I'm a lifestyle photographer in Huntsville, Alabama and if you'll give me an hour of your time, I'll give you a gift that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you see how awesome lifestyle photography can be. I recently turned an age that starts with the number 3 (I still can't say it!) I'm married to my high school sweetheart and we are blessed with 3 beautiful daughters under the age of 3. Most of the time my life is chaos and crazy, but I have to make time for what I love or else I would be to.
“When in doubt, choose the kids. There will be plenty of time later to choose the work.” — Anna Quindlen
2011 was an amazing year. I met some amazing people, made a lot of new friends along the way, and even expanded my family 2 at a time! The beginning of each new year is usually full of new projects, resolutions, and goals. And even though I don’t make resolutions (only because I know I will never keep them so why create future guilt for myself?) I am reevaluating my priorities for the upcoming year. Some of you may not know that in addition to being a wife, mommy to 3 girls under 3, and a photographer, I also work full-time as a graphic designer for a telecommunications company in Huntsville. I love my job and take pride in balancing a household, a photography business and full-time job. Most people either ask me “how do you do it?” or “are you crazy?” – the answers are “I have an amazing husband” and “yes”. But pride cannot hide the fact that I’m tired.
Let me break it down for you… I work full-time Monday through Friday – so when I get home at night (usually around 5:30), the full-time night job begins: play with the kiddos, feed twins cereal, eat dinner (which is usually prepared by the hubs), give baths, make and feed twins bottles, brush Sadie’s teeth, PJs, bedtime stories, and then lights out for all 3 by by 8:00. Then the nightly ritual of laundry, dishes, making formula, preparing bottles, cleaning out and stocking diaper bags, picking up toys and the other random household chores and responsibilities begin. Bedtime for me is usually no earlier than 10. What I’ve just laid out is the Monday – Friday routine, which by process of elimination only leaves the weekends available for sessions. But the conflict there is that I really want the majority of my weekends to be family fun time since the week is full of work and chores. It has never been more apparent that there just aren’t enough hours in the day, days in the week, or months in the year. And since you can’t create time, the only thing left to do is reevaluate and prioritize.
I’ve decided that 2012 is the year of FAMILY… the year of MY FAMILY. It is what is most important to me and it’s what I live for. I’m reminded everyday at how fast these precious babies grow up and how now that our family of 5 is complete, every “first” is also a “last first” (how’s that for deep?) In addition to family, there are things outside of photography that I want to have time for like reading, exercising, painting, traveling, and nurturing friendships. I want to have time to update all the pictures in my frames, make a family album of 2011 and try and try to keep a 365 project going. (Now that I’ve typed these out, they kind of sound like resolutions don’t they? :) I want to have time to do nothing and everything, each at my discretion.
So what does this mean for Lauren Sanderson Photography? Well, a couple of things:
- I am setting a 2 session-a-month maximum on my availability. Once I reach two booked sessions each month, I’m closing the availability on that month. Since I don’t shoot in December or January, this puts me at 20 sessions a year at most. This also means that there is only one spot open in March and April is completely booked.
- I will be be a little more selective with what kind of sessions I’m booking. I’ve been very interested in senior photography lately, and really want to start shooting more of them.
- I will be continuing with the Session+Disc Collection pricing that I rolled out in August. The feedback I’ve received from my clients has been amazing – they love knowing what they get the moment they book their session and I love that they receive each and every custom edited image.
- I moved to a new online client management system which means you will have access to your personal information, session details, electronically signed contracts and model releases, client questionnaires, online invoices and payment options. Instead of having to dig through emails, you’ll be given a username and password so you can access everything in a one spot, available at anytime.
- I’m not going to blog “fluff”. Sometimes I feel like I need to post all the time, which stresses me out trying to find things to blog about. But this year, I’m going to post my sessions as the discs are delivered and then some personal pictures once a week. I won’t be doing Before and After editing, posting What to Wear Guides (I use Pinterest for those now anyway) or participate in the I Heart Faces weekly photography challenges anymore.
- I have been tossing around the idea of doing mini sessions. In the 4 years I’ve been in business, I’ve only done one mini-session, but would like to start doing them more. If I offer a mini-session date, I will exchange one of my sessions for that month, for an afternoon of mini-sessions and offer them at a TBD discounted Mini Session+Disc rate.
That’s it in a nutshell. I’m very excited about 2012, about working with past clients and meeting new ones, and just seeing where the year takes me. I hope you’ll join the journey by subscribing to the blog or following me on Facebook.
To end the post, I’m sharing some pictures of two sweet girls… I took these pictures for their family’s Christmas cards and I loved them so much that it prompted me to take pictures like this with my own girls, which I’ll share soon.
