Be prepared, this may be the longest Me Ra Koh Photography blog post yet. 🙂

My last post was a few days ago, and yet it seems like forever! I’ve really been getting into writing and posting on our blog, and it’s so FUN to get all your emails and read all your comments. And it’s even better when some of you email me and say, “Why aren’t you blogging?! You haven’t posted any thing for three days!” 🙂 I love it!

Well, this last week was crazy! I volunteered to do the school photos for our daughter’s school (something I’ve never done before). It was a blast because they were open to me taking a different approach. No blue backgrounds and cheesy grins! 🙂 Instead I got to go in the classrooms and document the students working and playing. I LOVED it!

And in the midst of this, I also did a speaking engagement for a wonderful group called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). We had over a 100 women come, and I got to speak on “How to Take Better Photos of Your Kids.”

Here are some fun shots that Gina grabbed while I was speaking! Thanks Gina!

I think we all laughed and cried during the morning, and some of us even did both at the same time. 🙂 It was an amazing time, and I loved meeting so many of the women afterwards. Working on the outline for this speaking engagement inspired me to offer a workshop this January to women/moms who want to learn how to document their children’s lives.

I’m super excited about this because we’re going to spend the morning talking about the mechanics of the camera (no men allowed! :)). And then we’re going to have this yummy catered lunch and spend the second half of the day shooting kids side by side. I’m limiting the workshop to 10 women, but we had 15 sign up. So it looks like we might be doing two workshops in January!

All the encouraging feedback from the speaking engagement got me thinking about the past. As many of you know, photography was never even on the radar for Brian and me. I was actually an author and speaker, traveling all over the country speaking to women’s conferences and churches on restoration and healing when you’ve been deeply wounded. You can read the details of this on our website bio page.

Then unexpectedly we experienced one of our greatest losses. Our second baby, Aidan, died during the pregnancy. When this happened I quit speaking and went into a deep place of grief. And that is when the camera found its way into my hands and began to heal me.

I found myself taking pictures for the first time and trying to capture all the many sides of Pascaline. The first time she ever played with a balloon was one of the first images that caused someone to say, “Will you take photos of our kids?” And the rest if history. That was only four years ago.

I fell so fortunate to have had something as wonderful as photography come from such a painful loss. Photography keeps Aidan close to me, and now I get to capture my client’s stories. Documenting their lives and my children’s lives…what could be better.

After losing Aidan I didn’t think I’d ever speak again. And 3 1/2 years later, it feels like a new season has come. My first speaking engagement since Aidan was in early September in LA at Pictage’s conference for photographers. What an amazing time that was! Then we did MOPS this last week. And in November, Brian and I will be flying back to New York to speak to photographers at PhotoPlus Expo. I have a feeling there is more in store, and it feels right and good.

Thanks for reading along, and I thought you’d enjoy seeing that first shot of Pascaline with the yellow balloon. Isn’t it amazing how we never know where life will take us? I’m sure the not knowing is a good thing.