This may seem like a funny photo to start this blog post with, but it’s the perfect place to start telling you Emmy’s story.

Emmy is a fellow photographer and good friend of mine. Just over a year ago, Emmy weighed 60 pounds more than she does in this photo and was not in the amazing physical condition she is in now. I see her regularly through the winter months as part of a photographer’s group we coordinate together. It was really wonderful watching her get smaller, and smaller, and smaller…until she hit her goal weight, size, and fitness level – and looked like a million bucks! She and her husband are going to run in the Twin Cities Marathon in a few months. Emmy is truly an inspiration!

Do you want to know her secret? Counting calories and working out. Yep, there is no magic pill. Just months and months of hard work and dedication to a goal. She’s helping me follow in her footsteps as best she can. I am not always easy to help, and am struggling to find the right balance in my life right now between work and, well, everything else. But she always encourages me to just take it one day at a time and tells me that I’m making changes for life, so it’s okay to do that gradually and reasonably.

Emmy picked me to shoot her “after” photos and I was honored. We unknowingly picked an unfortunate rainy day for the session, but since it was just between friends, we went ahead with it and had fun in spite of the weather.

Photographer’s Notes: Some people love to do photography in overcast weather, but I’m not one of them. I prefer to have lots of light to play with. But when faced with an overcast situation, the biggest challenge to overcome is getting enough light in people’s eyes, and not let them fall into shadows. Either find locations to shoot where overhead light is minimized, or keep their face towards where the sun is behind the clouds. If you need to, lighten up their eyes just a bit when you process the photos, but don’t overdo it. The goal should be to always keep people looking natural.