Last year my word was assurance, and when it came time for me to start thinking of a new word for this new year, one sprang to mind right away. Live.

This past year I learned how to have assurance, I shot not only my first full wedding, but my second and third as well and booked more for this coming year. A year ago I would have said family sessions were among my least favorite as I was still uncomfortable and awkward at posing them. But now, after having nineteen amazing, different families entrust me to take their pictures, I go into the session, confident and comfortable.

This past summer I was pushed and tested and thrown into situations where I knew absolutely know one and somehow ended up walking away having made incredible friends. (Something this shy, and quiet girl would never have been able to do before).

I got to experience some of the perks of “growing up” by going places and doing new things as the adult instead of the kid. A week on Assateague Island with just the girls of my high school class, a trip out to Philly to visit a dear friend at college for a weekend, eating at Olive Garden with my class (where the waiters tried to offer us wine which we politely refused), and exploring NYC for a day with my sister and a few cousins, are a few highlights.

But, since graduating high school and taking this gap year, with my closest friends away at college, I’ve been devoting the majority of my spare time to the internet. Reading blogs, being on facebook, chatting with friends, participating in group chats and conversations online, dreaming and planning on pinterest, looking at pictures, posting pictures, reading through tweets and facebook comments, and on and on the list goes.

And so this year, my word is LIVE. I debated between the word live and the word present because, my main goal with the word live is to make a conscience effort each day to remember to actually live. Live by doing crazy things that I wouldn’t normally do, live by pushing past my comfort zone and trying new things, live by traveling and exploring and seeing not only new places, but old places as well through a different lens.

I want to live by playing with my siblings, by being creative, by running outside, by actually taking pictures of random bits of daily life again. Somewhere in the last year, as my photography business as picked up, my photography as a hobby, as a documentary of my family and life as started to fade. I want to fix that, change that. Go back to enjoying carrying my camera with my everywhere and capturing anything and everything.

I want to read again, like actually just a read book for fun.

I want in essence, to live.

And so as we ring in this new year, I have hopes and dreams and goals and plans on how to change the habits I’ve fallen into and remember how to breathe and live.

And to end this I’ll share a couple collages of my favorite images from my amazing clients from the past 12 months and a few of my favorite personal images.

-mk