Kick ARse Photography by Amanda Reed

So, last week I made a trip to the BIG EASY for Imaging USA 2012. While there I learned a few thingsLet’s start with, never order a hamburger in ‘nawlins. How should we start this story?

My friends Elise Ellis, Brooks Holloway and Jim Heidorn took our lunch break at the Corporation. A little hole in the wall with a bar and one well lived native of New Orleans taking your orders in the back. Elise ordered first…red beans and rice. Next up, I order a hamburger because I just do not think cajun food is going to agree with me and it is afterall on the menu. In the words of that 70 year old lady taking my order ” honey, you can get a burger at home, here we got shrimp creole, jambalaya, po’ boys or muffaletta.” I say kindly…I will take a burger. She says..”your friend got red beans and rice, you is getting jambalaya and she handed my order to the cook.” Thank God, the jambaylaya was good because if it wasn’t….ain’t no way ima send it back to the kitchen and yes..I know I should not use words like ain’t but after being deeply rooted in the south for 4 days, ain’t is appropriate and correct use of vocabulary and if you do not think so…go to the Corporation and get schooled like me.

Imaging USA: I mostly hung out around the tradeshow. I listened to the fabulous speakers in the Black River Imaging booth. Met lots of people I will never forget. Purchased amazing products from PhotoPie and Graphic Authority. I of course spoke at the tradeshow on Tuesday. I was interrupted by Graphi Studio and Jim Garner speaking at the same exact time. Hmmmm wonder who set that up… but thanks for thinking I could compete for an audience with Jim speaking…who by the way was my first choice for pre-board to attend his class during WPPI. I think it will be amazing. On to other news, I was able to catch up with Jeff Poole and his wonderful fiance Lori Unruh of IndigoSilver Studio. They won my dinner giveaway which was wonderful as I had received a phone call from a dear friend, Gregory Georges and set up a lunch date with them…dinner turned out to be even better. My friend, photographer and social media genius Elise Ellis also gave away dinner which led us to desire with these amazing ladies as well Stephanie Turner , Tennille Sechrist Mullery and Sabina Cavalli. Dinner to say the least was exciting. I love talking shop with good friends, good food and better drinks…..the BIG EASY lemonade at Desire

  Lots of name dropping in this post which directs me back to  David Scott (don’t ask)

We also gave a great schooling to some poor soul at The Riverwalk over lunch. I believe our talks of fishbowls, strippers, bourbon street and photography may have been a bit much and I am sure our first impression was full of sex, grit and imagery. hehehehe……..laughing quietly to myself as I imgine her praying to never see the likes of us again. Which leads me to Bourbon Street.

The term Bourbon Street, walk in and crawl out is oh so true.Let’s just say we took in Bourbon StreetWhen my friend Brooks says to you…I looked at my checking account and I have that 40 dollars…you know it can’t be good or likewise when he says……..this is starting off like a bad episode of CSI. All in fun. We did have an amazing time.

Again, I cannot thank my friends at Black River Imaging enough for supporting me and asking me to teach at such an amazing organization to my peers whom I love and respect. Much thanks to my husband who kept up with appointments and the kids while I was away. Couldn’t have done it without him.

Raise your hand if you are going to Imaging! I am so excited to make my first trip to NOLA and see all of my friends from all over the country! Raise your hand if you like free stuff! That’s your cue! I will be speaking at the BRI Tradeshow Booth on Tuesday at 11:15 a.m. If you show up then you may be one of the winners of my Kick ARse Guide to Senior Synergy Book. Find out some of the tips and tricks that allows our studio to book over 100 senior clients per year! If you don’t win a free copy then come in and take advantage of picking up your own copy on the spot as well as my bonus Business Plan for half off! That’s just $74.50!  Be sure to hang out at the booth and check out all of the amazing products from BRI and listen to other industry changing speakers! Not busy after  the presentation? I am all for having a group lunch and roundtable discussion where we can really get our learn on! So, I plan on seeing you at 11:15 a.m. at Imaging in NOLA on Tuesday, January 17th when I bring you:

and how these tips, while learned on my own would have saved me ions of time and made me boatloads of $$$$. Who doesn’t want that?

