TWELVE in review

This is it, guys. It's the end of the year. The very last day. Do you have any idea what this means? This means that, once again, I was a HORRIBLE blogger. Just terrible. Pitiful, really. But would you like to hear my excuse for this? I promise it's a good one this time. It's actually the best excuse I've ever had for not completing something I've set out to do. I was busy. Just plain busy. Busy like never before. Well, maybe just in a different way. I did once have a 14 month old and a newborn. That time I was really busy too. But really, really, really busy.

And WHY was I so super busy? Because of all of my insanely fabulous clients. These people were AWESOME. Amazing, really. And I can't forget beautiful. I don't understand how every single client of mine is so unbelievably gorgeous. When I pull up to a shoot, most of the time I've never physically set eyes on my clients. Yes, we have many email exchanges, phone calls, and maybe texts, but I usually have no real idea of what you are going to look like. And EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I am in awe. 95% of you tell me that you just aren't photogenic, or you look weird when you smile with that side of your face. But you don't. Never, really. And I would tell you if what you were doing looked weird. But it doesn't. It's always just...perfect.

So enough rambling already. I promise to try harder with this blogging thing. If you know me well, you know that I do LOVE to write. It's just a matter of finding the time. CREATING the time. Making it work. And I have been known to make the impossible happen a couple of times, so surely I can master this in the new year. The blog. It's on the top of the list. I promise ;)

I leave you, on this last day of the year, with the last 364 days of my life. And I am so very thankful, and grateful, that you have carried me through one of the BEST years of my life. I am often told that I am lucky for being able to make a career out of my passion. Yes. Yes I am. One of the luckiest alive. Thank you.

Trial Run?

While I have written briefly on my blog about my absolute FAVORITE Parent's Day Out program before, I am now dedicating an entire post to them. Bethel St. Paul's Baby Break Program has been a home away from home to my own children for five years now.

I was recently offered an amazing opportunity in working with the children of the PDO and Pre-K programs. It was sort of a trial run in the great race of photography. A trial run that became more than just a trial. It was AWESOME!! For starters, I hold all of these children in a special place in my heart, as I have watched many of them and their siblings grow over the years. I know all of them by name, and they know me as well. It's comfortable. So to them, I'm not just any crazy lady jumping up and down behind a camera. I'm that crazy lady, Miss Megan, jumping up and down behind the camera.

I had BIG plans for my first Boutique School Portraiture experience. Here were my main goals (and only goals, really):

1)  Create an atmosphere that was neither normal or standard for school pictures.

2)  Have fun and laugh a lot.

3)  Be able to give back to the Baby Break Program in a monetary donation from Megan Hile Photography based on the sales of the images.

4)  Laugh a lot and have fun.


Since I was able to meet ALL of my goals for my trial run, I will now be doing it again!! So I am officially announcing one more chapter to my quickly growing business: 

Megan Hile Photography: 

Boutique School Portraiture   

A Celebration

A Mother's love determines how 

We love ourselves and others.

There is no sky we'll ever see

Not lit by that first love.

Stripped of love, the universe

Would drive us mad with pain;

But we are born into a world

That greets our cries with joy.

How much I owe you for the kiss

That told me who I was!

The greatest gift--a love of life--

Lay laughing in your eyes.

Because of you my world still has

The soft grace of your smile;

And every wind of fortune bears

The scent of your caress.

--Nicholas Gordon

While I promise to not go another FOUR MONTHS without making a blog post, I feel the need to begin...again...with this one. Not just because I'm a Mommy and feel REALLY strongly about this special day, but also because of all of the other mommies I've met since I began my photography career. It's amazing, really. We all live day to day differently. We have different jobs. We live in different cities. We have different hobbies. Most everything we do, we do a little bit differently than the next. But the one thing I am sure of....like 100%, no room for error, I dare you to challenge me, sure of...each and every one of these women I have met love so deeply it hurts. The love-sick that only a mother can feel. That ache in the core of the heart and the tightness in the stomach that she feels as soon as she sees that other piece of her staring back. 

Tomorrow, I celebrate the lives of so many women I have crossed paths with. Not only do I celebrate my own mother and the incredible women whom I have been blessed with having in my life, but I celebrate all mothers. Whether they are your children biologically or not, if you know that heart-ache, love-sick feeling, they are yours. My wish for all of you tomorrow is to sit and hold those who are yours. I know I will be holding mine and thanking the universe for every second I am able to spend with them. 

 

 

May you and yours have a Mother's Day full of love.