2012: Thank You

I spent some wonderful holiday times at the cottage with Rufus’s family, my sister and her husband (who came to spend Christmas with us and New Year as honeymoon in Lapland!!), and my brother from France. I caroled my friends – a taste of old times :) I spent 2 days in Tallinn at Babor Spa as a relaxing start for the new year. With all this family time I have not had time to look back at 2012 just yet. There are still many weddings from last year I want to share with you.

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Before I go into 2013 I want to say thank you.

To my friends and family who have supported and encouraged me and have put up with my insane schedule. You do not know how much you have helped me.  To wedding blogs who have shared my work. To the fabulous people who are behind all the work put in my wedding albums and at the printing lab – Sami,  Andreea and Zoli. To people who asked me for advice. To Sarah, Sofia, Annika, Adrian, Tommy and Juliana who assisted my weddings this year. It was awesome to have you along. To my photographer colleagues who have stimulated me to push further.

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Most of all, to all my wonderful couples – I have had a fantastic year and it is you that made it all come to happen.

Sofia, Petter, Laura, Emmanuel, Matilda, Petter, Bea, Lauri, Malin, Niklas, Liisa-Lotta, Mikko, Taija, Jaakko, Charlotta, Fredrik, Anastasija, Oleg, Emilia, Simone, Andrea, Petri, Elisabeth, Hannu, Mariia, Rami, Lahja, Casey, Daniela, Alexandru, Laura, Juha, Emilia, Martin, Sarah, Harri, Katja, Heikki, Juliana, Tommy, Salla, Timo, Heli, Juho, Laura, Janne, Katriina, Juha, Ioana, Alin, Heidi, Fredrik, Noora and Isaac.

Thank you.

You’ve made me part of your wedding day. For some of you I was the one of your 2 witnesses.  You’ve welcomed me into your stories and trusted me with wedding day memories.

I cannot thank you enough for that. It means a lot to me.
More than I can express.
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Last, but certainly not least important, to God. He has blessed me in more ways than I can count, He has shown me favor more times that I could dream of. His faithfulness and love towards me even when I fail is overwhelming.

I would not be where I am without Him. My successes have nothing to do with me, they are merely a reflection of God’s will for my life.

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I am working on putting together a post with my favorite images from 2012, but for now I leave you with one image and a message I have received last night through the contact form:

Dear Maria,

for a couple of years, I have regularly checked your pages for something new. Why?
Because you have a gift. Or at least you portray a gift in your work. I dare say there isn’t a single shoot or a single event, where you haven’t excelled to capture a pearl. Ok, this is very subjective, but there is always a pic-per-place that really stirs my senses. The rice throwing in Kangaskylä, the hot-air balloons in Maramures, a post-sejour in the salt mines…and the list goes on and on.

I’m a happy amateur photographer (and admittedly, an engineer), and I thrive in conquering the technical to capture a view the way I saw it. It’s not the technical performance that counts, that’s certainly not the essence, but it is a necessary means to an end, to actually seize the moment as you saw it. You seem to have freed yourself from the shackles of technology, at least that is what comes out.

Last summer, I bought some black and white film (analog stuff, real hard core ;) and had a whale of a time in Sweden, taking some of the best family pics I have to date. It gave me a feeling of how fun it is to capture a unique moment, without having to bother about how to get there. “Just” compose and press the shutter release.

And, oh yes, Happy New Year!

Joe

Laura and Emmanuel’s Finnish-French wedding on Lohjansaari, July 2012.