Snowy Day Mini Session Giveaway
Last week, I posted my hopes for the new year on Instagram and I want to share them with you here as a means for manifesting, praying, whatever you might call it.
++ Create white space in our calendar and home for more life
++ Document more BIPOC and LGBTQIA families
++ Grow as a wife to a Latinx man and mother of a mixed race son
++ Offer session options for families on one income
++ Dig into Mexican traditions & implement them into our family
++ Share a passion project 4 years in the making
++ Write & tell stories
My biggest goal? To ensure I am providing
an inclusive space for
all families + people of all colors,
cultures and communities.
I believe every family deserves
to document their story.
Snowy Day Sessions are
Saturday, January 16 + 23!
A new year comes with new ideas - I would love to have you jump into these sessions with me! Bundle up & come play in the snow with me!
25 minutes @ $200.00
9 am | 10 am | 11 am | 12 pm | 1 pm | 2 pm
++ $200 due upon booking - nonrefundable
++ 25 promised images delivered via online gallery
++ instant download + print release
++ $50 print credit provided with each session - hooray for real life images!
I know that life happens, so we can transfer 100% of your deposit to a different date if we have to reschedule for any reason.
I will continue wearing a mask and asking that you & your family wear masks when we are not actively taking photos.
GIVEAWAY ALERT!
Do you identify as a BIPOC or LGBTQIA family?
A Snowy Day Session listed above is FREE to you!
OR
Do you want to nominate a family for a free session?
Contact me via this link to claim your date / time slot from the above options!
I will give a maximum of two sessions free for each of these dates
What Comes Next // Personal
An image by Weddings by Bernadette, from our wedding November 2017
I still remember my first time logging into Facebook. Fall 2005, I was a sophomore in college and living in the dorms. Back when Facebook was only for people with a college email address. Everything was different then ... we spent hours on our computers, writing papers, researching, chatting on AOL instant messenger. Social media before it was called social media was for socializing or trying to figure out if that guy in your 10:00 am class had a crush on you or if he was just asking to study together to ace the next test.
Then I started this business and suddenly, people were messaging me on Facebook, asking for family photos. A wedding photographer. I was sharing photos and things started growing. I created my website and started a blog. I started an actual Facebook business page for my photography and it felt real.
Social media started becoming more about business and revenue and money-making instead of connecting. I mean, maybe it's still about connecting. But things started to change a few years ago for me, when social media strategy was a buzz phrase. The spreadsheets and the insights, numbers and graphs became overwhelming.
Then, two summers ago, I wrote this blog post about leaving social media for a little while. It was about 30 days at first. Then turned into about 60. All the while, I was knitting and quilting and doing embroidery and realizing that inside, I'm an 80 year old who wishes she lived in pioneer times with Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I embraced it!
If I'm honest, I haven't been the same since.
During the 7 months between our engagement and our wedding, I had a few conversations with my husband about quitting social media. They mostly went like this:
Me: I think I'm going to quit social media.
Him: You know I'll support anything and everything you do. I quit Facebook 2 years ago.
Me: (Deactivating my Facebook account)
Him: I don't want to post about our kids on social media at all. How would you feel if you were 25 and found your parents' posts about your dirty diapers, your tantrums, your teenage years, etc?
Me: (Removing Instagram from my phone) I agree. I think I'm done.
I did a few Instagram stories about contemplating the idea and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Almost shockingly so. I contemplated it some more.
A month later, we went on our two week honeymoon adventure out west. I turned off my phone for much of the trip and removed social media and email from it too. The day my husband went out for a bike ride, I walked to the bookstore in town and did what an English major would do: I picked up about 20 books and read the back cover and the first few pages. The 4 books I didn't want to stop reading, I bought. Then I went to the restaurant next door and took a seat on the patio, telling the server, "I'm going to be here for about 4 hours reading. Don't worry about me, but can you bring a carafe of water and the hummus plate?"
The book I was reading? The Unsettlers by Mark Sundeen. Stories about non-conformists, sustainable living, being pioneers in a modern contemporary age. Going back to the land. Living without computers, smart phones, cars, electricity. It was well-written and honestly? I went back to our AirB&B, exclaiming that we should sell our possessions, buy a farm and figure out our lives. My husband was oddly in agreement.
No, we are not doing those things. But, it did shift something in me, causing me to do more googling about minimal living, organic farming, bringing the sewing machine out from the dusty second bedroom and starting to create again.
