It's really HARD to narrow down my own artwork!!!! REALLY REALLY HARD! I am VERY emotionally invested in every single one of my customers and subjects!! And 2008 was a VERY amazing year!! One that will be hard to top as far as amazing photo-ops go! I was in Oradea Romania, San Francisco, CA, Napa Valley, CA, Myrtle Beach, SC, Cape Coral, FL, Madison, WI, and Mackinac Island, MI...all in one summer (and I probably missed a place or two in that list)! I knew before the summer even started that it would be a roller coaster ride and it certainly was that! It kind of left me with that same crazy feeling too...a little dizzy, glad I did it, but wow my head hurts and I'm not sure I'll walk straight for awhile!!! I owe one enormous hug to all my wedding clients from this year who have been so patient with me! My traveling, a couple of unexpected broken bones, and tyring to juggle family, church, homeschooling, and sanity (or lack thereof) have pushed back my turnaround times more than expected. But EVERY single one of them has just been amazing and this endears them to me even more than before. I'm proud to call them all FRIENDS. My customers really mean the world to me and I am so excited to be involved in their lives and to have them in mine. They have each changed me every so slightly for the better, made me look at the world differently, they have challenged me to improve and grow and stretch myself! They inspire me with their trust and their amazing lives! I'm a lucky girl. I thank God every. single. day.
The fact that this post comes two weeks into 2009 is proof that I was floundering on this project by myself! I took my friend Leah up on her offer to help me out! Being a highly successful children's photographer herself, she was MORE than qualified to narrow down my favorite 180 pictures (I had multiple favorites from every single session!!). It took her a couple days, but I was SO impressed...she managed to get it down to 53! I decided not to alter her list at all...I respect her opinion and I'm relieved that I didn't have to pick because I don't think this post ever woulda happened! (when you're done voting here, go check out Leah's site here!)
Now let's see if we can narrow it down to #1! In order to vote, use your google account and leave a comment listing your TWO favorites...you'll probably vote for your own or the picture of someone you know, and then I want you to vote without bias on a 2nd. (I will not count single votes or annonymous votes. You MUST choose two different subjects...if you vote twice for the same person, even if they're in two different pictures, both votes will have to be discarded) ! The person pictured in the image (if possible or applicable) with the most votes will receive a free 16x20 on matboard of that image! I'll leave the voting open for one week (last day will be Tuesday, January 20th).
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