So, we are 3.5 weeks into 2016 and I am finally getting around to my annual year in review blog post.  Seriously, I always think to myself, life won’t get any crazier, CAN’T get any crazier, and then it always does.  Without fail.  And I know all of you parents, and especially all of my fellow working mommas get it.  Life with young kids and a full time gig is exhausting.  And awesome.  And exhausting.  😉

So, let’s start with things on the home front for me.  We are loving life in Pulaski.  The longer we live here (it was 3 years in November), the more we love our little town.  It’s finally starting to feel like home.  Because I grew up in a small town, I had prepared myself for being the outsiders for a while, the ‘new people’ who didn’t know anyone.  But now, because of all of the activities the kids are involved in, we are starting to make some friends, get to know more people in town and do more things with the other parents.  I love walking through the grocery store and recognizing faces and actually knowing some names now!

The kids are all doing awesome.  Eddie is 7.5 and in 2^nd grade.  He’s SUCH a little man.  So mature and wise beyond his years.  He is doing amazing in school.  One thing I wanted for my kids is to be great readers as I think it can take you so far in life.  Well Ed is reading at a level well above where he is supposed to END his 2^nd grade year at…and it is only January!  I can’t wait to see how he is doing in May.  And I am not going to lie, I was a bit worried about my kids and math.  Because, well, I was HORRIBLE at it.  I mean, just God awful.  (The only reason I passed my senior year Pre-calc class is because my teacher let me do an extra credit project on Brett Favre…that had absolutely NOTHING to do with calculus).  But Ed is doing really great with math as well.  The kid is a hard worker, he never gets in trouble and is just an awesome kid.  His love for the game of football continues to increase and he is now just as crazy a Packer fan as his dad and I are.  After the tough playoff loss, there were tears in his eyes when he told me ‘we’ll for SURE be in the Superbowl next year’.   He is a Cub Scout, plays baseball in the spring, football in the fall and can’t decide if he wants to be a pro football player or a country music singer when he grows up.

Our middle kiddo, Bobby, is 5.5 now and in kindergarten.  This little man is night and day different than his brother.  Where Eddie has lots of interests and things he likes to do, Bobby is sort of a ‘fly by the seat of his pants’ type kid.  He is doing really well in school and has tons of friends.  He’s definitely the social butterfly of my kids.  He’ll talk to and plays with any kid that is around his age and is always talking about his buddies and having sleepovers.  After watching ‘The Mighty Ducks’ this fall, he decided that he wanted to join a hockey team.  Since this was the first thing he showed interest in (he played t-ball in the summer but did more digging in the dirt with his glove than actual baseball playing), we immediately signed him up for a team in Shawano.  So now, 3 times a week my husband drives the 30 minutes to Shawano for practices and games.  It took him a few weeks to actually be able to skate but now he is getting the hang of it.  I’m not sure if it’s something he’ll stick with, but even though the travel back and forth stinks, I hope he sticks it out for at least a couple of years.  Bob is also the MOST fabulous big brother in the world.  That little man adores his baby sister and the two of them play for hours together.  He is so kind and gentle with her, it’s just the sweetest darn thing.

And last but not least, there is our little Josephine.  She turned 2 in August and is just the most fantastic little lady ever.  If you have followed my FB page at all you know that she is still a little stinker sometimes (we still use the nickname ‘the little witch’ quite often), but honestly, the older she gets, the better she behaves.  She was a bit delayed in her speech, but it seems to be coming along quite nicely now.  She has a hard time with certain sounds so only those of us who see her every day understand what she says, but she’ll get there.  She is still gigantic for her age.  She is quickly outgrowing her 3t clothes and will soon be in  4t.  And she doesn’t turn 3 until August.  She joins in on her brothers rough housing and doesn’t hesitate at all.  Just throws herself in between them and usually it’s the boys that come out hurt.  She is a beast! I love that she can fend for herself.  She is currently obsessed with the movies Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid.  She also LOVES baby dolls and everything that goes along with them.  She almost always has one of her babies in her arms and is feeding, burping or (her personal favorite) undressing her baby and putting him down for a nap.  There are half naked baby dolls all over this house!  It’s crazy to me how quintessentially ‘girl’ she is.  Being that I am not a very girly girl, I never pushed dolls or Barbies or ‘girl’ toys at her, yet it seems those are the only ones she is drawn to.  And I really dislike the colors pink and purple, yet she is obsessed with those two colors.  Every time she gets to choose something, she chooses the ‘poh-ple’ one.  

