Last weekend at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, was a bit like this.  My hubby, my daughter and I decided on a quick camping escape. It was the first time putting up our new tent, and the first test of my sleeping bag.  The tent went well.  We put the rainfly on backwards at first, but that only took us a few minutes to correct.  The little one even helped with the whole process.  That night we had a blast going out with friends who live nearby.

We got back to our campsite just as it was getting dark.  We crawled into our tent and despite the neighbors being loud (it was still early so we understood) got our daughter to sleep pretty quickly.  All was well, until about 1am when it started to get really cold.  From 1am to 6am I tossed and turned.  It felt very odd, but I discovered I still got 2g service on my phone, so I laid in my sleeping bag freezing, checking Facebook and email.  Very odd to me to be connected while outdoors.  My phone told me it was 39 outside.  I was probably better off not knowing this.  I looked over and my family was sound asleep.

Before morning, I decided my sleeping bag was going back to REI, and my Chacos, that were bruising my feet.  At 6am, I stole hubby’s sleeping bag for 10 minutes and warmed up!  By 7am we found coffee and, despite my lack of sleep, I was excited for the day.  We drove over to Harper’s Ferry park, and left the car about a mile from where we were headed.  I tossed our 4 year old on my back in my Ergo, and enjoyed the walk.

A few minutes later I discovered my hiking boots were breaking.  After some thought, I realized they are 15 years old and have seen many miles.  About 1/4 mile later, the sole pretty much fell off.  Still we walked around (barefoot for a bit for me) and enjoyed a fun outdoor lunch.  Back at camp, I was thrilled to see the camp store sold flip flops.  We went swimming, roasted marshmallows, hotdogs, and played Go Fish.

We forgot half the stuff we meant to bring, and I had a complete gear failure, but we still had an awesome weekend!

Camping.  Since having my daughter, over four years ago, we have only gone camping once.  I used to camp in primitive campsites, or on rare occasion, backpack overnight.  Having a baby just changes everything, but as she is getting older I really want to share some things that I have always loved with her.  Getting outdoors is definitely one of those.

I was a little scared moving the Washington DC area that there would not be much hiking or camping.  I have been so pleasantly surprised that there are tons of parks, and trails.  Plus being out in Virginia gives me a pretty quick escape to Shenandoah or West Virginia.

Over a year and a half ago, we took the little one camping for the first time, in Oregon.  We made sure the place had bathrooms, and big drive up sites.  We bought her a children’s sleeping bag from REI, and she helped put up the tent.  We roasted marshmallows.  We had an absolute blast.

Somehow time has passed, as it tends to do too quickly.  This winter, I insisted we buy a new family tent big enough for all of us to be comfie in, and I finally replaced my 10+ year old Cats Meow sleeping bag.  (It served me well for many trips, including a few snowy nights and a particularly wet cold one in the Olympic Mountains that hubby may never forgive me for.)  Yesterday we went through our basement, and had fun sorting through all our camping stuff.  I dedicated a corner of my office so it’s easy to toss it all in the car, and am very excited for our first spring trip!

Here’s a photo from a hike in Washington at Mount Saint Helens.

It was a fun portrait session, and great getting to know another photographer (and mom)!

First a few of Joanne…

And a couple favorites that she took of me.

Thank you so much Joanne!

So with a deep breath, and a purring cat beside me, I’m sitting here thinking about my business goals for 2012.

1.  Establish office hours for myself.  I want my family to know when to expect me to be working, and most importantly that when it is not office hours (or when I’m out working with a client) I can give them my full attention.

2.  Make the business side of things a priority.  I am an artist.  I don’t like dealing with numbers and much prefer Photoshop to Quickbooks.  This year, I will take one day at the end of each month to keep my bookkeeping clean, be aware of all the numbers, and find ways to simplify the process.  Step number one is already taken.  I am meeting with an accountant to discuss planning this week.

3.  Take my customer service level from great to exceptional.  I just love when businesses go out of there way to provide exceptional service.  I’m a small business and I get to know each of my clients personally.  I just want to find ways to make sure they know I appreciate being chosen as their wedding or family photographer.

4.  Blog regularly.  I’m not committing to an exact number, but I need to find balance and blog 2-5 times a week.  I believe in blogs.  If a company catches my interested, I go to there blog pretty quickly.  I want to hear the voice of who I am dealing with, and see what types of things they talk about.  I think brides benefit from knowing who I am.  I want you to choose a photographer whose work you love, and who you really click with.  (Sorry about the pun, not intended.)

5.  Be me.  I recently ditched my wedding packages in favor of simple pricing, something that goes against what any sales publication will recommend.  On the opposite side, I recently turned down a wedding I really wanted to photograph because what the bride wanted didn’t coincide with my policies.  Thinking back I could have just went with my gut.  In the future, I am giving myself liberty to break my own rules, incorporate things I believe in as part of my business, and just go with what feels right.

6.  Expand my family portrait business.  I love weddings, and plan to keep photographing as many as last year.  I enjoy the diversity of working with families too, especially maternity and newborns.  Photographing in a lifestyle manner, I love capturing the little moments.  My favorite is when one of my brides calls me a year or two later to ask me to photograph her new baby.  As part of this, I would like to photograph a birth.  I’m scared out of my mind to do it, which means I should.  Our doula photographed a lot of my labor and immediately after my daughter was born.  I treasure these photos.  (Thanks Taffy!)

7. Print my photos, and encourage my clients to do the same.  This is the most important.  I need to print samples.  I need to print personal photos.  I also need to convince every single one of you to make prints of your photos too.  Yes, I believe in professional quality prints, especially for the big 20×30 enlargements.  More so I just want everyone to get their photos off their computer and onto paper, in a book, on the wall, on the fridge… anywhere as long as they can be seen and shared.

