I (Erica) am sitting here in our quiet house. Our boys are asleep, their toys are still scattered across the living room. My couch is half put back together, but the rest of the pillows are still stacked in the remnants of a fort wall. The dishes are clean, but it's a minor miracle. The dog is curled up on my brand-new wool blanket that I should probably make him move from but he's so cozy that I can't make him move. The Christmas lights are on, and the house smells like frasier fir (and dinner and Vicks Vapor Rub and I'm-not-sure-what-else).
These kinds of days, these are it. These are the days that stories are made of. Not big stories, like my grandpa(s) used to tell. Not stories that make a whole room laugh at a punchline. Just life. The little things -- the anecdotes, if you'll humor me -- that make up the bigger story of WHO we are.
We launched Anecdotally Yours back in 2012 after several years of running separate photo and video businesses. When we did, we named ourselves this silly name because we wanted people to resonate with the idea that we are capturing anecdotes (short, biographical stories) of their life when they invite us to photograph or film them. Often, it's on a really important day or for a really important milestone. But sometimes, it's just normal, just everyday. And I'm realizing those are some of my favorite things to preserve.
"Story" has become quite a buzzword. It's in so. many. advertising messages. You can't escape it. And you know why? Because we, as humans, CARE ABOUT STORIES. Our own story and other people's stories. I promise we're not about buzzwords or targeting our marketing at you. We really care about your story, and need to get better about capturing our own.
So, in honor of stories, and you, and us caring about stories and you, let's do something fun. We're going to give away a family documentary photography session. All you have to do is comment on this blog post with a short version of your favorite personal story from 2016. Tell us something you don't want to forget about this year. Could be something big, but it could be something pretty mundane. Comment below, and we'll randomly pick someone to win a family documentary photography session!
THE DETAILS:
- For people/couples/families in the Kansas City metro area only
- Must leave a comment below with a piece of your story from 2016. Make sure you write your name in the comment if you're not logged in to a Google or Facebook account, since your post will appear as Anonymous.
- The winner will get a one-hour family documentary photo session (typically in your home. This isn't a "traditional" family, baby, or engagement session, and can't be used on a wedding day. It's more real-life documentary and less posed images!)
- Digital files included
- Photo session must be redeemed before April 1, 2017
- Entries accepted until midnight on Friday, December 9th
- Winner will be announced after the 9th here on our blog and on our new Instagram account, @anecdotallyyours
- Want an extra entry? Follow our brand new Instagram account (we're really trendsetters, just now getting a separate account for AY...) @anecdotallyyours and post a photo on your own IG of one of your favorite moments of this year and tag @anecdotallyyours in the caption (that's the only way we'll be able to count your entry!).
Also, we've just launched this new website to freshen up our look and it's exciting for us! The last 5 years of our blog posts from our old site are still missing...we're working on it. And we still have some more content to add to the photo galleries (this many years of stories is kind of lot to work through!). For now, have a look around. Let us know if anything isn't working right or if you want to see more of something.
We're thankful for you all. Thank you for sharing with us, and for trusting us to tell your stories.