All of this combined with taking on a full time position with the nonprofit I did contract work for last year. This is the best decision for our family and for me. I came home from our weekly programs last fall to exclaim to my husband (notice a trend?), "You won't believe how magical today was!" and I'd proceed to tell him story after story. After a day or two of this, he reminded me that I hadn't been that kind of excited for a long while.
And I realized he was right.
Let me say this: this business has brought me immense joy, excitement, encouragement, pride and frankly, income, over the past 12 years that I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined. I wasn't a kid who ever really dreamed about what kind of job I'd have when I grew up. I thought maybe I'd be a teacher. All I knew is that I loved books, I loved crafts, I loved being indoors and holding babies. I sort of fell into photography and was grateful enough to have a few mentors & family members who pushed & encouraged me along the way, through school and through these years of business.
The joy I feel holding a client's day old baby during their newborn session is comparable to the joy I feel when I'm elbows-deep in my garden, comparable to the smile that I can't wipe from my face when I'm watching a room of 40 adults and 40 kids meet each other for the first time, knowing they'll work together for the next three months, building a relationship that has the power to change both their lives. It all feels joyous and wonderful and magical.
These feelings are not the ones I have when I peruse social media channels or plan my Instagram posts for the month ahead. It doesn't feel magical to post about feeling magical when you feel everything BUT magical. The rollercoaster of emotions, of self-doubt and constantly feeling the need to check for comments and likes ... the comparison that creeps in feels the opposite of wonderful.
At my therapy appointment last month, I walked in and did not stop talking for a full 30 minutes. I strapped my therapist into my rollercoaster ride and after 30 minutes, she asked me if I was done. Because she had some things to say and one of them was this: you need to stop the chatter. Find calm. Meditate. This ride in your brain needs to slooowwww down. You are approaching burnout if you keep believing you can do everything. You cannot. Choose like 3 things and do those things well. And the comparison game? That stops if you stop it. If you remove the channels that lead to it.
I deactivated my personal Facebook page a few weeks ago. A client who I loved working with for their first child's one year package emailed me last week, announcing they were expecting twins and would I be available to photograph the newborns later this year? My heart skipped a beat! I was overjoyed and crying and doing cartwheels at my desk.
I realized that I would have known this news already, had I been on Facebook. She even mentioned not finding my personal page there. I felt about 5% guilty, then continued to relish the joy of her news.
If I'm honest again? I haven't felt that kind of sheer joy about news in a long while. Of course, seeing positive news on social media is exciting, but it kind of takes the fun out of a surprise. You feel like you're learning about it on the same level as everyone else and it feels less special.
Friends who have revealed their baby news in person is an experience I won't ever forget. Seeing my cousin's new baby in a group text outside of social media was so blissful. Looking through actual printed images in our wedding scrapbook feels so ... vintage.
But it also feels so right and makes me feel calm. I like the feeling of prints. I don't like the feeling I get when I realize I've been scrolling for more than 5 minutes.
If you've made it this far: congrats! Let's meet in person and I'll treat you to ice cream!
The last few years have felt a lot like Keeping Up with the Joneses, the Kardashians and all the things. It has to stop somewhere, sometime, right? And I realize that I'm really the only one who has the power and control to say when.
So, I'm saying it. When? Now.
I am quitting social media for an undetermined amount of time. I don't know the details and I'm not putting a deadline on it. I just know that I will keep my Facebook business page and my Instagram account on-line, but I won't be posting actively.
I do want to continue to write and tell stories of business, life and everything in between here. It feels a bit silly for me to hold an English degree and see a year between posts. Ooops! I want to share photos from sessions I've loved, bar & bat mitzvahs that I'm proud of and stories of my clients-turned-friends. They say that your website should be a place you showcase the work you love the most, and that's what I'd love to spend the next unforeseen amount of time doing.
And if I'm honest? I'm going to be getting my hands dirty in the garden, because you can't hold a smartphone and be in the dirt at the same time. I want to ride bikes with my husband before there is a child strapped to us somehow, to finally face my fear of coasting down a hill without riding the brakes. I have an embarrassing amount of fabric in our house that is aching to be made into something gift-worthy, beautiful and treasured. And the people who stood alongside us on that warm November day when we said our vows? They deserve to see our real faces and hug us in real time, just like we deserve the same.
This decision has not been one I've come to quickly or that I think of lightly. In fact, I've been writing and re-writing this blog post for over a month! Probably because it's not easy to say you're doing something different or choosing a new, unchartered for you, kind of path.
It's what's best for now, but it's maybe not forever? Creating this space in my phone, in my daily routine, in my business and in my life has lent itself to a lot more meditation and contemplation. Real life coffee meetups and beers cheersing to good news and new journeys. Farmers market mornings and game nights with friends.
