When I arrived last Friday afternoon to shoot a bit of Chris and Monica’s rehearsal, I pulled my car right up next to a fence. On the the other side of that fence was a pasture that took my breath away- covered in buttercups and dotted with dandelions, all I could think was “I HAVE to shoot in there.” So I hunted down the venue owner and pleaded with her to let me in, but to my everlasting dismay she told me the field didn’t belong to her- it was owned by whoever lived next to the vineyard. “You don’t want to go in there anyways, they keep cows in that field.”

Oh how wrong she was- I DID want to go in. I HAD to get in. So I walked the border of the barbed wire fence, the same fence that had a current of electricity running through it. I walked from my car to the south end, then all the way back up to the north end. No dice- I couldn’t find an entry. I was dying- the light, the wildflowers, it was too perfect! I couldn’t believe my artistic vision was going to be foiled by something as ordinary as a fence!

But then fortune showed her face in the form of an 18″ gap in the bottom of the fence. As soon as the rehearsal was over, I snagged Chris and Monica and asked if they’d be willing to climb under the fence for a few photos. Chris gave me a hesitant “I don’t think I can fit…” but Monica (bless her heart) was totally game. YES!!! So under the barbed wire, electric fence we went, Katniss Everdeen style. And the resulting images left me squealing and punching the air in triumph- they were SO beautiful (see first image below)!!

The point of that story? Sometimes tresspassing in the name of art is worth it. Notice I said “worth it,” not “legally sound.” But sometimes creating images with that extra pop of “wow!” requires a bit of risk-taking. These three sets of images were all taken in places I probably wasn’t supposed to be, but they’re all also some of my favorite images ever. I took a gamble- it could have failed miserably with me ending up disappointed in the back of a police car (exaggeration), but my risk paid off in the form of one super satisfied photographer, and clients who learn to trust my crazy whims.

Take risks. Take them when you’re shooting, when you’re blogging, when you’re dreaming up new ideas for your business. Do risks have the inherent possibility of disappointment? Absolutely! But they also push you out of your comfort zone, expanding your realm of possibilities, making you think, feel, and act with more freedom than before. My career began with a risk- after a few months of learning to shoot on an old film SLR, I realized that I desperately wanted to shoot a wedding. So with nothing more than a hunch and my gut guiding me, I dropped almost $2,000 on a brand new Nikon D300s. Could that gamble have turned out to be a complete waste of money? You betcha. The camera could have become nothing more than a paper weight. But it didn’t. It turned into something beautiful and helped shape me into the person, the artist, the creative I am today.

Happy Friday!