Thoughts, goals, and a baby

A baby changes everything. At least that’s what I’ve heard, and not really understood, until now. Expecting my first child in May has completely thrown my goals in a different direction, well, maybe not in a completely different direction; however it makes sense to delay some of them and focus on baby for the time being. Let me explain.

I have this goal of having a photography business. I want to be a natural light photographer and my focus will be in portraits and even weddings in the future. My style is simple, clean, bright, natural, and in a word; you. Over the summer I had a lot of time to put myself out there and I even had a few paid jobs which has given me a lot of confidence in my ability to create a successful business despite the saturation of photographers out there. I feel like with more practice and learning my style will become more evident in my work, my ability to focus and frame photographs will become second nature, and posing my subjects will also become effortless. These are a few of the things that I wish I had time to work on right now, but if I’m honest with myself I know that some of these goals need to be put on hold for a while.

It’s not easy to focus so much on such a big goal of mine for just a few months and then be forced to put it off to the side while I focus on the work I have to do in front of me and the growing boy inside of me. But I’ll do it. I’ve realized that this baby is so very special to me already. I’ve waited a long time to be at this stage in my life and I’m moving forward knowing that things will be different when baby is here. He will be my focus, my life, my one main goal will be to take care of him. Photography will be much lower on my list of priorities.

So, despite my sadness and feelings of being left behind in the world of building my own business while many friends and family members move forward I’ve also realized that there are some advantages to waiting. Here are a few:

• I can still make money with what I do. I just won’t raise my prices or be able to offer fancy print packages. I’m just not ready yet.
• I have this time to practice and perfect my skills. When it’s time to open that business it will open in a big way. I’ll be more than prepared.
• I will finally be able to take pictures of my own baby.
• I have more time to discover and read books and blogs. There is so much to learn just from observing and then figuring out how to get a similar look in your photographs.
• I can focus on my current full-time teaching job, which I happen to enjoy a lot as well.
• I learned how to take photos on film with my canon AE-1 and there are a few amazing photographers out there who use film.  It's possible that I may inherit a medium format film camera, so I want to learn why photogs are turning back to film, what the benefits of film are, is it cheaper, what kinds of film are out there, and just the overall pros and cons of film.  The thought of going film professionally is very intriguing to me...very intriguing.  I'll have time to really think about my options with film and digital.
• I can learn how my friends have built their business. I’m not about to reinvent the wheel with this one. I will beg, borrow, and even steal ideas that seem to work. Seriously, why not?
• Opening the business after the baby is a bit older and we’re adjusted to one another will make it easier to focus on it. Baby will be number one for me.


Anyway, I hate to have to slow down and back away from this business for a while, but in the end it will be more than worth the wait. Besides, I waited a while until I found the right guy and he was completely worth the wait! This baby will be more than worth the wait too.

On another note, here are some cute shots of my friends’ baby. He loves to have his diaper changed so I snapped some shots of him in his moment of pure joy. :)