I recently read this quote in a book I was re-reading last month called Art & Fear. I highly recommend the book to anyone in a creative field who is hungry & pushing to expand themselves. Whenever you're working to expand in some way there are unavoidably a slew of monsters the rear their ugly heads. What I'm becoming very aware of in my creative journey is how these monsters are signs that we are heading in the right direction. What I mean by that is these monsters (ie. our fears) are reminders that we're uncomfortable, and when we're uncomfortable we are growing, we are expanding. Fear is a necessary evil for creating anything worthwhile. I feel like in a lot of ways I'm at a point in my life where I am living and breathing this quote. I am having to find my work all over again in many ways, I'm going through a season of transition and expansion. I'm working to re-connect with the stories that I want to tell & how I can tell those better. Ultimately I'm getting in touch with the kind of work that I truly care about creating. Because of that, I've needed to give myself some space. Some more time away from the computer & away from this blog even to explore those things. I've stepped back from social media, twitter & Facebook in many respects. What I've discovered is that stepping back offers a lot of perspective on how much time I was spending reading through what others were doing via twitter/fb and less time on what I need to be doing. Places like twitter and Facebook create a culture that is driven by self promotion. It's a lot like stepping into an overcrowded room with everyone screaming something to the effect of, "look at all the cool stuff that I'm doing!!!" The byproduct of this is this overall feeling that what I was doing was never enough.... or that someone else's life and opportunities were better than mine. I hate feeling that way. It sucks. And if I can control what I read why not lessen or remove things that create more un-necessary noise? I'm not saying twitter & FB don't serve a purpose, they do, I just think they can sometimes muddy our creative genius.

In the process of stepping back from this blog & social media I've felt a kind of drive that isn't initiated by what others are doing or the fear of others, but rather one initiated out of the real & honest desires of my heart... It's the kind of motivation that says, "I really don't care if anyone ever see's these images, I'm creating them only because I must." And thus, I have been creating some work that I'm really excited about over the past 6 months & yet I haven't shared it here as a way of giving myself some room to explore my real motivations for doing things. And I'll be real with you, it feels REALLY good. I would recommend stepping back from any of those things that may be distractions as a healthy creative experiment to any of you, maybe you'll discover something new about yourself when you remove the gratification or motivation of others from the equation. I know I have. The one social media outlet I've really taken to during this time of stepping back is Instagram. I love the sharing through a visual medium & it's an overall more positive place to share & keep up with people you care about in my opinion. I've put some recent images (all shot with my iPhone) from my instagram feed up here because lets be honest, no one likes a blog post with no photos ;)

For the first time since college, I'm intentionally making time for the people & parts of my world that inspire me. I'm working on a personal project that has been on my heart for about a year now... finally stepping out & pursuing it because I'm sick of making excuses & being "too busy with paid assignments." I'm taking up some directing projects because it's something that Chris & I have been interested in for a while. I'm spending non-work time with Chris which has been amazing for both of us. I'm taking better care of myself & have been going to yoga two or three times a week. If you knew me, you would know that taking any amount of time out for myself away from work is a big deal for me. I realize how ridiculous that sounds as I type it, but I think it's time I come to terms with the fact that I am a work-aholic. It's really hard to exercise restraint when you genuinely love what you do. Can I get an amen?

However, there are so many beautiful parts of life that are to be enjoyed, experienced & explored. With the handful of years & the shillings of wisdom I have collected over these years, I've discovered the value found in enriching my "creative pot." And I know that pot can't be enriched or grow bigger if I'm feeding it the same things that I always have. I've discovered that oftentimes we have to break something even if it "works." We have to shake things up & seek out learning new things & let go of others. And sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on. I've let go to things that are lower priorities to me in order to welcome the new. Balance offers new experiences, bad & good. It teaches us how to "do" relationships & ultimately "life" better. So far this year has been all about exactly that... trying new things, experiencing a variety of "firsts", getting to know myself better, filling my creative pot to the brim. Being scared, confused & excited all at the same time. 

I'm willing to share the tangible practice of how I'm working to manifest balance in my life, but I will also say it is not something that is easy to do if you are anything like me. The first thing is to know & experience the power that resides in one word, "no." I used to be scared to say no. I am learning the art of welcoming & even relishing that tiny little life changing phrase. When you say yes to everything & everyone you end up saying no to yourself. Not a fun way to live. I want to say "yes" to me & "yes" to living the inspired & fulfilled life God wants for me. When I first discovered how good welcoming balance into my life felt I was terrified. I had a serious case of FOMO about what I was missing out on in terms of work... I felt guilty about enjoying my time outside of "the office." About all the things I could be doing to work on the business & hone my craft. Sure does sound like an abusive relationship huh? I'm realizing a lot as I write this ;) But as I settled into my new & growing relationship with the word "no" I'm finding myself attracting the people & projects that were exactly what I want to say YES to.  I'm growing... I can feel it in the deepest parts of me. I feel the growth pains like I did as a gangly sixth grader & my knees hurt every time I tried to dance. I have enough life experience to know that this kind of growing is exactly the kind I need & I'm finding it by giving myself the space & time to do it. Balance is a beautiful thing. I sure don't have it figured out, but I'm one tiny step closer to it & at this point I'll take what I can get. 

