TGIF :: The White Barn | Park City Photographer

TGIF :: It’s Friday.  Get fired up.

It’s Uber Friday!

So, it’s a Big Time Friday.  It’s the Friday before the holidays.  While I will be working quite a bit over the next two weeks, the mere thought that *it’s the holidays!* somehow adds some serious highlights to the notion of a working vacation.  Plus, V’s off from his day job as a copper craftsman, so we’ll get extra time together (which, itself, is my Christmas wish).

In addition to to massive shoots and an exorbitant amount of editing on the table for today & this weekend, I have to craft my holiday newsletter and my Best of 2013 post.  So, yeah, this time of year gets a bit nostalgic as I reminisce about the year’s faves.  It’s been a glorious, beautiful, substantive time for my biz, and while it’ll take me a lot of finagling to pick my mega-favorite images & experiences for the year’s end, right now I’d like to touch on what’s become my favorite spot for family photos: Park City’s iconic White Barn (aka the McPolin Barn).  When we first moved to Park City, I LOVED this barn and wanted to stop the car every time we drove past it so I could photograph it in every season, time of day, or weather pattern.  Slowly but surely, though, the barn became for me what it is for everyone else that lives here: something you see almost every day.

You see, things — no matter how special — can lose their flare unless you work hard to appreciate them.  That’s why one of my top piece of advice to photographers everywhere is to shoot shoot shoot when you arrive at a new place.  Get out and photograph while everything still has the fairy dust on it and you’re seeing a place through fresh, enthusiastic eyes.  With time, you’ll understand a place better, probably find the nooks & crannies that make it truly distinctive; but you’ll never again see it for the first time.  So, take advantage of that raw perspective and shoot the hell out of it while it’s new to you.

I try to remember that every time I have a photo shoot at the barn.  I totally get why people want to photograph there — the spot has tons of real estate for a session (bridge, stream, tree, barn, grass, hay, fields, mountain view, silos… the list goes on and on) — but sometimes when I tell fellow shooters that I have ‘a white barn’ session the eyes start rolling.  But, the thing is, the place IS magical-looking, and every shoot I do there harbors special meaning, yielding a wild variety of energies in addition to fab images.  I look back at the families, the portraits, the bridals I’ve done there and each one feels amazing to me… as will the next shoot.

So, the familiar is not necessarily cheesy or boring but, rather, a chance to reconsider and celebrate what you think you already know & tackle it again with renewed earnestness.  That’s my two cents for today!