Whispers

July 31, 2011

Fact: No one can ruin your day without your permission.

I let someone ruin my day today. I was having a great day. I was happy, talking to the man I'm madly in love with, getting ready to leave tomorrow, and enjoying a rather successful outing with a family member.

Then I let someone, a friend, ruin it. They lashed out in a moment of personal frustration, and I let the barbed words to wrap their hooks deep within my heart and squeeze until all the happiness, the joy, had oozed from my heart. I gave the words the power to hurt, the power to destroy, so they did.

Words are an amazing and terrifying thing. They describe emotions and objects, yet without the power we give them, words would be meaningless, useless. The word "love" does not dictate the heart's fluttering, rather it represents the connection we associate with the emotion.

Be careful how much power you allow words to have over you.

I have been told that my blogs are too impersonal, so today I am letting you all see what I think. What I have felt. Please be kind. 

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” -Henry James

I hope you are all enjoying rather lovely weekends. I wish you all the best of luck as you re-enter the work week. Thank you.

-AK

Editorial: Skinny Love

Hello dear reader,

I hope my post today finds you in good health and happiness! Tomorrow is Friday and I'm sure we are all jazzed about the coming weekend! I leave town on Monday until the 10th!!! Don't fear, I will still be checking my emails and facebook messages regularly, and I might even be posting some more images! ;)

As many of you know, this past week I did a fabulous shoot with S, which I have decided to call "Skinny Love" in honor of the song by Bon Iver (if you haven't heard it, you should look it up, it is an amazing song!). This girl was an amazing person to work with. She was shy when a camera wasn't pointed at her, but the moment the lens focused on her she was fierce and displayed a large array of emotions. Her eyes are amazing, and I am so happy that I was able to capture her beauty!!

 <3

 I think the one above is my favorite from the shoot!!

(Though I am in love with this one too)


Well everyone, I hope to be posting again soon, but until then, have fabulous weeks and weekends and thank you a bajillion times for your continued love and support!!

-AK

Serious thoughts with some more cheerful updates later

Today Amy Winehouse died. I'm sure this is no surprise to most of you, as her death has been announced across the facebook world numerous times. Today Ms. Winehouse died, and a lot of people made rehab jokes, and a lot of people gave sad sighs over her tortured soul. Today a lot of people died. This past week tragedy struck Norway, yet few noticed the deaths enough to mention them on facebook. I know that I would never have found out about the tragedy had one of my models not been an avid fan of Norway and mentioned it.

It is thoughts such as these that has led me to wonder about what exactly makes people notice ones death. What does it say about us as people that we laugh at one singer's unfortunate end as if her death is yet another chapter in her paparazzi ridden life? I laughed when I read the first joke, I'll admit it, and I feel awful for doing so now. What does it say about us that on the day of her death hundreds of people notify their friends, while one day of Norway's tragedy I saw few status changes. Does being famous mean that your death is more important than that of a man or woman killed in a bombing?

Recently I have been trying to work on being kind. On rebuilding my confidence and growing to become a kinder, better human being. It makes me sad that so many have died in this past week. Not just Amy or the 92 confirmed deaths in Norway, but the unknown deaths. The deaths of the children who were hit by a car, of babies who were born with a horrid birth defect, of a soldier who died doing his job. The everyday deaths that we don't even think about. I know that everyone dies, and I suppose that it isn't the deaths themselves that make me sad... I think it is more the attitude we have towards them. When did 92 people just become another number? When did they stop becoming mothers, sons, and daughters? When did I stop thinking of them as people and start considering them a statistic?

I'm not saying we have to weep over every death that occurs... if we did we would never stop crying, but perhaps... I don't know. I suppose I am going to work on remembering that the numbers reported aren't just numbers, but human beings. Living breathing creatures that now don't exist.

I apologize for the sad turn my recent posts have taken. I really don't know why all these sad words keep spilling out of me. However, I do have happy news! I have new cameras, the two that I mentioned in my past post that I bought at an antique store, and one that was given to me by a friend of the family!! I'm super excited to use them!! :D

The cameras in this image are: 1 Kodak Bantam RF camera with original leather case, 1 Mercury Satellite 127, 1 Kodak Folding Brownie Six-20, and 1 Polaroid SX-70 

Also, I had a fabulous shoot with Serianna yesterday! We made a makeshift outdoor studio in my backyard and played with crazy makeup, sprinkles, honey, and food coloring! I can't wait to share more of the images with you!!

Isn't she stunning? This was the third shot we took yesterday!!

