Lift off!! Hi all! I’m so excited to finally launch this website and blog for the world to see! I’ve been busy preparing this content for the last several weeks, and I just know there’s tons of fun stuff in store for the both of us! Over the past several months I’ve watched my photography business grow in such an awesome way and I’m now ready to take you guys along for the journey!

So what can you expect from this blog? Well, truthfully, a lot of different things! You can, for example, expect to see blog posts of some of my sessions. Check out Keerthana & Abhi’s anniversary shoot that hit the blog this morning!

You can also expect life and travel updates. I’m headed to Costa Rica at the end of this month, so prepare yourself for pictures of paradise! Finally, I’ll also be posting tips, tricks and freebies for women, brides and other photographers.

This blog is likely to evolve and grow over time with my business and me. I’m excited to use these posts to track my personal and professional growth and provide helpful content for you! This season of my life is full of fun new changes and experiences and I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to write about it all.

But I also wanted to take a moment to get real with you guys. Some days in this new life as an entrepreneur are exhilarating and awesome and just as I hoped.

But that’s definitely not the full story. There are days when I’m scrolling through Instagram seeing beautiful post after beautiful post of other people’s seemingly perfect lives and I feel discouraged. I start to feel like maybe the entrepreneur thing isn’t for me. But I have to remind myself: it IS for me. If photography is my passion (and it is), then I can make this crazy dream work.

Social media has a sneaky way of tricking us into believing that everyone else has everything all figured out when, in reality, we’re all just humans trying (sometimes clumsily) to find our place in this world. Remember that social media is CURATED. We’re only seeing the parts of peoples’ lives that they WANT us to see. Instagram is not an accurate reflection of what our lives really look like. It’s often just the prettiest and most exciting parts. It’s a highlight reel of our best and most posed moments. Scrolling through my Instagram, you’d never guess that this entrepreneurial life isn’t all white walls, designer coffee and gorgeous couples! Sometimes it’s staying up late to finish things up and feeling absolutely exhausted. Sometimes it’s crossing just one thing off my to-do list when I had hoped to accomplish 10. A lot of the time (read: most times) it’s working from my couch in pajamas and needing a shower (and probably a nap).

We all struggle and doubt ourselves and have less than productive days. Social media would like us to believe that other people are waking up with makeup on point, clothing looking straight out of a catalog, house clean, candle burning oh-so-cutely in the living room. But the fact of the matter is that those expectations are not realistic. And frankly, they lack the one thing that makes us all lovable: our flaws. We all have them, but when was the last time you claimed them and accepted them with pride?

Our flaws make us unique. They give us character. They push us towards continued self-improvement, which keeps us reaching for those goals!

So next time you’re on Instagram— slow your scroll! Remember that social media only tells part of the story. You’re still working on who you’re becoming and that’s okay. If you’re looking for permission, here it is: I give you permission to stop comparing yourself. To love yourself — with all your successes, failures and flaws. You have one chance at this life, so spend it giving out care and love and light — especially to yourself.

I thought I’d leave you with something I wrote during another tumultuous era in my life. I hope it reminds you to hug yourself a little harder today. 🙂

I am fragments of the person I used to be. At times, I feel like home: safe, warm, constant. And then, other times I feel like a stranger: dangerous, different, new. The girl I see in the mirror is a meld of two selves. An evolution. A process. A ‘to be continued’. Breathe in deep. Revel in the beauty of your adaption. You are a living work of art. An eternal ‘work in progress’.