people ask me what the blog name means, and in light of my new manifesto of sharing, I’ve updated my about page with some more details, which can now be found in the nav bar as story. For the wedding work, my emphasis on detail is strengthened by partnering with M — who has decades of experience and an incredible eye for emotion and honesty. Together we’re so excited to work more with all the couples on this forefront we’re living through –reshaping old marriage traditions and tropes into personal, authentic rituals. The camera is our passport to witnessing and capturing the tangible ways love and emotion become displayed between people.

Now it’s your turn — what do you love about this time of year? What are you cherishing? Let me hear about it, if you have a few seconds! And thanks so much, as always, for reading and sharing with me. Until next time, I’d love to stay connected — find me over at instagram, pinterest, twitter, or facebook.

PS:And if you’d like to see more of our wedding business, do check out our newly minted site — Ritual Photo Work.

Hope to see you soon =)

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