Also, I have a shoot on Sunday with a model from Fargo that I am beyond jazzed about!!! ANNNNNDDDDDD I will be leaving for Virginia in a week and two days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D If anyone wants to set up a shoot in this next week or for when I return from my vacation, please feel free to send me an email or a facebook message!!


I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend!! Thank you for reading!

-AK

Unusually Personal

I am not generally known for sharing my personal life. It makes me uncomfortable to open my true heart to unknown strangers, and it can be dangerous. I learned from an early age that some people will always take the secrets of your heart and use them to ridicule and bully you, even those who would call you friend. I don't entirely think that this lesson has made me unfriendly to others, but rather it made me very close about my relationships. I love meeting new people and connecting with them, and I love allowing them into my life, however I am not so comfortable letting people see the loves of my life, or I should say, the love of my life. You have all seen him in my photos before, and I have even shared some of our joy with you, but this...

Below is a poem. Please know that I don't normally do poetry, for I don't think my writing is full of much style or notable flare, but I wrote this today after editing the above image. Simply put, I miss him. Please be kind.

For a Nameless Soldier

Come home.
Hold me in your arms,
swing me through the air and laugh at my silly antics.
Come home.
Come prowl the streets with me and my camera,
come lead me to new places, hidden secrets within this gossipy town.
Come home.
Come tease me mercilessly,
pull at my hair, poke my side when I'm not paying attention.
Come home.
Come lay next to me in my backyard and stare up at the numberless stars
and feel the contentment of two souls in harmony.
Come home.


I apologize for the personal nature that this post has taken, it wasn't my original intent. My original intent was to thank all of you for your support of my photography. I know I thank you often, but for me it is never often enough.

Also, I wanted to let you all know that the Art and Wine walk from this weekend went fabulously well! I was very much pleased by the event, despite getting soaked in a sudden thunderstorm. The weather cleared up and the turnout was great! For those of you in Grand Forks, please check out True Colors!! The staff is amazing and the clothes are in fabulous condition!

On a slightly different topic, I am super excited for a shoot this Friday and another one this Sunday with two different models! :) :D I adore meeting new people and I'm super psyched to see what fun we have and to share it with all of you!! :) Also, I found two old film cameras in an antique store yesterday for really cheap! I'm beyond jazzed about it, even if they end up not working, they are in rather good exterior condition and I can't wait to use them in shoots!!! :D

Also, I would like to remind everyone that I do sell my prints, and also that I am looking to book a wide variety of shoots! Seniors, maternity, product shots, family portraits, and (of course) fashion and editorial work!! If anyone is interested please don't hesitate to email me!!

Well I think this about wraps up this blog post!! Thank you all and have fantabulous days!!!

<3

-AK

Friendly Friday

Hello dear readers,

How has your day been? I'm hoping that it was fantabulous, and if it wasn't, I hope it gets better. Today has been rather stressful... I won't bore you all with details, but I still managed to get some editing done on a series I did a while ago that I can't wait to share with you all! :)

However, today those aren't the images I'm sharing. Today I'm sharing images from one of the coldest and most miserable shoots I've ever been a part of. The two models, Bri (who you all have seen often) and Shelby (who's senior images I did earlier this year) were wrapped up in huge sheets on a cold and sleety day with huge gust of freezing air sweeping by them as they stood in the mud and snow and were basically miserable, however, they didn't ask me to stop. I kept asking them if they wanted to and they kept saying they were game for whatever I wanted. They also kept rather cheery attitudes through it all, making jokes and laughing. The day could have been awful, we could have been crabby and miserable, instead the girls and I committed ourselves to staying positive and had a really fun (if slightly miserable) day. Lesson: Attitude matters. :)

Hope you have enjoyed the images, and remember to have wonderful Fridays and excellent weekends!!! :)

Also, for those of you in the area, remember that next Saturday (the 16th) I will be in the Art and Wine Walk!! It is $15 dollars for entry and for those of age there is free wine to sample!! Please come and support local artists!

<3 AK

Thinking Thursday

Dear Readers,

Thank you. Thank you for taking interest in my work, thank you for pouring out so much positive feedback on my images, thank you for so much. I just feel like I can never express how truly grateful I am to the kindness you have all shown me.

On a slightly different note, here are some images from the town fair that occurred a week or two ago. I was personally really disappointed in this year fair, finding it super small and with few rides. However, Brianna and I still managed to get a few shots throughout the day, some at the fair and some further afield.  Hope you enjoy them, and more will be coming sooon!!!!! 

Have a great day!!

-AK