[Listing those things makes it sound like I was on social media most of the day. And honestly? Now that I haven't been scrolling for a few solid weeks / almost a month, I look back and realize that I really was "online" for most of a 24 hour period. YIKES.]
I share this not out of wanting a high five or praise or attention, but just because I don't feel good about posting daily for months and then crickets. This is a story I want to tell and it's a story that's working for me now. Maybe it doesn't work for you and social media fills you to the brim with positivity, constantly! Or you use it as a business tool and that's it. Either way: you have a choice.
In the early years of my business, I had a bookmarks folder called BLOGS I LOVE. And I'd put in the blogs and websites of photographers, writers and makers I most admired. When I took to poke around and read what was new, it was like meeting an old friend for coffee, chatting and catching up in their warm living room. I loved it! I get such an energy from reading other people's stories and words. Throw in a few images that really resonated and bam! A winning combination.
I'd be surprised, delighted and honored to be found in your bookmarks folder. There are dozens of possible blog posts I could write, filled with images that mean the world to me. I want to show you vintage photos of my family side by side with photos of clients from today, to prove that literally nothing but the tool has changed. I want to talk about the struggles of solo business ownership, tips and tricks that have worked for me and how, only after 10 years of business, I finally feel confident to share my pricing because I realize, deep in my heart of hearts, that what I can offer is worth it.
Ultimately, I want this to be a space for positivity, hope, community, love and growth. And to showcase the idea that I've had written on our chalkboard for months: little by little, good things do grow.
See you soon, friends!
Fall Mini Sessions
I'd love to see more of you this fall at a few of my favorite fall color hang-out spots, where hugs, high fives and gummy bear bribes abound!
Fall Mini Sessions | September 17, October 14 & October 29
$250
25 minute lifestyle session
25 promised images delivered via online gallery + instant download + print release
Sessions can include up to 6 people - immediate family + pets only, please!
Gallery will be sent within 2-3 weeks after session date
NEW THIS YEAR!
First 5 bookings receive a complimentary 8x10 print!
Sunday, September 17: outdoor location - TBD
in case of bad weather, we will host your session at my NE Mpls studio
2:30 pm / BOOKED!
3 pm / BOOKED!
3:30 pm / BOOKED!
4 pm / BOOKED!
4:30 pm / BOOKED!
5 pm / BOOKED!
5:30 pm / BOOKED!
Saturday, October 14: outdoor location - TBD
in case of bad weather, Sunday, October 15 is the backup date
8:30 am / BOOKED!
9 am / BOOKED!
9:30 am / BOOKED!
10 am / BOOKED!
10:30 am / BOOKED!
11 am / BOOKED!
3 pm / BOOKED!
3:30 pm / BOOKED!
4 pm / BOOKED!
4:30 pm / BOOKED!
5 pm / BOOKED!
5:30 pm / BOOKED!
Sunday, October 29: NE Mpls Studio
2:30 pm / BOOKED!
3 pm / BOOKED!
3:30 pm / BOOKED!
4 pm / BOOKED!
4:30 pm / BOOKED!
5 pm / BOOKED!
To choose your session date & time option, send an email to sydnee [at] sydnee bickett [dot] com to check if your top choice is available! Upon receipt of your email, I will send you an invoice to pay the $250 fee.
10 days before your session, I'll send another note with information about location, parking, where to meet, what to bring & other goodies!
Dreams // Personal
She hates when I write about her on social media and the blog, but I think for the better part of 10 years, she's known I'm the touchy feely one who needs to write it out. So in advance, M: thank you.
She wore all black, tights with rips and gold bangles that clanged together when she whipped up lattes and played Beyonce when the owners were gone for the day. But her eyes? THE KINDEST EVER.
I was 21 and she was 20 and we were baristas at a Highland Park coffee shop (RIP White Rock!) and I was the new kid, hosting my 22nd birthday gathering just down the street after we closed up shop. Heart beating out of my chest, I asked her if she was doing anything or needed to study and if not, maybe just maybe you'd think it was okay to come to the party?
Those eyes glanced my way, she probably winked or smirked and said, "yeah girl, I'll be there." And that, my friends, was the beginning of a decades-long platonic life partnership between me and Marissa.
For the last 10 years, she's been there.
// When we were two stubborn girls who claimed we needed space or another stupid reason, we spent a few months apart. I ended up at a show she was at (which was pure fate, because I AM NOT a show person and she is) and in her flannel and tights, walked over to me and just hugged me. I hugged back, tighter than ever and that was that. She came back at a time I needed her and turns out, she needed me just as much.
