Photography And Me In 2014
First blog post of 2014!! You may have noticed that I've been a little MIA lately...
...That's because life got a little hectic, and the learning curve in keeping up with my work/work/life balance was a little bit of a steep one. While I was able to keep up with work... and work... and life... fitting social media in there proved to be a little too much, so rather than stressing myself out about HAVING to post on my Facebook page, or HAVING to blog... I just didn't.
Probably not the best idea as far as online presence and SEO are concerned, but hey... I did what I had to do for the time being and now I'm back!
That being said, 2013 was an eventful year for me. I moved, with my husband and cat-child, to Nashville, networked, made friends, got a part time job working for the most awesome company in the world (Apple... No, you can't argue with me on that. I won't let you win. The Kool-Aid has been drunk ;) ), so Keith and I could keep up with our expenses after our savings account took a massive hit (read: is no longer in existence) after our move. I made some pretty big adjustments to the way I do my business, I made new awesome and amazing senior portrait clients, I re-learned what retail during Christmas is like, I reflected a lot about what I want to be doing with my life and my photography business, as well as sorting out some personal photographic goals -- I mean... I did a lot. That may not sound like a lot... but there really was rarely a moment were I felt like I wasn't moving... It was kind of an exhausting year, haha. But don't get me wrong... it was a GOOD year.
And now we're 13 days into 2014 and moving forward.
There are still a lot of changes and improvements to be made, learning experiences to be had, and more awesomeness all around.
I haven't really been verbalizing what it is I have planed for myself and my business this year, but I assure you, I'm pretty excited about it all... no matter how big or how subtle it may be.
In a personal statement earlier this month I finally decided how I felt about the past year and the year going forward:
2013 was a year of adjustment. 2014 is going to be year of doing.
That's it. That's what I've decided.
So this year, I plan to return to learning lots more (not that I ever stopped learning, but there was certainly a slowdown period this year with everything going on), and I want to do more personal shoots. I want to take steps forward in making my business better all around, for my clients and for myself. There's a ton of things that need doing, and I can't wait to get to them. That being said... I also can't wait to implement a new time-management workflow that will allow me to balance my work/work/life a little bit more effectively. My clients will still get their product within the same amount of time... but I'll be able to spend more time with my husband... or my cat... or my friends... by the fire in the backyard... playing video games... reading... READING... oh man... I remember when I used to read... haha.
Anyway, it's gonna be a good year. I can feel it.
Keep an eye out for what I have officially dubbed "catchup posts". There are some images that I have sitting on my hard drive here, that haven't yet gotten to see the light of the interwebz, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with you all! Those will be hitting the blog soon.
I'll also be returning to the Facebook Page, so if you follow me already, keep an eye out there too... and if you DON'T follow me already... CLICK THAT LINK! ;)
-Emily