Happy Valentine's Day!

An older image, but one of my favorite candid captures ever! Momma wasn't expecting to leave red lipstick marks on her cherubic boy's cheek, so everyone was surprised! :) Happy Valentine's Day!

{Baby J}

Oh how I love these!  It shows me how far I have come since my first newborn shoot!  I didn't do a whole lot of solo shots of this little guy, but these family images are so precious to me, as are the subjects!

Chosen by The Pioneer Woman

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2012/06/your-love-photos-group-1-3/

My image was chosen by Pioneer Woman for her contest.  So far over 250k have entered.  Only 50 will be eligible for the grand prize.  Mine will me one of them!  It's a pretty big honor among the photography world so it is really neat!  Just to be chosen is pretty incredible!

Pseudo-Sabbatical

A sabbatical is defined as a temporary ceasing from work.

I love photography.  Let me begin by letting that be definitely known.  I love portrait photography, as well.  I love the people, the creativity, and pretty much everything about.  Everything except time.

Time is a big deal to me.  I don't want any time wasted...especially as the mother of a young child.  He will be young only once and we only have about 14 years left and he will be 18...then he will have wings to fly.  God has whispered in our ears repeatedly what a special gift a child is and we will not waste it.  So, that being said, time is an issue.  A portrait photographer's end work on facebook or a website does not really show all of the time put in.  Often I have been gone Saturday mornings/evenings and Sunday evenings.  I have missed precious time with my precious young family.  I have been up ridiculously late and skipped spending needed time with my husband.  Yes, I am earning money and doing something I have a gift in and something I love doing, but my husband and I had to have several discussions and have prayed about what is important and have decided I need to take a sabbatical.  I had raised prices earlier this spring because I felt I put out an excellent product and my time really needed to be worth it for me to continue.  I still had some business so some agreed, but time still remained an issue.  If I had 48 hours in a day and our precious boy was not present for 24 of those hours I could still do portraiture.  If we were planning to send him to Pre-K next year with his 4 year old peers it wouldn't be an issue.  But, we feel God has called us to homeschool our son.  This is going to be a major undertaking and we cannot afford for me to be distracted by a business...at least at the beginning of our homeschool journey.

God gave me a gift of photography.  I want to use it for His glory and have been praying that He reveal the way to do that to me eventually.  I also may restructure the business in the future and maybe just do a few mini-sessions fall and spring or something else.  I do not know what is in store.

What I do know is right now and all this past spring I have realized how much time photography has taken away from us as a family.  Missing each other on Saturdays and Sundays, me working until all hours of the night, and often being distracted by it during the day.  So, we know this is the right thing to do. 

I will still definitely accept bookings still and like I said I may do some mini-sessions or something along those lines in the future.  But, unless I lose some major physical/mental faculties my gift/talent will remain and I will be using it.  I will use it to take photographs of our family, of friends and others.  So, if anyone has wondered why I have not posted much on facebook as of late this is why.  I have had to force myself (and it has not been easy) to take a step back.

I do want to thank you for all of your support as I built up my business and thank you for continued support as I take a break.  I enjoyed the ride immensely and I grew so much in so many ways because of it!  I will continue to post portraiture on facebook and on this page as I receive bookings and do portrait work for family/friends, so I definitely won't stop doing what I love!  Please continue to watch as I try to learn more and get better (just with a considerably lighter work load)!

Thank you!
Candice Forte Photography

{T Maternity}

I had to share a bunch of these.  They are beautiful!!!  Mom is beautiful, family is beautiful!  I love it!  These are some of my favorite clients.  Mom turned pro-photographer and I haven't seen them much lately, but it was nice to catch up and work some great images!