We have always struggled with the annual challenge to create a “best of” the year blogpost. Mostly because, as artists (and as human beings), we have trouble knowing the difference between our best and our favorites. Also, our favorite images (over the course of an entire year) tend to change based on what we feel ‘in the moment’ vs after the moment is long gone. It’s also tough not showing ALL the best. Forcing ourselves to really hone in and separating out the truly great is a skill of its own that we’re not sure we possess some days.
Why put our work through this scrutiny at all, you ask? It’s one of the ways to inspire ourselves for the upcoming year. Yep, you better believe it - Our OWN work inspires us! To push ourselves to become better and to continue to challenge each narrative that’s presented before us in the coming year. But what makes a certain image great? Is it great because it tells a particular story? Is it great because we felt a certain way about the subject or the place it was taken? Is it great because it was a difficult image to create and therefore feels like we achieved something better than usual? Did the image come easy and we were simply in the right moment, at the right time? Sometimes, we honestly don’t even know! Maybe it’s a combination of a lot of things. But these are the questions we find ourselves asking year after year. What is the best? What is my favorite and why?
This year, was a little different than all the previous years we’ve been doing wedding photography. Somewhere between all the traveling and the rest of our wedding season, for the first time, we found ourselves pretty far behind with blogging. So when it came time to do the end of the year review for 2019, we weren’t prepared.
Fast forward to starting 2020 and one global pandemic later, and here we are! Finally making our beloved 2019 year in review blogpost! All the previously mentioned questions just floating around our minds have carefully made their way here into one amazing imperfect blogpost. We’re so excited to share these ‘favorite’ moments from 2019. We’re not sure that we’ll ever be able to call them our best. But, to us, that’s okay. For one reason or another, these images were the ones we couldn’t stop staring at throughout the year. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Let us know your favorite (and why), down below! - That would make our day!!
As always, thank you to the unbelievable people we got to meet this year. For choosing us to capture these moments and all the other moments not pictured. We can’t believe all the wonderful places our cameras took us this year. From all over our beloved state of NC - Concord, Charlotte, Wilmington, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston Salem, Huntersville, Mooresville, Hendersonville, the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway, and all over Asheville (to name a few!). Then to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia Beach, the lovely NYC, and historic Charleston! And finally the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, the Amalfi Coast in Italy (got to return there TWICE this year!), and Capri too! - We’re blown away by what God has allowed us to do through this business and for every single adventure in between.
What’s next for 2020…..? Aside from all the craziness, we’re excited to see what this year will look like for our couples. We know that there will be so many stories to document within these sensitive times and we know it will look different than usual. However, we couldn’t be more excited to capture the beauty that comes out of all of this. Our cameras are ready. We’re ready. 2020 couples, we can’t wait to celebrate your love. <3
XO,
Mark & Kelly
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