As my business grows, I grow along with it. Lately I've been feeling like there has been a piece to the puzzle missing. I've successfully rebranded my business, decided that I'm going to take more of a photojournalistic/documentary style approach to photographing weddings, which was all making my heart feel like I was headed in the right direction, but I didn't feel like I was home..yet. Looking back at my childhood memories, they were all captured on film by my parents. They were the moments of everyday life. The normal. The most beautiful. Those photographs always fill me up with emotion since they were so true to life: whether it's joy, peace, sadness, excitement, and ohh soo much nostalgia.

I'm here on this earth to do the same for others. Document the REAL stuff. Not the fake crap that you don't even care to look back on. I want to give others the gift of being able to look back on the regular day to day moments they experienced in life so they can simply remember how it was and how they felt then. To me, that is such a magical experience. The 3 Ingredients that make my artistic, sentimental heart feel at home:

1. First off, I chose to specialize in photographing free-spirited & adventurous. To me these are couples (and individuals) that own exactly who they are! When someone is being real with me and doesn't hold back who they are, I automatically feel like I can just totally be myself back and that there is no judgement between the two of us. Just acceptance. That to me is beautiful and a true connection. I want to connect with my couples so that I can tell their REAL story and my heart can understand what to document. (It doesn't hurt that it's so much more fun for the both of us when we feel like it's more of a friend connection than a professional transaction!)

2. Second off, I decided to take a photojournalistic/documentary style approach to weddings. You can read more about WHY I chose to do so HERE, but in short it's so that my couples, their family and friends have soo many more REAL-ASS photos to cherish. =)

3. Thirdly, I'm choosing to adjust my editing style a little. When I edit my pictures in this way, it feels right. It feels like home. Like this is the way moments should be remembered. I can feel more emotion jumping off the picture into my heart. I FEEL the joy, peace, sadness, passion, excitement, romance, laughter, tears, hugs in the photos I'm creating and I feel like a piece of my heart and soul is wrapped up in every picture, excited for the world to feel it.

And BAM! I have found the missing ingredient my artistic, sentimental heart has been searching for. I am soo friggin excited for this wedding season it's insane! :)

Below you can see the 1st image is how I would edit my photos before, and the 2nd one below it is how I will be editing my photos from now on. It's crazy how much your past experiences can affect you so much. I believe that as a child, you are truly yourself. You don't think about what others think of you, or how you should feel about a certain something. You just are, and you just feel what you feel, and that feels great! So free! I'm so happy to say, that this is a HUGE transition into my work being SO ME and creating photographs of REAL-ASS perfectly imperfect moments for others to have to look back on! Through my business. Through my craft. Through my photos.Through my passion. Through my heart.

Follow me on Instagram for bonus posts! --> @saramonikaphoto

Toronto Documentary Wedding Photographer for Free-Spirited, Bohemian & Adventurous Couples - GTA, Vancouver, Worldwide, International, Destination