Just got about twelve rolls of film back from the lab that are shots from our life over the past few months. These are shot with a variety of the many cameras I keep with me as my pocket cameras. And for those of you who want to keep up with our paid assignments & other things that are inspiring us you'll best find them on our We are the Rhoads blog :) Enjoy.

The older I get the more I find myself seeking out that sense of wonder & curiosity that children feel for everything they encounter. This weekend I felt that as Chris and I romped around in the snow together, laughing & playing... much like children do. It's always curious the way the world finds a way to bring you back towards what is important. Sunday I was reminded of how important it is to stare wonder in the face on a regular basis & how fun it is to forget about our ever growing list of responsibilites for a day and just enjoy life & being together.

I have always been a firm believer that each of us creatives must trust the "hot spots." What I mean by that is trusting those things that move us, inspire us & get us excited.  A lot of times hot spots don't always make the most logical sense, making them scary impulses to trust. But I think if we deny our hot spots for long enough parts of us die... beautiful parts that the world needs to see. So this year has been a year of trusting my heart and moving towards the heat. Our heart for photography has always been people-centric, in the past five years Chris and I have specifically fallen in love with the lifestyle aspects of storytelling which is what our We Are the Rhoads brand is all about. The evolution of this brand came from a hot spot that began five years ago and never left. This year we were hired by Sony, Coca-Cola, Hilton, Pepsi, Pfizer & others to shoot their worldwide lifestyle campaigns for them (many of which will go live in 2012). I've never had so much fun during the creation process as I've had this year. This year was a true testament to the importance of trusting the "hot spots" on our creative journeys. I think it's always important for every creative to do a hot/cold check on a regular basis. Asking ourselves "why" we are doing things and making sure our reasoning resonates with someplace deeper within us. 

You'll notice I haven't spent as much time blogging on this blog this year, that's because I was spending time living, shooting, creating, growing in new ways. Keeping with my "hot spot" philosophy, some things are going to change around here. From here forward this blog will simply become a place for me to explore my own creative journey, I will blog things that I'm learning, things that are challenging &/or inspiring me & what we're shooting from time to time. I wont be blogging things out of obligation or expectation. This is going to be a bit of a different space, a little more personal and exploratory. I understand if that doesn't interest some of you. This was a personal decision made from a hot spot, from a deep need to focus more on creating & less on things that pull me away from that.  For those who it does interest, I am looking forward to exploring new roads together. If you want to keep up with more of our commissioned lifestyle work you can stay up with it on our WATR blog.

I wanted to share some of these frames here since this is my little spot to post things that are going on in my creative journey. However, to see more about this shoot you can head over to our We Are the Rhoads blog. Also, our friend, Joel, put together a pretty fantastic behind the scenes video for this. He is insanely talented & so are the rest of the folks that joined us for the road trip down to the Gorge this day and helped make this come to life...

Photographers: Chris & Sarah Rhoads

Motion: Joel Clare

Hair/Makeup: Tiffany Colors

Styling: Sherri Garcia

Talent: Megan, Gregg & Tommy of SMG & Levi & Maggie of Heffner

PA: Samantha Kelly Knorr

A large focus of my talk was on this idea of dreaming audaciously, staying hungry and acting courageously. This has been an ongoing theme in my journey thus far and I feel pretty passionate about each creative person putting these ideas into daily practice. My good friend, Brent Holloman, teamed with us to create some amazing 11x14 posters of a lot of these ideas & phrases that we strive to live by. If you care to check out other posters you will find them at our online store here.

There are no truer words than these, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." - Henry David Thoreau. I've seen this play out in my life time and time again. Dreams don't just materialize on their own. Everything must originate from somewhere... a tiny seed of a dream if fed and acted on intentionally can become so much more than you ever imagined possible. Oftentimes I think we're scared to dream audaciously. We're scared to let ourselves go there because if we dream it into existence and then don't accomplish that goal or dream we feel like failures in some way. But in order to succeed at anything, our desire for success should be greater than our fear of failure. I have to remind myself of this everyday. I have a great many things I aspire to do in this life, which means I don't have a lot of time for fear these days. Instead of allowing fear to take up that mental mind space I'd rather fill that mental real-estate with my audacious dreams and plans to turn those dreams into something real.

and a big thank you to Tangie Sheets for taking this photo of me speaking!

Nelson Mandela is reported to have addressed these words of Marianne Williamson's to the world at large.

- Marianne Williamson

I'm personally attached to this particular shoot because I went into it challenging myself not to just rock out a great lifestyle shoot, but I wanted to really push myself to create something more honest in my portraiture work. Oftentimes I find myself getting to that place just* before that one truly vulnerable and brilliant frame and moving on prematurely. Recently I have been challenging myself to slow down, to sit with the moment a bit longer, and wait for that something honest & truly special to happen. These two are absolutely radiant. Enjoy Kayla & Clint!

