That’s the biggest lesson by far: that to serve your clients fully, you must stop assuming you know what they want, and really LISTEN and pay attention to what they tell you they want.

No photographer is above their client. We serve people. That is our job. To do a good job, we must listen to people. Not assume.

Midway through the month, I threw out my back. It might have had something to do with the 15-hour wedding I shot two days prior to that, or with my TERRIBLE posture when editing photographs. Or with the fact that I'm getting old. So old... :D

The mare curls her lip and butts the Kid in the face. He falls backwards, lands on his butt in the wet grass, starts to cry. There's no blood, no scrapes, no bruises, but the Kid's heart hurts. He's lost his surety, maybe his trust. Some horses are like that, Kid, I tell him. You gotta be careful. But some horses aren't. You just can't know it on the outside.