It’s been a whirlwind for the last couple of weeks. I managed to get everything packed and still squeeze in a week-long trip to the East Coast for my cousin’s wedding. Now I’m on the road, taking a two-week drive down the Pacific Coast, photographing as I go. I had to make a stop today though… my car is in the shop for the whole day.

In case you missed yesterday’s newsletter featuring my cousin’s wedding, check it out! A lot of people said they enjoyed reading about a Quaker wedding. It was a great experience: a whole hour of silence with people speaking as they felt moved.

Here are a few more shots from this beautifully simple wedding. Read the whole story here.

A couple of weeks ago these photos were featured in my newsletter.

Interestingly enough, though I didn’t know it at the time, they proved to be a survey of my new home. I will be moving to LA, probably around Topanga Canyon, in the next month or so. I will make this announcement on my newsletter on Thursday, but you heard it first here on the blog!

Things will be a bit busy for me over the next few weeks. I will be traveling to New York and D.C. for my cousin’s wedding and then plan to take two weeks to drive down the West Coast from Washington State to Southern California, taking pictures all along the way.

If you don’t hear from me three times a week, as usual, don’t worry, I’m probably just packing or traveling or some such thing. Same goes for email. You may not get a response right away. Thanks for your patience.

Here are the photos of the area where I’m going. You can order wallpaper or screensavers of all of these 20 shots for $14.85 here.

A few weeks ago, I featured orchard pruning in a newsletter. Since then I’ve had a lot of time to think about doing some pruning in my life.

I went to my favorite doctor, Vaidya Mishra, and he told me in no uncertain terms that I have to back off, slow down, and most especially decrease my computer use. I’m getting too much electromagnetic radiation every day and it’s affecting my health. Specifically, he told me I need to take a break after every two hours of computer use, and stop using the computer at night – as in “don’t go near it after 7pm!”

I’ll admit, it took me a full week to accept this one. It means getting way more streamlined in what I do. Sure I’m in front of the computer all day, but how much of what I am doing is really productive? I’ve been thinking more and more about what my priorities are for my business and this is forcing me to keep the important things at the top of my to-do list every day. That’s the only way my work will keep from spilling over into my nights.

My sister Sarah, (from http://www.getbuttonedup.com) has been preaching this forever and I’m just now starting to hear it. She says, use the 80:20 rule: take care of a few important things (20%) and you will solve 80% of your problems.

I guess pruning is just about making priorities. Choosing which branches and shoots will be the ones you want to build your tree on. For me the most important shoots of my business tree are:

• my newsletter – because that’s what motivates me to get out and create new photos all the time
• new product pages for my website – because my business depends on selling photography products like framed prints, greeting cards, calendars, wallpaper, and unframed prints
• my blog – because this is where we all create new products together and where I get feedback from everyone
• social media – because that’s where I meet new people and build relationships that lead to new opportunities

I put them in order of priority for me. That means that if I have to cut something, it will be from the bottom of the list first. For example, I’m spending a lot less time on Twitter as I used to. It’s hard to cut things I love, but I can’t do it all. I can’t believe I’m still learning this lesson at age 38. I have always done everything that I was “supposed” to do (in school for example I always did all my homework). The problem is that the more you grow, the more there is to do. Some decisions have to be made.

In my school days, and in other phases of my life, I often chose to neglect my sleep or play time in order to do all the things on my plate. I did everything that everyone else asked me to do, but I didn’t leave time for me to have a life. Now I’m realizing that I can choose the things I want to excel at and neglect other things. This time I’m choosing to take care of my health and run a profitable business. Some areas of my business may not grow as fast as I might like, but I’m going to be more conscious of keeping balance in my life now. And I’m going to do it by focusing on the 20% of things that really matter most.

How about you? Are you doing too much? Do you have clear priorities? Have you been through crossroads like mine before? What’s your advice?

Here are the photos that inspired these thoughts. Every year the orchardists prune their trees… why don’t we?

If you would like to purchase these photos as wallpaper for your computer, you can do so here.

Have you ever been for a professional portrait? You know the lights I’m talking about… big umbrellas, soft-boxes, and believe me there are many more.

But is good lighting good enough to make a portrait? Sometimes, yes. I’ve seen it. And sometimes not.

My friend, Susan Stanton Rotman, tells this story:

“My old site had a professional photo, taken about 3 1/2 years ago (seen above). 140 shots and we could not get a photo that really looked like me, so we went with the best we could do. It was professionally lit and photographed, but just seemed like it wasn’t me. I immediately, and consistently since then, received comments that the photo did not look like me, it didn’t capture me, etc…”

I’m not so sure the photographer who took the picture really knew his lighting, but assuming he did, I agree that the image feels flat and misses something.

It’s interesting because Susan is an intuitive counselor, or psychic if you will. She helps businesses and individuals uncover their own subtle direction and develop their intuition. For a person like that, inner light is probably the most important thing that should be conveyed in a professional photograph. So when it’s lacking (above) it’s sorely noticed.

Susan continues:

“One of the most frequent comments was that there is a “light” or radiant quality that people experience with me, and the photo didn’t get it. I just assumed that is because a photo is a frozen and static moment in time, and couldn’t capture the aliveness of the real person. At least with me.”

“Then this past August my daughter took an impromptu snapshot of me, sitting on the front porch of the second floor apartment of one of my other daughter’s home, holding my 2 day old granddaughter–and voila! The light was there. One shot, not by a professional, no lighting or filters, just a natural image.”

Now, even from a professional point of view, this image is well lit. The backlight is excellent while the face does not fall into shadow. There is light wrapping around from behind and it creates depth to the features of the face.

But above and beyond the better lighting, there is a sparkle in Susan’s eye. There is a relaxed happiness that comes through and makes me feel connected and draws me in. I want to look longer at the image.

This is how you photograph an open heart. The photographer and the subject both need to have that openness for it to come through in the image. In this case you can see the love between daughter (photographer) and mother (Susan). As they say, a lens points both ways.

Now look at the image from which the previous one was cropped. A 2-day old granddaughter in Susan’s arms. If that couldn’t light-up her soul, I don’t know what could.

Susan says, “Very interesting how there is an intangible, vibrational quality that projects who a person is, along with the image, and how hard it can be to capture!”

Or I might add, “how easy!”

You can see this image on Susan’s website. I had a consult with her once, she’s good.

Here’s the design for my sister’s Christmas card this year. I used photos from our vacation together last August. I can’t believe it was only four months ago.

What say you?