This year marks some huge strides for me in photography.  It feels cliche to say this but in all due honesty I have grown so much this year in both business and in skill.  I learned a lot, worked with a lot of people who trusted me and let me practice and found more of my style of images that I love.   Looking back on images from last year to this year I notice there is better light, better balance of color and more purposeful composition.  Now this isn’t to say these are perfect but I have to admit that I’m proud of myself (signal pat on the back).  🙂  

As a teacher I always push my students to reflect on what they did well and what they could do better.  As a person I think it’s crucial to reflect and grow, otherwise you become stagnant.  I also think it’s important to feel good about what you did well.  If you can’t acknowledge what went well then you won’t know to build on strengths.  So here I’m going to share some of my favorite images of the year and share with you some of my highlight moments and strides of the year as well as some goals for 2015. 

• Increasing the number of photography sessions. 
• Diversifying the type of sessions from engagements to maternity and families. 
• Building a stronger portfolio of images of children and families. 
• My mentoring session with Ashley of V.A. Photography who helped me get the confidence to grow. 
• Working with Sara Gwinn Erwin  who designed my logo and helped with branding for my website and Facebook page.  
• Going live with alexandra-michelle.com and my Facebook page 
• Ordering business cards and working on packaging. 
• Finding my style of photography (blog post about this to come later). 

• Book at least 5 sessions in the spring/summer of this year.  
• Improve white balance and increase strength of black and white images. 
• Provide printing packages for families 
• Diversify posing and composition 
• Create a blogging schedule and stick to it! 
• Capturing life in my images

And now here are my favorite images from 2014.  These images are my favorites because they represent what I love in photographs; bokeh in the background, good depth of field, bright colors, clean black and whites, sharp focus and most importantly joy.  What I want most in my images is to capture the joy of being alive, nothing makes me happier then seeing beautiful backgrounds that surround beautiful souls.  In my opinion an image can have a beautiful background but without capturing the essence of a person and capturing them and who they are then the image is lifeless.  It should be more than just colorful or well composed, it should feel alive. That’s my goal for 2015, capturing the genuine spirit of the people in front of the lens.  🙂  So without further ado, unless you’ve already scrolled down and peaked :), here are my favorites from 2014.  Cheers to 2015.