The BRI tradeshow booth schedule for speakers follows. Be sure to take their links for some amazing eye candy! I keep good company!

Sunday, January 15th

 12:30 – David & Whitney Scott 

1:45 – Gene Ho 

3:00 – Dawn Shields

Monday, January 16th

11:15 – Natalie Licini

12:30-   Vanessa Joy & Rob Adams 

 1:45 – Prem Mukherjee 

3:00 – Martha Dameron

Tuesday, January 17th

10:00-  Dixie Dixon

11:15 – Amanda Reed

12:30 – Elise Ellis

If you have seen my front porch then you know that I am a prop junkie. I was thrilled when Tabitha contacted me about a featured spot on her amazing Confessions of a Prop Junkie blog. This blog has a huge following of which I happen to be one. So of course, I jumped at the opportunity to share my story and show off my great clients. I hope that you will head over there and let her know she made a great decision and pick up some inspiration for your next photoshoot! This was a great surprise leading up to my 32nd Birthday! I knew 32 was going to be amazing!!!  Just click the picture to head over!

What can I say about 2011 that I haven’t already said. Toughest year of my adult life. Lot’s of bad decisions, lot’s of grief, lot’s of letting the dumbass decisions of others get to me and when things get to me I make emotional response decisions that I later regret. I am also a perfectionist. I will let one bad ordeal with an unhappy client eat away at me for months. I am such a people pleaser but I also can’t be a doormat and in business sometimes people expect you to be just that. This year that will change. With the volume of clients I photograph each year, it is only a natural response that sometimes you don’t get it right (even if you think you did). It goes back to my second year in business and realizing I was not the perfect photographer for everyone. The best thing about realizing that meant I did not have to be their photographer! YIPPEEE! So, from those experiences I have learned to do some things in 2012.

1. Photograph the sessions I feel passionate about.

2. Photograph the people who resonate with me and want my vision in the final product.

3. If I say, we are at max capacity and it’s gonna be 8 weeks on those proofs, I will not feel bad about saying it! I have to be confident in the fact that sometimes the best things are worth waiting for and I know anything faster won’t be my best and I am not willing to give anything less than that.

4. No more Saturday work. Now, I know there will be cases when a story or event will pull at my heartstrings and I am counting on God to let me notice when my time is of importance and this person may need a weekend but I will discern that for myself. I am not willing to miss out anymore than I am in the lives of my children. I had an amazing Christmas break with my kids. I looked at my simply amazing 9 year old daughter and thought….when did you grow up. I want to spend every Saturday shooting hoops, riding bikes, tossing softball, baiting hooks, roasting marshmallows, reading books under the stars, catching fireflies, taking back road drives.  That is where my heart is. It is in the hands of Lydia and Reed.

5. I am going to try and I do say try, not to make my husbands life a living hell because of things his family does that drives me crazy. I absolutely have no problem putting that on the web. If you have someone whose ambition is to wake up every day and spite you then you know how I feel. I will try to love them in the best way that I can but I will not be treated as though I am beneath them because.I bust my ass everyday trying to support and take care of a family that means more to me than you will ever know. I need to realize some people are just not going to like me and I need to be okay with that. Because, the truth is I just want to be loved by my husbands family………all of them. Liked would be okay too. I would also like to add that my husband has amazing hard working parents who love our kids to death. We just do not have a good family dynamic and my husband desperately needs that and a great sibling dynamic as well. I would be lost without that in my life and I feel that he is lost somewhere trying to make sense of it all which of course affects the dynamic of our marriage. Knowing that there is just nothing I can do to change that situation revolts me because I like to think I can change whatever I set my mind to. So….today I am changing my mind. I will just be a vessel of forgiveness and whether that ever flows back to me is not in my hands but I can pour out what Christ filled my soul with and that is forgiveness.

6. I want to be a grandma one day. Yeah, I know that sounds a little strange but I lost my Grandma this year and DAMMIT, its hard BUT I know one day I am going to be the best damn Grandma out there because I learned from the best.