And that brings us to the business portion of this little update.  Now, before I started this blog post, I went back and re-read my year in review post from January 2015.  In it I made all of these claims and statements about how crazy busy 2014 was and how I would be taking on so much less work in 2015.  Well, um, yeah, that didn’t happen.  Not by a LONG shot.  I had such good intentions and then I caved and ended up taking on WAY more work that I wanted to last year.  For example, in 2014 I shot over 240 sessions.  I told myself I would take far less than that in 2015.  Well, in 2015 I shot over 270 sessions.  At least 30 more than 2014.  Total craziness.  Couple that with the 15 weddings I shot and things got real loony, real quick last year.  I was a total wreck in October.  I mean, I am a wreck EVERY October, but this one pushed me over the edge.  It took me 11 weeks to get my last wedding of the year completed and that was the longest I had ever taken on a wedding edit.  Sessions were taking the full two weeks to get edited as well.  There just weren’t enough hours in the day to get all of my work done along with all of my momma duties as well.

So this year, things are a changing and they are changing for real this time.  From now through mid-June I have no more than 6-7 photo shoots scheduled each week.  And that is that.  I am not taking on more.   I have been turning away at least 3-4 new clients away every week.  I feel awful doing it because there is no way for them to know that I book out so far in advance unless they religiously follow my Facebook page, but still, I refuse to make my life even more crazy by taking on more than I can handle.   I’m hoping that by doing that, I can get back to getting sessions edited and galleries sent out within 7-8 days instead of the 13-14 it was taking me last year.  Plus maybe, I won’t have to be tied to my computer every night as I was last year.  Hoping that I can spend a bit more time with my kiddos so they don’t cry every time I enter my office.

Also, weekend shoots are now a thing of the past.  I cut down on them tremendously last year, but I still did them every so often.  This year, I am just not going to do them.  With shooting weddings on so many Saturdays, I am taking the rest of my weekends off to hang with the kids.  To go up north, to go visit friends, basically to do anything but work.  Now, I completely understand that some people need weekend shoots due to work schedules and family coming from out of town.  When I am contacted by someone who just cannot make a weekday session work, I always give them the names of some of my trusted photographer friends who are willing to shoot on weekends and accommodate their schedules.  Maybe one day I will get back into shooting more than just weddings on weekends, but for now while the kids are still young, it is not on my radar.

Session pricing went up a bit last year so if you haven’t checked out the prices on my website lately, please do so.  This year I am going to try to shoot an email to all clients before their session that will let them know what the session fee will be on the day of our shoot.  Hopefully that helps with any confusion the day of.  And the print minimum in order to get the disc of images and copyright release has changed a bit as well.  For family sessions the print purchase minimum is now $200($150 for disc only).  For maternity, child, newborn and all other shoots, it is $170($125 for disc only).

Now let’s talk about availability.  It seems like every year I book up more quickly than the last.  I hate asking people to book their shoots 6-12 months in advance, but that seems to be what people are doing these days and if you want your photos taken during a specific time of year, it is what I recommend doing.  For 2016 I am completely booked from now through mid-August.  So for the next 7 months!  I expect to start booking more heavily now for the months of August-October and fully expect to be completely booked for the entire year by March.   I know, it is total craziness.  I will try to keep everyone posted via Facebook and on my website as to how much availability I have for the remainder of the year.

As for weddings, 2016 is completely booked (15 weddings total this year).  And I have 6 weddings booked for 2017 already! And here is a fun little stat for you—4 of those 6 weddings are in the months of January and February of next year! Definitely not the norm, but I love that more people are doing winter weddings. (I LOVE snow filled wedding pics!)  Now, I am only taking on 12 weddings in 2017.  I have decided to cut back from 15 to 12 for the next few years while the kids are still young.   So, if you are getting married in 2017 and thinking you might want me to capture the day for you, shoot me an email as soon as you can so we can chat.

