“You see to me, comfort is the enemy. It stifles growth and it makes us complacent. Comfort makes us satisfied with the mediocre. Comfort keeps us in the “safe zone” rather than challenging us to explore that which is un-safe. Comfort kills creativity. Comfort keeps us from failing and we need to fall on our faces a lot in life to grow. The majority will seek out comfort. It is the “easy road,” the road traveled by many. I don’t want to be the majority. I want to be the minority, the exceptional, the seasoned, the absolute best I can be. So for me, that means spending more time in the valley than on the mountain top of comfort. It means facing fears and feeling completely out of my element a lot more than I would like. Ultimately comfort kills the greatness that resides within each of us.”- Sarah Rhodes {a fellow photographer}

Holy crap…. I read this and this is EXACTLY what I’ve been feeling lately. It could not have been said better.  I had a long talk with our good friend Josh in the middle of the night a few days back about this very thing, and she pegged it. Glad to see I’m not alone. I’ve never been someone that’s happy with creating mediocre anything, and it’s so easy to get into a phase of feeling the lack of challenge. All back in the day I’d give myself these ridiculously uncomfortable documentaries to go out and do, solely to make myself uncomfortable and force myself to grow as a photographer and a person. I miss that, so much. I’d hang out with homeless people, knock on random people’s doors and ask to photograph them, take photos of people who’ve just lost a child… it was hard. I forced myself to photograph everything I was afraid of. Now those photos just sit in large portfolios under our bed.

I chose to be a wedding photographer because I wanted to take photos that meant something to someone. Photos that displayed who people were and what they were all about. I never wanted to be someone who created things that didn’t matter. We are so blessed with this “job” and we LOVE what we do. I used to be a Fashion Photography major until I realized 3 things:

1. I can care less about fashion, I wear what I want

2. I’m not shallow or catty enough to make it in that business

3. I don’t want to spend my life taking photos that 14year old girls flip through in a magazine and couldn’t care less about

I think that quote was just the inspiration I needed to push it a little farther… and a little farther after that. A good thing to read right before we shoot a wedding today. Thanks you Sarah, someday we’ll have to get some coffee and talk further. Maybe I’ll post some personal work someday if people want to see it…. Actually, it’s our blog, I’ll post it if I want haha.