Refreshed {Personal}

Wow! It has been a long time since I wrote a blog! But I promise, I'm going to keep up with it better this year. As a matter of fact, a lot of things are going to be better this year. As many of you know I was on a pretty long and big break last year. And with good reason, our family of 3 turned into a family of 4 the end of last year! :) This break has done so much for me.

For starters, I have been spending so much quality time with my family, something that I was beginning to lose the prior 2 years in beginning photography.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed spending this quality time with my family. I took on a few sessions last year but not nearly as many as I usually would have. And that's when I decided that I would only offer a limited amount of sessions this year. For many reasons, not only will I not be away from my family longer (away physically and mentally during editing) but I also have realized just how much more relaxed time I spent editing portraits. This relaxed time really showed in my work. I did not feel rushed while editing portraits, and for my clients they should not have rushed looking portraits they should have amazingly done portraits that will create memories that really will last a lifetime.

I have also been learning! Studying! Looking into everything possible. I have been reading quite a lot about my camera so that I can produce better quality images. I have also been studying my editing style and deciding what makes "me". I have also been studying my family a lot closer. How beautiful it is to learn and gain knowledge!

Lastly I have been using resources to rethink my pricing and get more organized into how I will do sessions, what the pricing of those sessions will be. I have been toggling between making sessions affordable but at the same time not losing money to do so. I have already decided two major things. For starters I will be much more focused on quality or quantity. Having 50 portraits is really great, but if I had to choose between 50 pretty good portraits, or 10 EXCELLENT portraits, I would personally choose the 10. But that's just me, and going by that, that is why I have decided to choose the quality aspect. Another important thing I have learned is to not compete nor compare myself to local photographers. Sure I may not be the cheapest in my town, nor the highest. But that's ok. I do not want a client who comes to me with the thought process of, "Well she's cheap and offers 100 portraits I want her to do our family portraits." I would rather have clients who think "I don't care how much she is, I love her style and I want HER to do our portraits!"

I have decided to offer mini-sessions for one week during a month. Most individuals do this by doing a marathon, but after doing many of these I would get worn out and begin to not perform my best towards the end of the marathon. And let's not even talk about editing all those portraits at one time. I will offer 2-3 mini-sessions each afternoon for a week.

I have some really wonderful ideas, plans, creative sessions planned and I cannot wait to meet all of my new clients (aka friends) this year!!! 

Thank you all for being so patient with me! I now feel so refreshed and organized and ready to offer the absolute best photography that I can offer! 

<3 Jess