This magazine is made up of some of the coolest most inspirational gals out there. They are women that set their minds to something and do it exceptionally well. I am so impressed by everything these gals have accomplished in just one short year. I am especially grateful for the way this magazine brings people together. Rue has given me a beautiful & kindred spirit friend in miss Anne Sage who is the magazines Executive Editor. Anne, Chris and I collectively dreamed up this shoot & somehow made it all happen in a little less than a week. Anne did ALL of the fantastic styling for this and I honestly would wear every one of these pieces she put on Charlotte. So yummy. 

So now run over & check out this issue of Rue! Their issues are always so full of interior & lifestyle goodness & this one is no different! I always catch myself wanting to pin everything to my boards. Our story is on pages 90-102* & check out this fab behind the scenes video Oskari Polho put together for this!

Photography // Sarah & Chris Rhoads

Styling // Anne Sage 

Makeup & Hair // Meaganne Mccandess 

Models // Charlotte & Garret of Look Model Agency

Behind the Scenes Video // Oskari Polho 

Location // San Francisco, CA

Magazine // Rue Magazine Anniversary Issue 

What is everyone up to this weekend? We have the weekend off, which I'm thrilled about because the seasons are changing, the air is nice & crisp & the colors are starting to pop through on the trees. There is no place greater to be than Seattle in the fall. I think we will go on a hunt for a couple of end chairs for our dining room & go to the market on Sunday, I'll probably test out my new camera that Chris got me for my birthday & just relax a little. I've really been craving some delish apple cider... so I think I'm going to make it my personal quest to track down some of that kind of goodness. Happy Friday guys!

Hair/Makeup: Tiffany Colors

Models: Stephen of SMG & Lerin

When I was growing up my dad was always the one who stepped out of the frame to get shots of my sister, my mom & me. I figure there is always someone in every family that ends up taking on that role. Unfortunately, that means I don't have many photos with my dad actually IN the picture and now that he's no longer with us, I really wish I had more of those moments captured with him. This is the very reason I love working with families. The different seasons you walk through in life with your family are precious. Even if you have a grumpy & crying two year old, you (and THEY) will be happy that you captured this time along the way. I am not interested in capturing the "perfect" family photo where everyone is flawless and wearing their perfectly pressed matching outfits. I am interested in capturing the honest moments, the joy and spontaneity of life as it unfolds in the moment. I love this session because it is exactly that. Enjoy...

My pocket camera is a 35mm rangefinder camera that I shoot almost exclusively in black and white film. This is just a personal preference for me since so much of my work is in color and color is my natural preference. Shooting in black and white is just one way I can differentiate my every day life photographs from my other work. It forces me to see things with different eyes. In our waking life we see things in color which is why I think black and white photos have a way of transcending us to a different time and place. Now I'm on a tangent... let me get back on track... ahem.  

I believe there are a few things to look for in a good pocket camera:

1) Light and easy to pop in a small purse or murse (man purse for you men out there reading).

2) A camera that challenges you in some way.

3) Choose a camera that is non-discript & doesn't draw attention. 

4) Use it! 

Creative evolution can come in many shapes & sizes. It can come out of taking the time to travel, to try a new food, to push ourselves to try something new for no other reason other than it sounds "interesting." The evolutionary process has a natural way of forcing us to know ourselves better... it allows us to explore those things we like & dislike & develop our creative "pallet" of sorts. In doing so, we weed out those things we don't like and move closer towards the things we do. This evolutionary process helps draw closer to knowing our unique visual signature that we strive to achieve in our work. Having a visual signature is crucial to the success and longevity of any person in a creative field. Ultimately the journey to "know thyself" is one that never ends for any artist seeking to leave a mark on the world with their work.

I believe we must always be looking for those beautiful opportunities to expand our ideas about the world. This year I am making a very intentional effort to create space in my life to welcome lots of new endeavors, to challenge myself, to try new things. All of it in an effort to draw closer to that thing that is deep within me... that thing that makes me wake up and want to create. I must know this "thing" better to continue evolving and growing. I still have a long way to go towards really truly reaching the apex of knowing the depths of what my visual signature is. But that excites me. It gives me a great hunger for continued exploration in my craft and that is something I hope to cultivate for the rest of my life. 

This is an exploratory shoot I did a few weeks ago. I grew up dancing about 25 hours a week, I was trained by a prima ballerina who was incredibly strict, but instilled in me a great love for dance.. I miss it. This shoot really pushed me to look at something from a different angle, to see the beauty in the small wrinkles in an ankle and shoot something that was 100% for my evolution as an artist. 

Last week was a little bit like Christmas mostly because I got a new camera bag from Kelly Moore! It is her newest bag called the "mimi."  I took it around town all weekend for some personal shooting & to give it a test drive. It is a fantastic day-to-day camera bag that fits an ipad or journal in the back perfectly. What I love about Kelly's bags is she really thinks of everything... not just the way they function, but also, the way they look and feel. It is just the right size for day to day shooting and still totally stylish which every girl needs right?!