// When I moved into my first apartment, Marissa came over and gave it her seal of approval. She would come over weekly, around 8 pm when I started my nightly OCD preparations: making a lunch for the next day, setting up the coffee pot to brew at approximately 6:35 am, laying my clothes out, setting up my workout for the morning. She claimed it was helping her be a better, more organized person. It made me feel like I was doing something right!
// When we were in our mid-20s and living on shoestrings with impending piles of student loan payments, she would call me up to meet her for coffee. Coffee turned into a walk around the block turned into a 5 mile walk. I never wore the right shoes. She had band-aids for my blisters.
My ever-present photography school subject who I have lovingly taught to "find the light and put your face there." She was photographed so much by the MCTC Photo & Digital Imaging Department that she was banned from the classroom and studios. Oops!
She's the original hustle, the original Mo Money, but most importantly, she's my person.
The recipient of many SOS HELP ME texts over the last 10 years and her constant advice that I've started to heed?
You be You girl. You do you. Love and be loved. 💛
We're only six weeks out from her wedding and less than 6 months from mine. On those 5+ mile walks when we were 23 we'd plan out our lives, filling them with hopes, dreams and by the end of the walk? Somewhat more realistic visions. When I think about that long list of wishes, I am overwhelmed with how many of those items are now checked off.
We hoped we'd meet our soulmates and they'd make us laugh. But also that they'd take out the trash. CHECK.
We hoped we'd be in each other's weddings and be the source of all calm and reason during the process. CHECK.
We planned to buy a duplex and live side by side until we were old ladies wearing mumus, having afternoon tea together and growing gardens. ALMOST CHECK.
Next life goal? DUPLEX.
Affirmations + Goals // Good Vibes Series
This post is the first in series I'm starting called the Good Vibes Series, taking one day a week to let you into the more personal side of this business: Me! I want to share tidbits of how I make it happen as a solo businesswoman, stories of my friends and family who have pushed and supported me and tools that may just help you on your journey. Whether you're a photographer, a student, a parent or my family (hey guys!), I believe that part of having a platform of sharing online comes with the responsibility to put positivity into the world. We can all use good vibes, a strong community of support and an extra dose of gold glitter fun, right?
///
Back in December, I started doing some goal tending work for 2017. Historically, I love New Years Eve - the promise of a new year, a fresh start, the gold (surprise surprise!) and the excitement of a NYE kiss ... all so fun!
I'd make goals every year too. Maybe your goals look something like this?
- Run more
- Eat fewer sweets
- Get more steps in per day
- Build my business
- Learn to love winter
The thing is, these goals weren't specific. They weren't very quantifiable. What exactly is "more" when you're a former marathon runner? Fewer sweets in relation to like 5 donuts a week? How exactly was I going to build my business? When it's -20 for 5 days straight and you're stuck inside, how do you love winter?
I turned to Lara Casey and her Goal Setting series on her blog. Confession: I still have a set of undated PowerSheets from 2013 that will be broken out in the next couple of weeks ... Like I said, great at setting goals, but not so awesome at tending SPECIFIC goals. You can find the series here. It was super helpful to me and I realized a couple of specific goals that I'll lay out in a future blog post, but one thing I found I need to cultivate?
Me.
Wow. When I wrote that in my notebook, it was like a bell starting ringing, the choir started singing the Alleluia chorus and I felt such a sense of freedom. All from writing the phrase:
I matter. I need to spend less time spreading myself to others and more time spread to me.
Next, I wrote that I wanted to do my self-care in small doses every day. To choose activities or reflections that awaken gratitude, light, breath, sweat, smiles, laughter and generally, make my gold-glitter heart beat faster!
I shared this nugget with my good friend Elizabeth and she said she was starting a gratitude journal as part of her self-care regiment for 2017. She challenged me to do the same, since gratitude was #1 on my list of things to awaken. I purchased the Five Minute Journal (here on Amazon!) and I started it on January 4. You do not need to purchase this journal to start feeling more grateful, friends! This is just what works for me!
My morning and evening routine have changed drastically. These dark January mornings, I drink 15 ounces of warm water with lemon and sit in my Great-Gram's rocker (re-covered and fabulous, as seen above!) and I write out the morning portion of the journal.
The first few days I did this, I came to the Affirmations section and I thought, THIS IS TOTAL CRAP. I have no clue what to write! So I started writing this mantra of "I am capable. I am doing good work. I am strong. I can do the work that is hard and grow." I had no clue where the mantra came from; I wrote it down anyway! Then I'd shut the book and go on my day.