7. Take care of me. That means working out, reading books, dinner with friends, a massage, a good glass of wine, a campfire and the wood snapping in my ears. It really doesn’t take a lot to satisfy me. I truly love simple things. I love to spoil others way more than I like to things for myself but God created me for great things I believe. As he created all of us and my soul needs nurturing to. I want to stop feeling guilty for taking care of me. I am blessed to travel to some amazing places and do amazing things. This often comes with the guilt of leaving my family or feeling just a little spoiled. When that sets in, I ask myself what I would tell my daughter to do. I would tell her to reach for every possibility to never let her dreams sit still and to keep going.

Now that you have heard me blabble about 7 of my priorities of 2012 (that’s the short list). How bout I leave with you some of my fave images from the past year. I could never begin to show you them all cause I have a fave from every session I shoot but here are some highlights!

My blog has been terribly neglected but I vow to change that in 2012. I have a lot of issues that sometimes I need to put to paper or in our new digital era…keyboard. I have always love to express myself by journaling and poetry, short stories but my life has became so busy that I have neglected some of the things I love.

I realize the through my conversation and imagery I have an affect on large number of people. I believe God gave me a life built around valleys and mountains so that I could share that with others and hopefully encourage them to keep pushing. Please, do not put me on a pedestal as I will surely fall off and break into a million pieces. I have lot’s of lessons to learn and as human nature provides a short and long road to learn them.  I prefer to take the long road to learn these lessons. Sometimes repeating the mistake again and again.

One day I will have to answer for all the mistakes I have made on this journey and it will be with a great pause and weeping in which I do so. To many of you, it may seem as though I have “all my shit in one sock” as I have had someone tell me before. That could not  be further from the truth…what I do have is the ability to accept my failures, to value my imperfections, to try and find good in the heartbreak I am dealt and the heartbreak I cause.

If I had an amazing year, I could tell you that the year I turned 30 was an amazing year. I felt alive in so many ways that I have never felt. I was selfish and spoiled.  In a little less than a month I will turn 32 and I can tell you that all of the fun times I had the year I turned 30 were paid for in this year. Ah….31 years, the 31st being most difficult for me. I have struggled to find a peaceful co-existence between being a business woman, a mother, a wife and just being human. I cannot indulge 100% in any one thing. When I go head strong into my business all the other aspects suffer. Finding that happy medium has been just out of reach for the past 12 months.

There are so many things I did not know as a young 18 year old wife, a 22 year old mother that I know now in my 31 year old skin. Things that I would perhaps do differently? NO….things I would tell you to do differently? OF COURSE. There is no right course of action, there is only the course of action you are responsible for. There are many roads to one destination, you have to find comfort in the road you take and accept responsibility for taking that road.

I could have taken a lot of paths at 18 years old. Marriage did not have to be one, although on the course I was pointed, I do believe had this angel of a man not been put in my life a path of alcohol and drug abuse that so many of the people in my life at that time have taken would have told my story. I will say I have fully understood for better or worse this year because time after time, I want to walk away from the worse. Resulting in one huge ass tattoo on my ring finger that once was written my husbands name. It ain’t easy and I will leave it at that.

I guess in light of the coming new year I felt the need share apart of myself with you. I hope turning 32 in January will lead to a better understanding of who I am and finding that balance between all my so called titles. This year it has been just out of reach but I am hoping to grab hold of that next year. With that will come more blogging and it may be professional or personal. Just whatever is laid upon my heart to share with you.

Something that was laid on my heart are a series of videos I am about to share with you. My friend Rob, who is one of my favorite vloggers ask me to collaborate on a tolerance, love, peace sort of short video. Twenty seconds was all he needed. My idea came to me in an instant and God had already prepared the hearts of my friends to join me as they had no reservations about doing so. What resulted was over 20 minutes of video that I did not have the heart to edit to a shorter length. I want to share them with you. All of these people have touched my life and I think that if you opened your heart and mind, they will touch yours as well