As I looked through our blog yesterday, my eyes settled on one simple photograph. And I had one simple thought: “That is a picture of love.”

Two weeks ago, we were caught up in the middle of United, and reminded hourly of something I’ve been pondering ever since. Our lives and our jobs, the speakers kept telling us, have to be bigger than ourselves. They have to be about more than making money or making a name for ourselves. They have to be about helping people, serving people, making life better for everyone we touch. Photography, by its very nature, does that. Often quite easily. But only if we, the photographers, get out of the way.

What I mean is this: I want to make beautiful photographs. I want to create striking, memorable photographs. When someone looks at one of my photographs of a couple, though, I want the first, second, and third thing that they see to be the love that is the heartbeat of every couple’s story.

Dreamy light and breathtaking backdrops are wonderful and invaluable to creating great, artistic photographs. But love has to come first.

~ Laura