This week, I encountered a situation where I encountered a few opportunities that left me thinking: "this person does not realize how amazing they are!" So I told them! "You are strong, brave and capable of doing good work! You can grow from this experience."
When I went home that afternoon, I sat down and had another a-ha moment. That person who didn't realize their potential? Was me like 30 days ago.
#RealTalk: I've always heard my friend Elizabeth telling me I needed to start believing I'm doing well for myself, I'm strong and capable of doing hard work (that mantra!). I kept telling her it was total crap. Until she called me on that! I suddenly realized that my humble nature was turning into a feeling of low self esteem and self worth. Pushing aside other's positive comments toward me in disbelief.
Today? 16 days into the 5 minute journal and I'm so happy to say I'm on the other side of this feeling of inadequacy. It really is true that recognizing gratitude in your life totally turns your thought process on it's head!
When Luis tells me I'm beautiful, I say "thank you! I sure am!" which makes both of us laugh, because it's something I've never told myself before. When a client sends me great feedback, I repeat the mantra to myself: You did a great job! You are so creative! Sometimes, I even read the feedback out loud to myself, three times.
The self-care goal? Still in place.
To revisit, I wrote that I want to make time for those activities or reflections that awaken:
- gratitude (the 5 Minute Journal!),
- light (waking up early enough to see a glimpse of sunrise!),
- breath (reminding myself to breathe in deep during workouts, even at the grocery store!),
- sweat (I'm part of an accountability fitness group working on exercise, diet and lifestyle changes),
- smiles (looking at photos of our friends and family smiling in our apartment makes me smile!),
- laughter (Luis takes care of this, usually!)
and generally, make my gold-glitter heart beat faster!
This is still a work in progress, friends. I'm not perfect. Sometimes, I fall asleep before I write in the evening portion of the journal. Sometimes, I miss the gym or I eat more donuts than I should. But, we're just people. We're just human and for as much patience as we ought to have with each other, we should give just as much to ourselves.
All this to say: You're doing a great job! Keep up the good, hard work! You are strong, brave and capable. Good things grow, little by little and you can make good happen. YAY!
Social Media & Summer 2016 // Personal
Remember back to that day in January when I announced I was finally, after 9 years, completely full-time with this business? I have thought back to that day numerous times in the last 30 days and wondered what I would have told myself if I would have known what the last 8 months would be like.
Can we be 100% honest for a minute?
1 - I would have told myself to buckle up.
2 - I would have reminded myself to make time every day to get outside and breathe fresh air without my cell phone.
3 - I would have recommended a daily schedule that's regimented and yet balanced, because I thrive on regularity and consistency.
4 - I would have reminded myself to go to a workout class every day at lunch and make sure that's not the only time that day I see or talk to someone because at heart, I'm an extrovert!
5 - I would have told myself to keep trusting. To keep having faith. To just keep moving forward. Onward & Upward!
The last 8 months have been nothing and more than I ever expected all at the same time. I think back to the days when I was juggling this business, 2 part-time (okay, actually full-time) jobs, relationships, sometimes marathon training, sometimes schooling, giving talks and presentations to up and coming photographers, and I wonder how in the world I kept my head above water. Emotions were sky-high during those days, probably from all the endorphins of constantly needing to be in motion!
But when you take away everything from that list above and replace it with a full-time business with an employee list of ONE and suddenly, you've morphed into the boss, the social media expert, the photographer, the editor, the business meeting taker and the HR rep all at once, it's more overwhelming than I ever expected.
When you move from being constantly surrounded by people and motion to putting yourself at home in an office with no one to communicate with except your circle online and the construction crew outside, it's more overwhelming than I expected. My daily step count went from over 10,000 a day to maybe 2,000 - because the steps from my chair to the coffee pot and back is maybe a grand total of 25. Oops!
It was surprising to finally see fully and completely that my busy season for the bar & bat mitzvah market is the entire year minus July and half of August. I kept my nose to the computer for January through June and when July came, I looked outside and thought, "goodness! It's summer! Time to relax, take a break, rejuvenate ..." And I have done that. YAY for me!
But what's most challenging about this almost constant yearlong busy-ness is that when I'm not busy (summer), everyone else in my circle is. Vacations, weddings, photography business is booming ... and social media is the way everyone shares their busy-ness.
