This one is going to be a long one so take a potty break, grab a snack and then get ready to read.

This weekend I took a little time off from shooting so that we could get some family stuff done and start a major purge and pack plan. This is such a bittersweet announcement and I’ve been trying to find the right words of how to blog about it and never really came up with anything clever so I’ll just say it.

I have been in Los Angeles for exactly 11 years. I have loved living here, there is nowhere on earth just like LA, for better or worse LA is one interesting beast. There are so many things that I love about LA but at the same time there are so many things that I could live without as well. My husband and I have decided to leave California. We want a slower paced, more community driven and more affordable way of life.

When I was talking about this to one of my best friends she said, hey why don’t you move here! She has said this to me on many occasions and we just laugh and move on to the next topic, but the last time she said it I really gave it some thought. Now after a short time to think I had it in my head that this was exactly what I wanted to do, but convincing my husband, someone who was born here and has never lived anywhere but here was going to be a hard task to accomplish. Or so I thought. I explained to him my grand ideas and plans and it probably took him about 15 minutes to say, you know what you are right, let’s do it. So with that here we go.

I’m nervous, I’m happy, I’m scared, all those things at once! When I drove my little moving truck to Los Angeles from Nashville back in 1997 I was all of those things, but now I have children, a husband and whole lotta junk to pack! I also have a wonderful and successful business with so many amazing clients that I will be leaving behind. That is the bittersweet part, the part that breaks my heart. There is always a way around that problem and several of my clients have solved that problem for me. So for my clients who would like me to continue photographing their families I will return upon request if I have a few families who would all like to have sessions around the same time. It’s a win win for me because I still get to see their smiling faces and photograph their beautiful children.

So just like Gladys Knight and The Pips who left on that Midnight Train to Georgia, I too will be doing the same. The clock is counting down and I have 61 days left here in Southern California and then we will be leaving and relocating to a little town called Dallas, GA (which is just about 30-45 minutes outside of Atlanta, or should I say HOTlanta ). My amazing friend and photographer Julia Greer and I will be working together and we will also be running our own photography businesses just like we do now. I am so excited about that, she is such a wonderful person.

My children are excited too, they are excited about our new home that we have found, the new friends they are going to make and the trip across the country. My daughter asks me every day if it’s time to go to Georgia, it’s so cute how excited she is. To all my LA blog readers, you would not believe the difference in real estate there compared to here, it is completely mind blowing at how much home you can get for your money there. For the price of one home here you could buy 4 homes there (no I’m not joking!).

I will be shooting right up until we leave and I have many wonderful clients who I will be meeting soon and photographing their little ones during my last two months here. I have a few spots open so be sure and email me asap if you are interested in booking one of the dates. I can also give you the contact information for some other wonderful photographers in the area for after I’m gone (or like I said, find a few friends and I’ll gladly come back! for your photo session!).

So…. wonderful people of Atlanta, I’m going to start booking for August now so email me if you would like to schedule a session! Ok I’ve rambled enough and I think at some point I stopped making sense and just started mumbling. To my wonderful friends and clients in LA, this is not goodbye it’s a see you later, and besides I will still be here for two months!

I’m going to start sharing California related photos for the next couple of months, and I will for sure be blogging our cross country trek (I am *so* excited about all the photo ops that will be headed our way!). So this is a photo of my street, I will miss palm trees, because the last time I checked there weren’t too many of those in Georgia.

and enjoy a little Gladys Knight & The Pips (this video is from 1973, the year I was born!)

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