This year I get a whole 4 months off of shooting! While this may send some panicking, thinking about 4 months off of work, for me this is a welcomed respite period.  This off season follows one of my busiest seasons to date! 2017 was an amazing year for my business.  I grew so much not only as a photographer but also as a small business owner.   I learned many things all aspects of my business, from lighting techniques for receptions, detail styling and posing techniques to file organization, back of office client management and establishing boundaries and guidelines and making myself stick to them.

In 2017 I photographed 17 weddings and events as the lead photographer and 8 as a second shooter.  I photographed 12 engagement sessions and 14 portrait sessions. That is a grand total of 51 separate days I worked behind my camera.  This isn’t counting any personal family work!  It has truly been an amazing year and I am so blessed and thankful to do what I love! However, there have been things I have missed with my family.

Next year will be a little different.  I plan to scale back a little.  I will be taking less weddings and portrait sessions and being a little more strict on when I do sessions.  I plan to be better about book-keeping (ugh!), I’m going to try to blog more (we will see), and hopefully set a better work schedule.

Here is what is on the to-do list for off season:

• RELAX (idk how this is going to happen with 3 kids under 6, but I’ll try!)
• Recharge my “batteries”- wedding season burnout is a real thing and I am so looking forward to spending all the quality time with my family as I can get!
• Finally put albums together of my kid’s images.  I have 14 to make!  I am using Artifact Uprising Legacy Volumes, you can find info on them HERE.
• I will be sitting for my NCLEX-RN! If you didn’t know already I recently graduated from an LPN to RN transition program in November and will finally be sitting for my state licensure in Washington DC!
• I plan to get better at posing and and hone in on using natural light to consistently achieve those glowy images we all love so much!
• Streamline my booking process, including contracts, invoices and questionnaires

  Thank you for all your continued support this year and I cannot wait to see where 2018 brings me!

(image: Anne Canon Photography)