I realized quickly that I needed a real break after I returned home from a week with my grandparents, during which, I actually took a break from social media and email and my phone. I felt so disconnected and so connected all at the same time. I was investing in real face to face time with two people who mean so much to me and it felt so honest and so real life. I started knitting and doing embroidery and would sit on the sofa with my Gram for hours working on something that I could visually see growing and taking shape and moving forward.
When I came home, I felt more changed than I had expected to feel. I felt renewed and ready to make a fresh start. I knew I wanted the rest of the year to look differently than the first half. I felt ready to share more thoughts and stories and images than ever before.
But that week, three significant events happened in our city, our state and our country that caused me to continue pressing pause on sharing. I felt like all those words I was ready to share weren't adequate enough. I felt like I was boasting my success when others were in the trenches of mourning. When it felt like a collective crying over loss of life, loss of freedoms and loss in our community. It felt dark. How was I going to share something light hearted and an image filled with smiles when hearts were breaking?
I stopped sharing and I haven't shared for the last month. A full 30 days since I posted the image above on Instagram with a huge question mark of when I'd be back. I even removed social media from my phone for the majority of that month.
Here I am, back in the saddle again. I took another break, because #summervacation. Luis and I visited friends on the East Coast and I can't wait to share those stories with you. I shot only film for 1 week and it was downright glorious. It felt so good to be back where I first started - the mystery and magic of film is something I never want to take for granted.
Life looks different now than it did in January. I've started a new daily routine that's more balanced and rigid, but turns out, I need a schedule. If I don't have someone telling me where to be and when, I'll probably watch the Olympics 24/7 for the next month. I started listening to a podcast or two in the mornings, I'm still knitting dishcloths like 3 generations before me and I started running again (after an injury - more on that soon).
I realized that progress over perfection is really the way to live the next year, 5 years, 10 years in business and in life. I have my structured work times and deadlines, but every night, I close the computer and the office door at 6 pm. I make dinner and turn my phone off at 9 pm. I knit a few rows and chat with Luis about his day. I take a morning walk with my coffee and spend the first hour of my day without technology or screens.
And for now? This works. It gives me energy. I think about my social media posts and what I want to say that day on my morning run because I don't run with music anymore. PS. Have you guys heard the birds on these summer mornings?! I'm starting my running "career" over again - just over a mile at a time and slowly building it. I got back on the bike and Luis has officially turned me into a biker, padded shorts and all.
I don't have a real social media marketing plan. Yet. But I will, because I joined a social media class online with a community of people all across the world when I realized what I was doing wasn't working. I want to continue to inspire and be inspired. I want to motivate you not just to hire me to take your photo but in how you live your day to day.
Because if I've learned one thing in the last 30 days / 30 years, it's that we're really all in this together. It's not one over the other, but when we look at each other as equals and as partners in learning how to live life to the fullest, it feels like the journey is filled with more hope and more light.
And aren't things like hope, light and community what we're all searching for anyway? :)
Resting in 2016 // Personal
Two weeks ago, I boarded a three-times-delayed airplane to see my cutie grandparents in Phoenix, after a whirlwind weekend of photographing two bar mitzvahs. If I'm honest, it's been a whirlwind two years of bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, family sessions, what feels like a hundred mini sessions and lots and lots of GO GO GO since the last time I really rested.
This break in the action was spawned by a need to REST. If you remember, at the beginning of February, I wrote a blog about taking Sundays as a Sabbath rest day. A day to disconnect, to rest, to reconnect with family and friends and to just be.
If you ask my boyfriend, you'll hear that I did this for maybe one Sunday. The others? I kept up that pattern of GO GO GO. I didn't turn my phone off. I spent the day thinking about work and turning on the computer and dreaming about it - but! I didn't actually turn on the computer or sit at my desk or do any editing! (That gets me some points back, right?!)
What did I do?
> I celebrated a really full and fun Valentine's Day with that cute boyfriend - I mean, seeing an omnitheater movie about hurricanes, volcanoes and tornadoes is super romantic, right?
> I met with my tax accountant and do some strategic planning / wishing / hoping / dreaming.
> I brunched at The Copper Hen FINALLY with my friend Clare (you remember her!) upon her return to the US from a work trip abroad. I ate way too much and drank a mimosa and it was pure heaven.
> I dropped off 3 packages with January bar and bat mitzvah clients and again was reminded that I TOTALLY LOVE THIS JOB. Sitting at the computer isn't the most fun thing ever, but the personal, face-to-face package drop off makes every minute worth it. Hearing your oohs and aahs and remembering the moments alongside you? ALL THE HEART EYES.
