merrick 18 months. {beckynovacekphotography} Baby Photographer Fremont Nebraska

I’m home from Vegas and WPPI and right back into reality! And that’s not a complaint at all. I love my everyday life.

Two years ago, I went to WPPI and my experience was so different in many ways than my experience this year. Two years ago, I took a very intense and awesome two day class focused on the business side of photography. It was very sobering…and for me, it was necessary. There’s a reason many photographers don’t make it. Understanding the business side is vital. One can’t just be a great photographer and automatically make it. So when I came home from WPPI two years ago, I was overwhelmed after learning how many things I was doing wrong on the business side. I came home and I had so much to straighten out and implement in order to be able to continue in this business. This year, I took 5 or 6 classes and I came away feeling like what I was hearing was confirmation that I’m doing a lot right. That feels good. This year I came away inspired to create even more imaginative and yet real and dynamic photos. I have lots of ideas spinning around in my head. Getting away and getting perspective is so helpful in the creative process. I went to Jamie Schultz’s class early one morning and something she shared from Newsweek has me thinking: “studies have shown that decisions requiring creativity benefit from letting the problem incubate below the level of awareness-something that becomes ever more difficult when information never stops arriving.” We have our phones, our ipads, pinterest and all sorts of other sources giving us new information ALL the time! We need time to just be. For me, I know that my creativity seems to explode if I get away from all distractions and just spend some quiet time with God, or hang out with good people and relax, or even go window shopping or for a long walk at the lakes. I just need to make sure I’m doing these things.

I took pages and pages of notes as I sat in classes and even when I got back to my hotel room and pondered. I almost filled a notebook! I was a little concerned that I would get home and promptly set the notebook aside and forget about it, as I got busy with my work…but so far, I’m referring to it quite regularly.

I have a few other random things to share today and I’m sure I’ll be referring to WPPI over the next days and weeks as things come to mind.

Today is Payton’s 10th birthday and I can not wrap my brain around it. The memory of his birth is still so vivid for me. He is such a special guy. Him and I have an unexplainable connection that I think stems from our love for art. We just get each other. I love to look at his art and he knows it. I think he knows that if he shows me something he’s made or explains how he’s going to approach a project, I’ll be as excited as he is about it. As he’s gotten older, I can see that his horizons are broadening and art isn’t his main interest any more, but I think this connection that we have will continue to be strong. I can’t believe how old he is looking:

Happy Tenth Birthday Payton!

A couple of other things I wanted to share, both scrapbook related: I will be choosing a winner tomorrow for the 2peas GG February Digest from the comments, so please check back tomorrow. Also, I shared a peek of a layout I was working on for 2peas last week and it posted this morning, so you can see it here. There are lots of new inspiring ideas in the garden this morning, just click here to see the latest.

I do have a lot of peeks to share this morning of an absolutely adorable baby girl. She’s a little older than Eli, but when they grow up, the age difference won’t matter at all!