The best thing about receiving a voice mail message is that if its a really good one – you can replay it and feel good all over again.
There is something special about the human voice that make you feel that someone is paying attention. In a world of email this and text that and instant messages and everything arriving in a nanosecond the emotional feeling we have when we hear a real live voice from another human being is often missing in our lives.
Occasionally our only means of communicating with someone is by sending an email message so they can read it when they get a minute. So you can send it and forget about it. But reading it and hearing it is not always the same. Often times ion the written message there are little nuances that are left out because we’re trying to be brief. Being able to speak what you feel, even if it’s being left on a voice mail, hearing your own voice as well as another persons voice can be soothing, disarming and just plain nice.
Sometimes people email wanting information and we always try to reply through a phone call. We can answer all your questions so much more completely if we have the opportunity to actually speak to you. We may even be able to unfold questions you didn’t even know you had through a real conversation. We are better able to discover exactly what is important to you and how you feel about the session you’re trying to plan.
On a personal note, a friend left a voice mail message for me this morning and it made me smile and feel good about having helped him yesterday. Hmmm – I think I’ll replay that again – I could use another smile today 
” If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived?
Find your passion, whatever it may be.
Become it, and let it become you and you will find
great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.”
T. Alan Armstrong
One of my favorite stories that I’ve heard over the years when talking to parents about their children was this…
A mom came in to talk to me about creating an image of her new little boy. He had just come from Romania. They had tried for years to have children and weren’t successful so they went the adoption route and it took them even more years to finally receive their son.
At the time I knew very little about adopted children and I have since learned so much more. They all have their own stories that come with them.
This little guy was a little older – Three, I think. I was told about a bear that had made the trip with him all the way over to the US. It was “the Nightmare Bear”. It was a cute little brown bear that this little guy was very attached to.
You see this little fellow had terrible night terrors. Everyone was quite concerned about if the nightmares would get worse as he made a trip to America – a strange land with strange speaking people.
Someone at the orphanage had an idea and gave this little brown bear to the little fellow and told him “this is your Nightmare Bear sweetheart. He wants to take all your nightmares away from you and put them in a place where they can never find you again so you will be free of those terrible nightmares”.
Sounds a little silly when you first hear it. But amazingly enough – it actually worked. This little guy slept with this bear every night and from the very first night he arrived in America – NO nightmares. This was really a miraculous thing. This child had been plagued with nightmares for over a year and it had taken some serious toll on him because he got very little sleep.
We photographed this little guy having a conversation with his bear down by the river. That was a long time ago but since then I have photographed many little boys having a conversation with a bear and every time I think about that first one.
Just think how something a like as a little brown bear, a kind word and a story can change someone’s life. Little things in life can make big changes.
Sleep tight!
There are photographs that to some people are simply stunning in black and white but to me there is something a little sad about them.
Lack of color in an image is like the sun not coming up. It’s like someone stole your hope, your promise of a new day. It’s just missing something. I suppose its a personal preference and apparently mine is the way I see the world – in vibrant color.
Color can change your mood. It can make you happy or sad, amorous or envious, hungry or satisfied. It’s an amazing phenomenon really. You know the reason McDonald and Burger King have orange and red in the restaurant is to stimulate your hunger and make you want to eat more don’t you? It’s a scientific fact that color can affect your mood.
Black and white may have its place but there is nothing quite as beautiful as feeling the color around you. Hmmm can’t you feel it now?
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