Priorities
Friends, please allow me to be real and transparent with you for a moment.
This year is going to be tough for my family. Our little girl is going through behavioral evaluations, therapy, and changing preschool schedules due to her unique needs. Also, we have also been trying for baby #2 for over 2 years now and I am currently looking into infertility treatments. We have a lot going on and I need to prioritize accordingly. I have been praying, meditating, soul searching, researching, and discussing what this will mean for my business, and here is what I have decided.
Posed family sessions will be very limited (read: pretty much non-existent except for *maybe* a couple of days of scheduled holiday mini-sessions) and I plan to put more of an emphasis on unposed documentary sessions. They feel more authentic to me and as I focus on the moments and details of my life that are most important, I want to help clients do the same. I want to offer some sort of product to help my clients display their documentary photos (custom album or gallery wall), but I haven't nailed down the specifics yet. When I do, I'll make a big announcement and with all of the changes to my pricing structure. I am working hard behind the scenes to get all of this set up as soon as possible while also maintaining the high levels of quality that I pride myself on offering my clients.
Once the new pricing structure set up, you can expect it to be fairly permanent, as I don't have the heart for posed portrait sessions any more. Documentary or "day in the life" sessions are where my business is heading, and I am super excited about that!
However, one of my biggest goals for my business was (and still is) to specialize in birth photography. All last year, I had it listed as one of the services I offer, with no inquiries. That is fine; building a name for yourself in a specialized field like this takes time and I wasn't really marketing it much...plus, births require a LOT of time being on-call and able to drop everything and go at a moments notice, not to mention the time spent photographing the birth itself. So, I have decided to pull away from birth photography for right now. It is still listed on my price list, but I have to be very selective in how many of these that I take on (in other words, only 1 or 2 a year). My family needs me more than I need to be a birth photographer. In the future, when my kiddo is older, I will definitely add it back to my services that I offer because I LOVE photographing births. But at the moment I just can't justify being on call for a client when we are going through so much as a family.
However, I am able to offer an alternative. I am calling them "Fresh 48" sessions. I'll come visit you within the first 48 hours of baby being born, to capture your first precious hours together. Think of friends and family meeting new baby, you and your partner cuddling, sweet brand-new baby details, even bonding while nursing! These beautiful documentary-style photos will look great in a lovely album or on the wall in the nursery. I would love to help you capture the memories of your first couple of days together, when your exhausted, sleep-deprived brain may not be able to!
Not to mention, of course, those beautiful, customized, posed newborn sessions! My absolute fave! I can keep doing those as much as I like because they can be scheduled any time during the first couple of weeks of your sweet baby's life which, if you plan ahead, gives my family plenty of time to make arrangements so they can be without momma for a few hours!
Again, I am still working behind the scenes to finalize pricing, packages, products, etc. I know these changes will better serve my wonderful clients, as well as, allow me to be there for my little family. Thanks for taking the time to read this, friends, and for your support and understanding during the difficult months ahead.
