Y’all know i don’t leave my family often, usually once a year to do something that scares the ever living love out of me, and it’s usually something insane like flying to an unknown place and speaking in front of a giant room full of people, shooting a commercial shoot for a magazine/toy company in LA or teaching a class about photography to a bunch of REAL LEGIT photographers in a place I’ve never even seen…I almost always have a “shalonda meltdown” the week before i leave and beg daddy cheeks to go in my place (he is pretty much superman so he could totally do it y’all), but then i look at those two faces…those two girls, that are growing into little amazing women and i stand up, pull myself together and i freaking walk out the door to DO IT! These things are always about me showing them that it’s okay to be scared, it’s okay to question yourself but rather than being paralyzed by that fear, you WILL OWN IT, that you will believe in yourself and come out the other side better and stronger than when you left! It’s about COMING BACK PROUD OF MYSELF for me but also showing them that! I certainly never do these things the easy way and it clearly doesn’t always go as I planned but every single time i come back BETTER….a better photographer, a better mom, a better friend, and a better person for taking a risk and chasing this little ol’ dream. I hope you know that YOU are capable of punching fear int he face and that I am always here cheering you on from the sideline. so go out today and live your crazy beautiful life!

so if you are wondering what all of this is about…I was able to check a new Florida beach off of my bucket list and headed to Amelia island Florida as part of the Clickaway  conference .  I taught some classes, laughed a lot, loved even more, drank some bubbles (hellooo, y’all know), photographed some beautiful people and felt the salty air on my raceway too late and way too early!  Here are a few quick peeks of the amazing families that answered my real family model call…im not sure how i got so lucky that these beautiful people took a chance on a random stranger on the internet and let me dress them and play games on the beach with them while 50 photographers  followed us around hahahaha.  ill be posting speaks from each family as i edit them because YALL DO YOU SEE THESE GORGEOUS PEOPLE!?

if you made it this far into this post you deserve something and @colorinc has generously offered photographers 20% off of their first client order by using code shalonda20