So, I’ve totally spoken about the little love I have for “The C” better known as The Connection before.  In a previous posts, I put into words what I love about the Photo Connection and why old family photos bring so much emotion to me..but this particular post is more about the personal connection with others.  The power of doing something together and how it is ALWAYS better than doing something on your own. The power of creating collaborations with other people and compromising to make something extra ordinary.  I’ve been feeling a lot of this recently because of a summer connection with some fantastic ladies – which then prompted the thought of other collaborations going on around me and how powerful it is.

connection |kəˈnekSHən| 

1 a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else

One of my first thoughts was music – which is a big part of my life here in South Philly.  While writing this, obviously, I am listening to The New Connection album from like 2007 – which you should also start doing right now (it’s my husband’s band so I may be a tad bit bias).  ALL of my friends have some sort of musical talent – so much talent that they are all in multiple bands and have played around the world. Music is one giant collaboration – from the instruments and the recording equipment to even the space. All of it works in conjunction with the other and if one thing changes, the entire sound may change. Photographing the connections musicians have with each other live on stage or  in the studio gives me the connected feeling!

This other connection that has been a big one for me is my relationship with other creatives. It is more of a recent thing, as I did not see myself as a creative in the past…but it has taken these connections to push my imagination and therefore, allowed me to accept that I too, have creativity. So I have been navigating through styled shoots, doing two of them and now planning the third – and I GET IT. Sure, maybe I’m not getting paid or maybe I’m even paying to put this thing together but WOW! This “for fun” photoshoot has me unable to sleep because I am trying to come down from the creativity high – which I totally didn’t believe my husband about BTW – he goes into his studio and works for hours in the middle of the night just to get it out AND LIKE, I GET IT NOW. But, back to what I’m trying to say…I can’t honestly put together a styled shoot by myself, well, I could but the moral here is – you NEED to connect with other people to make the magic happen. You need to collaborate, have fun, experiment, build relationships and its OK if something turns out unexpected or the whole thing falls apart because no matter what, you took a risk, you tried and you learned from it…that experience and the connection. It will all come back to you if you continue to make build relationships with others – so when you can, work your pretty little butt off and have fun with your friends!

so the moral of the story is:

Make connections + build relationships.