One thing I really wanted to address this year is expectations and trust.  Now, I am just going to come out and say it, I hate Pinterest.  I mean, I love it because I can always find great recipes and crafts to do with my kids, but I hate it because it sometimes gives my clients unrealistic expectations when it comes to their shoot.  It is not uncommon for a client to send me their Pinterest board with photo ideas.  I actually don’t mind when this happens.  It gives me an idea of what style photos they are after.  However, what I can’t stand is when that board is full of images taken on a beach with crystal clear blue water in the background and we are taking their family photos at the Stone Barn.  When this happens I know immediately that this client is not going to get the images she is hoping for.  (I mean, how could you when there isn’t a trace of white sandy beach in front of that big red barn?? )  Now, I know that is an extreme example, but it happens quite often that a client wants me to create a miracle and somehow make their photos look like they were shot anywhere but in NE Wisconsin.

 Some clients have also been known to have their entire photo shoot mapped out before we even begin.  I will arrive at the location, let’s just say Pamperin Park, and they will tell me the four areas of the park that they will be having their photos taken.  Yup, you heard that right, they tell me where we will be shooting.  Now, I actually like when my clients give me some ideas on what they are looking for.  If they want a wooded backdrop or something more urban—that I LOVE.  It helps me to ensure that they will be happy with what they get and I will always try to accommodate requests.  However, when they have a specific image in mind, it almost never turns out the way they had envisioned and both of us leave the shoot frustrated.  What those clients fail to realize when they decide on these locations is that the light changes depending on the time of year we take the photos AND the time of day we take the photos.  If it happens to be sunny on the day of your shoot, and we start the session at 2pm, there are spots at Pamperin Park that absolutely will not work for photos.  Like the bridge for example.  If I put you on that bridge at 2pm on a sunny day in July, your photos are going to be total crap.  The images are going to be way to contrasty and everyone in them will be squinting and full of shadows.  There are plenty of places at Pamperin that are shady and would make for a lovely backdrop, but you have to trust that I will take you to those places.  And 95% of my clients do.  Most of you just tell me to work my magic and I do and you are always happy with the results.  But this past year I shot a couple of shoots that made me want to stop photographing families all together.

One in particular that involved a large family shoot at their home and the grandma wanted the photos shot in a particular area.  An area with some gorgeous fall color in the background, but that also happened to be in full sun at the time of our shoot.  Had I shot the entire group where she wanted, everyone would have been squinting, the lighting would have been uneven and the images would have looked awful.  I looked at that area for 5 minutes after I arrived and tried to figure out a way to make it work, but it just wasn’t going to happen at that time of day.  So I chose a different location first, got some really lovely and evenly lit images and then went over to the location the client chose where we did a few smaller groupings.  Well, about 4 weeks after the shoot the grandmother called me and told me that the images weren’t what she had in mind.    I knew from the second she told me where she wanted those photos taken that she wouldn’t be happy with the shoot.  However, I didn’t want to take all of the photos in an area I knew I couldn’t make it work technically.  So I chose to photograph them where I knew we would get some nice photos (even if we didn’t have the pretty fall colors in the background) and went with my gut.  And I will continue to do that in the upcoming years when I photograph a family.

So, basically, the reason I wanted to tell you guys this story is that you need to tell me, or whoever is photographing your shoot, if you have specific ideas.  Had the grandmother told me that she had a particular spot she wanted the images taken and nothing else was going to suffice, I could have let her know in advance that it may not work and we could have photographed the shoot at a different time of day.    And I will be completely honest with you if I think your ideas for the session will work or not.  And most of all, as someone you choose to capture such precious times in your lives, you have to trust me.  Trust us.  Whoever you choose to capture your memories.  As experienced photographers, we know what we are doing.  We know what works and what doesn’t and by choosing us to document your story, you are telling us you trust us .  And again, if you have ideas for your session, by all means, let me know what you are thinking.  I will give you my honest opinion and do whatever I can to get you the type of images you are hoping for.

Okay, so I think that is it.  That got WAY more long-winded than I intended it to.  Sorry about that.    I just want to say thank you again to all of my amazing clients.  Not only for keeping me so busy but for just being such awesome people.  My favorite part of this job is capturing images that I hope you will treasure for the rest of your lives.  But a close second to that is meeting and relating to all of these incredible people I would have never met had it not been for this job of mine.  I love comparing labor and delivery notes with new parents during itty bitty sessions.  I love talking about eating habits and potty training and the terrible twos as we photograph your toddler.  And I love seeing families grow and change throughout the years.  So many of my clients first came to me as newly engaged couples.  I have had the honor of capturing their lives from that moment, to their wedding day, to their first baby and for so many years after that.   It’s an incredible thing I get to do.  To document your lives and loves and I am grateful for the opportunity.  So again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.