Personal Post: Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014!

 Before owning a business I really didn’t put much thought into the changing of years.  I still lived in a school calendar state of mind with old things ending in the spring and new things beginning in the fall.  One month before I turn thirty I think I have finally gotten that view of the calendar out of my system.  Winter is typically a wedding vendor’s slower season for shooting, following an insane time of year, so it really is the perfect time to slow down and recognize the shifting of one year to the other… to sit down and look at what we just did and think about what we are about to do.  We don’t actually start over since we are constantly booking a year and sometimes even two years ahead of where we are… but it is still really important to take time to assess where we’ve been and where we want to go.Coming into 2013, we had just closed out our biggest year ever in 2012 and had started the process of buying our first home.  We rang in the new year surrounded by packing boxes and full of excitement that we had accomplished the means to purchase this house based on our business.  That was huge to us- we never thought it would happen.  Little did we know, 2013 was starting off as a year of changes for us.  As soon as we moved at the end of January 2013, we jumped back into working on our new blogsite and branding make over.  We were tired from pushing ourselves past our limits in 2012 but were just so excited about having our home and business in a new space, as well as a makeover for what represents our business visually.   Early spring we found out that the adoption was going through and Mom got to bring Thabiso home within a few months, we launched Ladies Night Out, my little sister got married, Thabiso arrived home, David spent a month away training for a job, David’s grandfather health declined severely, our car died so we had to buy a new one, my Mom lost her job, and we found out a close family member has cancer.  I am sure I left something out.  Oh and we continued to run the business.  I kept wondering why we had not recovered from 2012.  Why were we still tired?  Why did I still feel a little burnt out?  Why couldn’t I get caught up with settling into our new house?  Well life happened and sometimes we don’t give “life happening” enough credit.  A few years ago we did a survey of our blog readers and one of the things you asked for more of then was personal posts.  Well when things are tough or hard it’s easy to not want to blog about these things.  But these things are real life. We are all about authenticity around here so let me do that more with you in the new year, ok?  Let me share from my heart more.  Because you’ve seen, not all the stories we tell are 100% happy.As I mentioned before, David and I both turn 30 in February.  We are hoping for more calm stability in our personal life in this new year.   I want to feel more settled into our home, more settled in my own skin.  At the same time, I am looking forward to a more focused and productive year for Story Photographers.  It feels like the couples booking us for 2014 are getting the message of our rebranding and they feel like great matches for us.  I am committed to showing our clients more appreciation for choosing us in this saturated photography market.  I am anxious to show more appreciation to and create meaningful relationships with other wedding vendors– what an honor to work with such amazing people who are also committed to showing their clients love.  David and I sat down this week and visioned for 2014 and I feel so refreshed.  We are focused on us, trying hard to stop worrying about what other people are doing.  It's our job to document love and life and the amazing people who choose to trust us and our work.  Like the quote above says, we really are passionate about showing love, documenting love and putting love into the world through our art.Here's to 2014.[art credit: ohmydeer]