How are you my friend? Welcome back! In the last episode, you heard a whole earful on practicing awareness and why it matters. That convo continues here with a story from Kelly Wagner— who has been photographing all her life!

Ok, let that sink for a moment.

She shares how through going through The Preservation Project expanded her own awareness and intentional connection.

I’m so ridiculously passionate about us having a mental break from the to-dos and the attempts at “getting there.” At the end of the day, THIS is the work that matters that we mistakenly think we’ve got a grip on for various reasons.

Enjoy the story.

Full transcription (& Gut Check Questions for you at the end):

Marie: Kelly, thank you so, so much for agreeing to come on to the podcast with me today. I know this is your first podcast episode, so welcome!

Kelly: It is. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Marie: Can you give a quick introduction of who you are and what you do?

Kelly: I’m mostly hobbyist photographer. I do photography a little bit for some friends and family when they need it, but I don’t really officially have my business all set up, so mostly, it’s just hobby photographer.

Marie: You’re in Maryland, right?

Kelly: Yes.

Marie: Awesome. Kelly, you sent me an email in the middle of February that made me just about fall off of my chair, and part of what you wrote and why, it was this:

“Since I started listening to the Intentional Documentary Podcast and have taken your Preservation Project course, I’ve been more diligent in documenting my life and the people, moments, and memories that mean so much to me. I have found a new and better appreciation for my photographs.”

For those of you listening, this is not a big old success story for The Preservation Project. That’s not my intention. I want to highlight that last sentence that Kelly said:

“I have found a new and better appreciation for my photographs.”

Kelly, what was photography and documenting like for you before you crossed paths with the podcast and the program?

Kelly: I’ve always had a camera in my hand for as long as I can remember. I love taking photographs, mostly of my family. I have tons and tons of pictures on my computer, on my smartphone, and all these different devices… and I don’t feel like I was really doing anything with them.

I wanted to have some kind of meaning to my photographs.

I wanted my kids to be able to look at those photographs and look at them and kind of think, “Well, why did my mom take this picture? What was so important about it?” or even when my family, when they look back at the pictures, too, having them look at them and think, “Why did she take the pictures? What was the meaning of them?”

Marie: Would you say you already had this mindset of documenting the things that are important and that matter for you?

Kelly: Yes.

Marie: Yeah, and so that, the problem was then just that they were kind of collecting and collecting and collecting, and they didn’t have a real purpose.

Kelly: Yep.

Marie: Okay. My next question is, what would you say, before crossing paths with me, is different in how you were seeing versus today, after going through … just listening to the podcast and the program?

Kelly: I was just kind of just taking pictures each day, day in and day out. I knew the kind of pictures that I like to take. I like to do documentary style, so, I mean, I feel like those kind of pictures have a story to tell, but it was just a different way…

After doing the Preservation Project, I found a different way of using those pictures to tell a story, to have a deeper purpose or a deeper meaning to the photographs that I take.

Marie: I love that. I’m finding that a lot of people have this mentality of, “Well, I’m already documenting my life, and I know that I’m supposed to print my pictures. I know I’m supposed to organize my pictures. I don’t need to spend money for somebody to tell me to do that.”

They look at the Preservation Project with an assumption that they’re already doing what this Preservation Project is supposed to give them. Going back to what you had said, “I have found a new and better appreciation for my photographs,” and what you just said—that you’ve found this just different way of using them that has this deeper meaning…

What would you say to those people looking at The Preservation Project like, “Well, I’m already doing that. I don’t need it.”

Kelly: I would just say just, it’s not just your pictures. As far as the Preservation Project, it’s taking a second to just reflect on what your life as a whole means to you—your family life and the things that you do day in and day out that you enjoy now, that maybe five years from now is going to be completely different.

I mean, it’s worth taking the time to just document that, just silly things that your kids do or fun things that you do as a family. It’s not always about taking photographs. I mean, it’s nice to have the photograph there to tell the story and to have it to remember, but it’s also being present in the moment and just enjoying the time right then and there.

Marie: There was another participant named Matthias. He shared a photo of his wife in the nursery for their daughter, or her bedroom, I forget exactly. She’s pregnant with baby number two, and she fell asleep. He shared in the group how going through this (TPP) process, instead of just that autopilot mode we get into so often as photographers—see moment, grab camera—he actually paused and felt something first. He talked about what a big shift that was for him. Did you experience moments like that, too?

Kelly: I did. Yes. Absolutely.

Marie: You already kind of touched on this with just how it’s about looking at your life as a whole. It’s not just about photography and documenting, per se.

This carried over into connecting with your family. Can you share the story about your time spent with your uncle?

Kelly: Sure. I found out last March that my uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I knew that I wanted to do something special for them, so I asked if I could take family pictures on their farm. They said, “Of course. Definitely. We would love that.”

I did that, and I ordered some wall art for them to have in their home. I also put together all the pictures and made a slideshow for them that was set to music.

It was so special, just seeing them look at the slideshow.

Finding wisdom in this ep? Pin this image: 

It was never my intention to make them cry, but they did.

It made me feel really good, because I was able to give them that time in their life to take it all in. They knew that shortly after, their dad wouldn’t be there that much longer. Seeing them look at the pictures and everything was just really neat for me to see.

Then, them opening their wall art and seeing their facial expressions and to have them actually see it on their walls was really powerful.

Marie: Yeah. No kidding. You’d also said in your email about the time spent with him at the hospital, you had a conversation with him and even his daughter said, “I didn’t know that about you, dad.”

You wrote, “I’m thankful for having him in my life and for the Preservation Project to make it a priority to connect with the people that matter most to us.” I’m really curious around what was it that became amplified through the Preservation Project to make you show up a little bit differently.

Kelly: Mm-hmm. I would say The Preservation Project, the connection part was definitely what I wanted to share the most, and that was about my uncle with this terminal illness.

It (TPP) was a way for me to, just to connect with someone without having to take a picture or do anything like that or to have any kind of obligation to do it. It was something that I wanted to do.

I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to know what things he enjoyed in his life and the things that he disliked and just to get to know him overall as a person and to ask him questions that maybe his family wouldn’t even have thought to ask, or maybe they were questions that they’ve already asked him before and maybe already knew the answers to.

Marie: Yeah, and I can see how just being in the environment of our group can kind of make those kind of conversations front of mind. In a lot of cases, we’re just living our day-to-day life. We kind of forget about these kinds of conversations.

You know?