I was inspired by fellow photographer, Ajira Darch, to choose one word for 2012 that embodies my photography goals for the year.  The word I chose is embrace.

em·brace

¹    [em-breys]  verb, -braced, -brac·ing, noun, verb (used with object)

**1 to take or receive gladly or eagerly; accept willingly: to embrace an idea.

**2 to avail oneself: to embrace an opportunity.

**3 to adopt (a profession, a religion, etc.): to embrace Buddhism.

**4 to take in with the eye or the mind.

So what does embrace mean to me in terms of my work?

For meaning **1 it means to accept feedback open-mindedly.  I realize not every person will love my style of photography, and I accept that.  But I need to recognize the difference between people who are putting down my work just to be mean and those who truly want to help me.  I want to receive their suggestions open mindedly and reflect upon them constructively in a manner that will help me to continuously learn about and improve my photography.

For meaning **2 it means to accept the opportunities that come my way and make the most of them.  And more than that, to do what I need to do to encourage these opportunities to arise.  I believe that luck can certainly be involved, but I am an even a bigger believer in hard work.  I appreciate successes that I work hard for much more than those that just fall into my lap by chance.  Of course, none of these opportunities will mean a thing if I don’t make an effort to get something out of them.  Along the same lines, that means embracing my mistakes…because owning them allows me to learn from them.

For meaning **3 -adopt my profession.  I have already done this…I am a photographer.  Toward the end of 2011 I began specializing in weddings and engagements.  Before, I was photographing weddings, engagements, children, families, events, seniors…you name it, I would shoot it.  I decided that I would rather not be a jack of all trades, but a master of one.  This change began to come about toward the end of the year, but in 2012 I will continue to develop this specialty and be further known as an awesome wedding photographer.

For meaning **4 it means reflecting on my work consistently.  Looking at it objectively to decide what worked, what didn’t, and why.  Why are certain photos speaking to me?  What is it about them that I love?  When I take photos that are not my favorites, what are they lacking?  How can I fix this?  Before becoming a photographer, I was a teacher for many years.  One of my biggest accomplishments in teaching was becoming a National Board Certified Teacher.  This required constructing a portfolio in which I looked at my teaching and my students’ learning in a manner that allowed me to constantly improve my practices.  I plan to use these same principles to improve my photography throughout my career.  The NBPTS process required me to look at my work…what was I doing?  How?  And most importantly Why?  This is the same outline I will use to critique my work on a regular basis.

Embrace is my word for 2012.  I will embrace 2012 as Life’s Stories Photography continues to thrive.  I hope you will all embrace it with me!  And I’m leaving you with a photo from Mary and David’s wedding back in April…with a more literal sense of the word embrace.