I want to have a little heart to heart with you.  As of late, I have felt the need for some changes to my business and so I wanted to write this post in order to share them.   I have high hopes these changes will make this business better and rekindle my passion for what I’m doing.  So please hang in there, as I explain these feelings.

Recently I’ve been in a slump.  I’m not sure if it was this busy fall season that drained me, but I’ve been hard-pressed to find my usual inspiration, drive, and yes that passion I mentioned above.  Please don’t misunderstand me. In my heart of hearts I still love photography. I love meeting new clients, having those continued relationships with returning clients, exploring my creativity through photography, the giddiness at coming home from a session and finding those images that I just can’t wait to edit and share with you. Lastly, my favorite part is reading just how much I’ve touched your hearts through my work.

But herein lies the problem. I’ve been stretching myself far too thin.  In addition to photography and full time job, I have 3 marvelous children at home.  For every hour I spend taking pictures I spend many more editing and doing everything else it takes to get them to you.  When I decided to share my love and passion with you all it did turn into a business and every business needs to reassess itself on occasion to stay viable.  I am the primary supporter of my family and my time away from them is more valuable to me than I could ever hope to put into words, as any parent can understand.  Children grow up far too fast to take for granted the time we have with them.  If I’m going to continue to share my talent and passion, I feel that I need do a better job of aligning how I go about charging for my talent and more importantly my time.   This is where I have trouble however, because I loathe the “business” side of having a business. 

When I first decided to take my love of photography from a hobby to a business I wanted nothing more than for my prices to be fair and affordable to all families who wanted to be able to preserve loving memories.  I truly do not want to lose the bonds I have developed with you all. I’ve so loved being allowed to experience and document so many of your little ones from the time they were newborns until now.  As anyone with a business does, I feared that by raising my prices, my current client base would stop coming to me and find someone who charges less. My hope is that people will choose me because they love my work, talent, and style and not only that I’m the cheapest around.  This love of mine never started out about the money and honestly it still isn’t.  That’s why I’ve decided the best way to go about this is to adjust how I charge for my time. 

By this point I am sure you are all wondering what the changes are so here you go…

1. Instead of offering a mini session and a full, I will now only offer one length of session and will be limiting how many images you will receive.  It will be up to one hour of Lifestyle photography for $200 and one high resolution CD of 25-30 edited images.  This fall I overbooked myself, not allowing me enough time to do my edits in a timely fashion, causing you all to wait longer to receive your pictures.  I need to be or should say want to be “at home” more with my family and not spending all my time there editing.  By shortening the time, I will have fewer photos to edit and more time to edit the ones I do take. This really is a good thing since it means I can focus more on each session giving them the time they deserve. It will still include everything else I’ve offered in the past.  However, I may still offer seasonal mini sessions.

2. I will be limiting the number of indoor sessions I offer.  Most of these are done during the winter and therefore the school year.  I just don’t have the time to put in each week like I did in the past.  This one is really important to me.  My two oldest started kindergarten and I absolutely love to volunteer in their classrooms, I want to be able to have the time to do that & to help with their school work at night.  I’ve learned that my true passion is in Lifestyle photography; going outside into nature, tromping in the mud, lying on the ground, scaling a wall or doing whatever else it takes to get the shot.  These sessions are my absolute favorite!

Thanks for taking your time to read this!  I sincerely hope these changes bring a brighter and better future for me and my business.  Thank you so much to all of you who have allowed me to be a part of capturing your memories in the past.  Without you this business wouldn’t be as rewarding for me as it has been.

If you are related to the Hoppers you can be guaranteed a few laughs when you are together!  I work with Jaime and I love photographing her family. She invited me to come to their large family gathering to take some group photos, but of course I can't just take posed pictures... had to have some fun shots too.  This group was game for anything.  With this mesh of families Jaime decided to name their gallery of photos: Longoriasockridertackettcastellanohopper!   All of their last names together.  I love it!

Thank you Nick and Kristen for allowing me to take Parker's photographs!