> I spent hours at the two communities Luis and I choose to worship at and we connected with some of our favorite people on the earth. I don't talk much about this part of my life on this blog, but these are places where I can go just as I am, a mess or not, and I always leave feeling full and refreshed.
After all of this (plus lots of computer time and photographing of course), I went to Phoenix to find some rest. It was colder than I had hoped, but the three days I spent being loved on by two of my favorite people on the planet made every second worth it. We ate, drove to Sedona and shopped, saw the sights and really relished our time together. They asked me about my clients, about how I do what I do, Gramps shared business tips from his time owning a business, Gram baked me cookies to take on the airplane. We dreamed about the future for our family, for my own family someday and talked about our shared history and the legacy of my great grandparents.
I left feeling the same way I always feel leaving Gram and Gramps' - sad to go, already looking forward to our next time together and full from all the moments we shared.
On the airplane home, I replayed the trip in my mind and thought: I can't wait to retire when I'm .... years old and really rest and live up that lifestyle! I caught myself and instead rephrased it to be: I will take rest now when I need it. Life is happening before my very eyes and it's my job to capture it for my clients but more importantly, for myself. For my future kids and grandkids and also to remember times like this with my grandparents so I can pass on their wisdom to those that will come in the future. I thought about the stories we shared about my great grandparents, about my grandparents spending their growing up years in a small town, about how now, I watch them as they care for each other in a new place that although it's far from home, it still feels like home because they're together.
I thought about how time was different when my grandparents met, fell in love and started building their life together. There weren't cell phones to stay connected, watching Netflix together wasn't an activity and for part of their story, they wrote war-time love letters to each other. Gram cooked (and still does!) Betty Crocker recipes and Gramps spilled on his shirt at dinner, to which Gram threw her napkin at him (and still does!). They both worked hard to provide for their family, they went to church on Sundays and spent any time they could seeing the world together. But mostly, they spent time with family, telling stories and creating new memories.
Maybe I didn't spend every Sunday as a true Sabbath rest, completely disconnected, but I also think I'm not wired that way. I want a balanced life that is okay with spending an hour or two laughing and relaxing with Luis while he builds bike wheels in our living room. One that is okay with knowing that if I work on a weekend, I can take my weekend OFF during the week. Maybe taking my parents' dog on a long walk through a newly discovered park in the sunshine is just enough rest after a morning of photo sessions. Or meeting Luis for a beer after a long day of shooting and making plans for camping trips and biking adventures the next few months.
And after this time of reconnecting and making memories on a Sunday (or Wednesday or Thursday), I'll get to work come Monday morning, coffee in hand and answering emails.
I'm looking forward to a life that includes really hard work building this dream come true and also, the next chance I'll make happen to rest :) Because in the end, in that time of "retirement," I want to look back on a life filled with balance and understanding and most of all? Memories and stories.
Mark & Allie // Lifestyle
When I first met Allie eons ago working one of my first bar / bat mitzvahs, I felt a sort of nervousness that only comes from hoping the other person would want to be friends - which feels so silly when you're a grown adult! But nonetheless, nerves faded away quickly when we both realized we had found kindred spirits in each other, especially in this business that can sometimes feel so big and you feel so small.
So flash forward a few years and over happy hour, Allie shares she's met this guy Mark ... flash forward more time and I get a FB message from Mark asking if I'm available on a very specific date and time last summer. Turns out, I was about to photograph my first proposal / engagement! WAHOO! It was an amazing, breath-taking experience and one I wouldn't change for the world. Two of the most kind-hearted, loving people starting their life together ... and I was so blessed to capture that moment for them! Remembering that moment still brings tears to my eyes!
Flash forward again and Allie + Mark book a lovebird session on the last Sunday in January - I was so nervous! I wanted to give them images to really cement this time of planning and preparation for them before their big day. When we started walking outside the studio, I felt nervous! How in the world am I going to capture these two within the hugeness of their love?! I kept thinking I could try all these things I've never tried, only seen other friends in the industry do ... but then I sort of metaphorically slapped myself in the face and reminded myself to KEEP IT SIMPLE! These are two friends, for pete's sake <3 I could totally be myself and direct them in an easy way, so we could let their love really shine.
When I was editing and reviewing the images later, my face was aching from all the smiles! It's amazing thing to see a friend so dear be loved so completely by her soul mate. I can't wait to celebrate their wedding later this year!
Within minutes after parting, Mark sent me a message and Allie wrote a fabulous note once I shared the finished products a few weeks back. It's moments like this that make me feel like a million bucks!
