Personal Story: Us! Photographed! On a canvas!
David and I have been married five and a half years now... wow! We have gone through a huge roller coaster of life events in the past five years- we've experienced events that I wish on no one, at any point in their life. It's been hard work but here we are, five years into our marriage still loving each other and working together daily to make our relationship the best it can be. It's not perfect but as long as we both have that goal in mind, we're moving forward.
The last time David and I had our pictures taken professionally was almost four years ago. So much has happened in our world since then... we've grown so much together and I can feel that our relationship has grown up some too. Our friends Brett and Jessica have traded shoots with us (we will them infront of our cameras some time soon). It is so important as photographers to get in front of the camera some times. It's practicing what you preach- our relationship is ever growing and changing and it is important to have your story documented as it grows and changes. I was also reminded of how it feels to be in front of the camera. Your experience in being in front of the camera can offer you a new set of observations and lessons in how you want to be behind the camera. I love when photographers reach out to each other and trade services like this- everyone wins!
We wanted to share a few of our favorites from the shoot (there were tons of great ones--- thank you again Brett and Jessica!!)(I did a teeny bit of editing to these with permission from Brett and Jessica)...
It was really cold during our shoot and we had to laugh over David's breathing fogging up my glasses:
Our favorite product that we offer is the gallery wrap canvas. We have a couple of smaller canvases in our bedroom from our shoots a few years ago but we decided we wanted a large statement piece in the main living area from our shoot with Brett and Jessica. As many of you have experienced, we love to meet with potential and current clients in our home. Our business style is very relational and we want that to come across in our home meetings. During meetings we pull out canvases from our office to put on display, all of these being from the work we have done. We felt like it was important to also show how we chose to display our own shoot in the space where we meet with people.
The two obvious places in our living room were either the two alcoves on either side of the fireplace or on the mantle above the fireplace. When deciding which images we would want on a canvas we could not currently come up with two different ones that would be complimentary, so we decided on one large image- a 24x34. This might sound large but once you see the canvas in that space, it really works well.
We choose this specific image for several reasons.... there is a tenderness that comes through, comforting, holding on to one another in a confident way, drawing strength from one another. This image also leads me to remember my favorite part of our wedding ceremony- the hand ceremony. At the time we had never heard of this possibility- now you see it at weddings more regularly. I had found it in a book when looking for a new alternative to the unity candle and the sand ceremony. After my parents walked me down the aisle, they both gave my hands to David as his parents did the same. The words that were read during this time are so very meaningful to us- we both tear up when we hear them read at a wedding.
Because of the image we chose and the size that we wanted, we decided to have a black border around the image instead of the image wrapping around. I love how that turned out-- it really ties in the canvas to the windows hung in the alcoves and the fireplace.
We hope that sharing our process in choosing a canvas will help you choose yours :) If you aren't sure which image would work best, want some help choosing an image for your canvas or would like to walk through your home looking for potential spots and best sizes, let me know!