It was their anniversary, this beautiful couple from Bangladesh, and they came to Hawaii to celebrate. The day of their shoot was incredibly windy, but you can’t change the weather. The way I see it, you have two choices – you focus on what you don’t have… a sunny sky, a light breeze, a little sparrow singing you a song… or you embrace what you do! We literally are what we focus on. Let me repeat that we ARE what we focus on. If we focus on disappointment we embody it. Our energy radiates it, our disposition – carrying it, our faces and bodies tense AND THIS, is what ruins a photo.. not mother nature keeping things interesting. The disappointment in your body, because life through a little Paprika in the cake batter. In fact weather makes your images unique… weather gives an artist something more to play with, some thing more to work with… elements that make your images even more special.. moody…. romantic. What if instead you chose to dance it, laugh in it, play in it… get lost in one another, in the moment – this is what makes for spectacular images, spectacular moments. Messy hair isn’t something to stress about, it’s REAL LIFE. It tells YOUR STORY… the STORY of what actually happened that beautiful, wild, CRAZY day… that day you’ll always remember. That day you danced barefoot on the beach with your best friend as your hair danced wildly in the wind.
Take this day for instance… it was one of the windiest days possibly ever.. maybe in the existence of man kind. I legitimately could not keep the ocean spray off my lens and to wipe it down every few shots… but it made the images dreamy… as they played together and explored the Hawaiian coast and shared a sweet kiss.
I wiped my lens… I shot a few more… I wiped it again. The wind howled, the ocean spray covered me, covered my gear, covered my lens, I wiped and I wiped… it clouded over. It created a sweet romantic haze.. My couple laughed… they played together.. we were all covered in ocean spray and we didn’t care.
The ocean spray, picked up the bokeh which speckled across the frame. You couldn’t recreate that shot if you tried. But it’s unique and now, it’s forever theres. A gift given to us by the crazy weather. Focus on what you do have.
We made it to the forest, the wind picked up and gusted harder. Rashida was gorgeous, her hair wild… I loved it! It was REAL. You can sit there and struggle, and fight the wind, and constantly fix your hair.. or you can EMBRACE it.. embrace your inner beach babe, embrace your wild heart.
It was their anniversary. A celebration of their life together… of the ordinary days and the extraordinary ones. This was an adventure on the beach they’ll not soon forget. It was memorable, it was perfectly imperfect.
The wind makes your images come alive.. it adds magic.
Rashida sent me this email upon seeing her images
“Jenna OMG, these pictures are absolutely breathtaking!!! Thank you so much for doing this for us. We will definitely hit you up and recommend you to other friends for sure. Thanks again for being apart of this. =)”
My tips for today…
Our state of mind is everything.
Make the MOST out of any situation.
Focus on what’s beautiful and unique and amazing about it.
Focus on WHAT YOU HAVE.
Celebrate the imperfections, the oopsies, and the “oh dang”s… they make your day unique!
Your attitude will dictate your experience and your clients. Remember, you are the professional and your clients are looking to you for guidance. So next time Mother Nature decides to dial up the wind, grab that wind by the B@&&$ and embrace it! Life, and all of our experiences, they are what we make of them.
Adventure On!
Jenna Lee
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