“Sydnee — thank you so much for today! I’m sure the relationship you have with Allie and I makes it feel even easier to interact with “Sydnee the Photographer”, but you do an amazing job of making the subjects feel calm and like they’re the stars of the photos. You are amazing and I can’t wait to see the photos!
Allie shared one... Sydnee Bickett Photography shared one... so I guess i can share one of my favorites. Sydnee was one of my first calls when I decided to propose because I knew she was the perfect person to capture the moment on film. She did a great job with this photo shoot as well! If you need a photographer for anything... start with her.”
“Absolutely loving our lovebirds session images from Sydnee Bickett Photography! Sydnee Bickett is not only a wonderful close friend of ours, but is an incredible photographer. If you are ever in need of photography, please check her out! Mitzvahs, weddings, engagement photos, family portraits, newborn sessions— you name it! Thank you, Sydnee, for your friendship and for sharing your art with us! XO”
Rest Pt 1 2016 // Personal
It feels strange and backwards to be posting a photo circa 2012, from Sedona, Arizona, on a cold, windy and snowy Monday in Minneapolis, but I promise, this will all make sense soon!
For the better part of 2 years (who am I kidding, since high school), I've been working full force almost every day of the week. If it wasn't homework, it was a part time job or two or five. If it wasn't working in an office, I was photographing and editing and spending hours behind the computer. If I wasn't nannying, I was running what felt like a million miles a week. Always go go go, until I'd get knocked on my backside by the stomach flu or an illness or a cold that was trying desperately to get me to SLOOOOWWWW DOWN.
So I would. For the duration of said sickness and once I felt even 75% back to "normal," it was back to work I went.
Until fall 2014 when I encountered a health situation that had me on a rollercoaster for the better part of a year. I didn't know what was happening, I'd tell my family and friends. And they would remind me to SLOW DOWN. Take time to figure out the issue and solve it.
So I did. And I realized that when I rested, when I unplugged (or tried my hardest to), I felt better. I slept better. I exercised stronger. I was more present and felt like I was seeing life for the very first time before my eyes.
But then life picks up again - the phone keeps ringing and the emails keep coming in and I'm grateful more and more every day.
When I decided to take this business full-time FOR REAL in 2016, I told myself I'd finally conquer that rest thing. I would do something about it!
After a January that felt like it went by in a flash, I decided to take every Sunday in February away from my phone, email and computer to take in time with family and friends, in community and also a little in solitude (which I'm the absolute worst at!). I wanted to start reclaiming my LIFE and putting more of that into my every day life.
Yesterday, for the first time in forever, I turned off my phone. And you know what? No one even called me! A friend texted and I didn't get it but the world didn't end! It was a miracle! I spent the day with Luis, putting up images and words and reminders around our apartment to stay positive, live in the moment, love each other deeply ... and we watched the entire Super Bowl. A fact that I don't care much about but I can't remember the last time I actually watched something in it's entirety without falling asleep 20 minutes in or getting bored and getting up to DO SOMETHING.
It was amazing. I feel rested and relaxed and ready for a great week ahead!
And sure, there were times I reached for my phone to google something or text a friend, but when I realized I didn't have it, a sense of freedom rushed in. I didn't have to be in touch with anyone other than the person right in front of me, who deserves to have that attention and quality time.
I'm hopeful that this pattern continues and I can keep up with the resting plans I've got for the rest of the month - and I'd love to hear how you take your own rest days & Sabbath Sundays!
Jacqua // Maternity
2015 was a year of many firsts for SBP - one of which was a maternity session ... on a boat ... and an island!
Jacqueline and husband Chris purchased a family boat they keep on the St. Croix River last year and when Jacqua was expecting baby #2, they knew they had to incorporate the boat into the maternity session ... I was so glad they picked me to continue documenting their family! They spend so much time on the water that big sis Beau probably feels like she's part fish :)
My boyfriend Luis and I traveled over to Stillwater on a warm Sunday night in late June to spend a few hours on the boat. As always, Jacqua had some amazing pieces to work with - her style is so stunning and makes my job so easy! It was so special to capture the three of them together, filled with such expectation for this little one to arrive.
The black and white image above is probably one of my most favorite images of 2015: as soon as I saw it happening through my lens, I knew it was pure magic. So many metaphors happening here - the expectation of pending motherhood, the strength and femininity of the posing, the reflection in the water and the creeping roots. So vulnerable but also so strong.
I loved every minute of this session and can't wait to get back on this boat for baby's one year session! Baby Lolo will make her big debut on the blog soon - come back to see this sweet girl and her big sis :)