8.  Make all this pretty.  I’m working on making my blog, website, and all those branding things pretty, or at least cohesively me.  Oh, and this includes my office too!

Here’s a favorite from a recent family portrait session.  New little feet to start the new year!

Last year at this time I was packing up my house, and planning our move to Virginia.  Yesterday I officially finished unpacking, after our move last month to a bigger home.  I still have a ton of organizing, decorating and all that, but the boxes are gone!  Last year, my daughter was young enough for us to have Christmas early.  On December 22nd, we declared it Christmas and opened presents.  On the 23rd we took down the tree.  We were planning on starting our cross country drive on Christmas morning, so my hubby could get to his new job in Mclean by January 2nd.

It took us longer than we had planned to pack, and on Christmas day we were still loading the final ABF moving cube.  Dan was outside in the pouring rain and dark that night finishing up the final items.  I was upstairs getting Mackenzie to sleep in a sleeping bag on her bedroom floor, where we all camped the last night at our house.

The doorbell rang.  Our neighbor was standing there with Christmas dinner on a plate with forks, all heated!  It was the best Christmas gift ever.  We had no food left in our house, and had been eating fast food for days.  Every utensil was packed.  I was so amazed at her thoughtfulness, and a year later am still thankful.  With a growing heap of presents under the tree, I told Mackenzie this story and how giving like our neighbor did is truly what Christmas is about.

Dan pulled out his old camera.  I’m pretty sure this camera came along with him when we moved in together in 2000.  He picked it up, turned it on, and snapped a photo.  The batteries still worked.  Film may be a little grainy after all these years but I’m guessing images will still turn out.  Just so simple.

At the same time, my daughter recently made the statement that we don’t have any baby photos of her.  We do have some on the walls and more than we can count on my computer.  We have fallen really behind though on keeping a printed photo album like we did for years and years.  Mackenzie will be four in less than a month.  I last updated my printed album when she was about 3 months old.  This is something that I definitely believe it and will get back to… this winter.

I just found it very interesting because there is a little part of me that misses film.  I do love the ease and instant gratification of digital though.  This isn’t meant to be a which is better post actually.  Just a reality check to remember to make prints.

Clients buy digital packages a lot these days.  I strongly encourage clients to at least do the little upgrade to include printed proofs in their package.  In fact, I sell the printed proofs just slightly over cost because I really really want everyone to have them.  So whether it be personal shots taken with your iphone, or professional photographs, I encourage you to make some prints, even 4×6 for an old fashioned album or photo box.

There is just something about sitting down and flipping through a book…

Here is a personal photo of the beach at Manzanita, Oregon, on a foggy morning.

Yes, this post is driven by caffeine.

For fun, I present to you Gracie Joy, my ten year old cat.  This is actually taken 5 years ago, with my first digital Nikon camera.

We moved just a mile, within Reston.  I am super excited about the new place, and to decorate my new office. Speaking of my new office, I am sitting here with it in disarray.  For that matter, my bedroom, my bathroom,  kitchen… well you get the point, are all in disarray.  But I am officially back to work.  For the last 10 days, I’ve been answering clients on my ipad, digging in a box to find decent shoes to wear to a meeting, and such.  So I may be surrounded by boxes but my desk is setup with my 23 inch lcd seeming very large after days of mobile work.

A couple weeks ago, I did a family portrait exchange with Doug Pettway (who is awesome and an incredibly talented photographer).  We met at Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia.  Being the holidays, I thought it would be a good time to share a couple favs that he took of my family.  (More coming about our day and Doug’s family photos.)

It’s end of peak wedding season, so I’m thinking about albums.  With moving to Washington DC last year, I never even ordered a 2010 wedding album sample, something I usually do every year.  So I think that means I get two new ones this year, right?  I’m eyeing the gorgeous handmade albums from Red Tree for a new flushmount… just ordered paper samples!!!  My Kiss ones are great but I want something with a few more options.  Red Tree  has cameo’s and personal printing on the cover.  Best of all, Japanese silk or luxurious leather covers.

I’m also thinking about less fun things, my books… taxes, records, all that non-creative stuff that I must do as a business owner.  Yes, that is all I have to say about that.

Back to fun, marketing goodness: more updates to my blogsite, a new 2012 / 2013 weddings brochure.  This is the area of the business that could put me into the red if I’m not careful.  Okay, not really but I’m a sucker for printed books and pretty papers and designing and re-designing things.

Even more fun, I’ve been spending time meeting with brides!  Coffee, frozen yogurt, a glass of wine.  It’s so fun to get out and just hear about everyone’s wedding plans, and your stories.

Personally, I’m moving to a new home, just a mile away.  It’s won’t affect my business in anyway, except for having a better office, but it’s keeping me busy.  In fact, I’m about to sign off from work for the next 36 hours and dive into a pile of boxes, which are unfortunately mostly still empty!

A photo for fun.  I love the beach, so this image relaxes me.  It’s looking out at the Chesapeake Bay from Love Point at Kent Island.

My blogsite update has taken a temporary backseat, but I still have plans to put on all the touches I promised, as the colder months approach us.  For now, I must take the rest of the afternoon off to spend with my family and enjoy an afternoon of fall, my favorite season.

Check back soon, for lots of new photos.  In the meantime, catch up with me on Facebook and see some more previews from Gretchen & Lauren’s wedding.

Below is a photo taken hiking in Washington at Mount Saint Helens National Monument. It was taken in the fall about five years ago, with my first Nikon. I used to hike a lot, and can’t wait to find some new places to explore in Virginia.