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.

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!

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.

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.

So my things I love post this week, the little moments…

It was my hubby’s birthday and we were sitting in our living room, watching him open presents. I was taking photos, and my daughter wanted to join in. I got out my old Nikon D50 and handed it to her. Notice that she already knows how to hold it correctly?

The internet started out as such a text based thing, and pinterest just turns it all into visuals. You see something you like you pin it. You can search other people’s boards on their site and repin items, or just pin as you are web surfing. It takes bookmarks to a new level, especially if you are a visual person. I could just stare at the pretty little tiles the boards form, for hours.

Here’s a copy of “My Pins” section. Pretty, right?

Not just pretty though, it’s useful. You can use it to plan your wedding. You can create a board of wedding dresses, or flowers, or details. You can use it to share you who are with others, or to create reminders of ideas for yourself. I just created a board for branding inspiration. I’m using it to gather up ideas of what I like, to create a better more me blogsite. The possibilities are endless.

Instead I enjoyed the time.  My daughter and I hung out on a brick wall by the pavilion, with her on my lap, eating a chocolate chip scone.  It was the biggest scone ever.  Do scones count as eating healthier?  I think not, but it was made from a small local bakery with natural ingredients at least.  That has to count for something.

We walked around the historic downtown area, and then got serious.  The little one went in her stroller.  My big Trader Joe’s canvas bag came out, and back to the market we went.  We got to taste sweet white peaches, and compare them to the more traditional yellow ones.  I saw apples that I didn’t recognize, and asked about it.  Tart, great for baking… not for me (can’t even bake pre-made cookie batter).  This is why the obsession though, to be able to ask someone involved in growing the fruit about it.

We came home with a huge pile of peaches, sweet tiny plums, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, a tiny cantelope, and more.  Jadie (my daughter) and I hung out in the kitchen snapping green beans this afternoon, which I steamed, then seared for dinner.  They were amazingly delicious.  So now, I just spent the last 30 minutes learning about how a csa works, and now here I am blogging about fruits and vegetables instead of photography!

In fall of 2005, we moved to Portland, Oregon. We found a little house to sublet in East Portland, with a big yard and great neighbors that liked to bring us fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from their gardens. In 2006, we decided we were ready to buy our own home. Little did we know, as we closed on our first house, in Beaverton, Oregon (actually an unincorporated part of Washington County called Aloha), that I was pregnant.

Left: 600 sq foot East Portland sublet | Right: Our first home

About eight years had passed since starting working in Information Technology, and I was photographing personal stuff (nature, my cats, and street photography). I had just bought my first digital camera about 6 months prior, a Nikon D50. I was still amazed at the ease of digital compared to film. I knew I was done with IT, but wasn’t sure what direction to go, so I was taking some classes in multimedia and web design. I knew I needed to find a way to merge my creativity with my career. By mid-way through pregnancy I also knew I could not leave my baby everyday to go to a job I disliked. I was 34 and ready to finally do what I meant to do all along.

I didn’t have a plan though. I knew nothing about running a business. Like so many other photographers, I thought it was simple. I’d put an ad on craigslist and charge $100 a session for portraits, and shoot 4 per weekend, handing over the digital files. I’d put up a website, hand out cards, and so on. This was truly as far as I thought it out.

I quickly learned that there is a lot more to starting a photography business. Particularly I realized that a new mom can not work at home with a baby by my side all day, and that I could not possible profit or even break even at the prices I initially set. So I revamped my pricing structure, upgraded my gear, absorbed myself in SEO, did some pay per click advertising, and learned to work every second my hubby was home, or while the little one slept in a sling on me.

I had never planned on photographing weddings.  I was interested in photographing families and babies originally.  Then, when my daughter was six month old, I photographed my first wedding, for a friend.  I was hooked.  I loved the pace, the emotions and the story.  With those wedding photos on my website, the inquiries started coming in.

Having a background and education in film photography definitely gave me an edge.  I learned a lot of the business end, from an online group, Starting a Wedding Photography Business, and reading books.  About a year in, I became part of a local group of photographers called Click Chicks.  I was amazed at how helpful other photographers were, and try to always pass that on now.   Just over three years later, having relocated across the country to Washington DC, here I am starting over in a way.  It’s much easier with experience, knowledge and a portfolio!

So that’s it, without all the nitty gritty details, that would take an entire blog of their own.