Scaling Back Photography
Each January, February and March, I have a lot of downtime with my business. It's as to be expected, since I mainly shoot outside and depend on the weather being nice. Every single year, during my downtime period, I've always said I'd end up with a full time job once our daughter became older, but I hated the thought of quitting photography. Our daughter is a teen now and a full time job opportunity fell into my lap, where I can realistically keep my photography business, but as a secondary job. A side hustle, if you will lol.
Since June of 2025, I've been working with my husband and father in law as the office manager at one of their automotive repair shops. We've all talked about it and when it's needed, I'm able to take a day off, here and there to catch up on editing at home. Above all, I'm able to leave work when our daughter needs me to, which a flexibility I've always worried about with a full time job. To make this adventure realistic, I've scaled back to only booking the photography I specialize in and so far, I've stuck to it.
What does this mean for my clients?
The short version:
•Editing time and sneak peeks do take longer
•Mini session marathons are scaled back
•Shooting on weeknights aren't usually an option
•Anything shot in my home studio setup, or anything that needs an indoor lighting set up have been phased out; cake smash sessions, in-home lifestyle baby sessions, headshots and events have all been taken off of my website as options.
The longer, detailed version:
I am only shooting what I specialize in. Basically, anything shot indoors has been phased out from what I offer. I've never liked setting up a studio with indoor lighting, event photography is not a favorite and I never like the way my indoor headshots turn out, which becomes time consuming when editing. While I like indoor cake smash sessions, it takes a long time to set them up and they are a lot of editing, so cake smash got cut, too. I already phased out the posed newborn years ago, but I've also phased out the in-home lifestyle baby sessions. *Anytime someone books a maternity session with me, I do let them know that lifestyle baby sessions are no longer an option!
Little to no weeknight sessions. It will be best to shoot on the weekends, instead of trying to shoot on weeknights, after a work day.
Editing time is taking a little longer. I'm used to 4am editing and coffee marathons, before my house wakes up. I'm still doing that, but I can't come back to my computer during the day to finish editing, like I was able to do before. I've always made it a point to have every session edited within 1 week of shooting, but editing on top of a full time job realistically takes 1 week, to just under 2 weeks (it's always said, "under 2 weeks" in my contract).
Sneak peeks take longer than they used to. I've always tried to get sneak peeks edited and emailed to my clients the morning after, or at least the day after shooting. If we shoot on Sunday evening, there's going to be a chance the sneak peeks are not delivered the very next morning.
Mini sessions have been scaled back. I shoot minis on the weekends, yes, but I was editing all of them throughout the following week. Since editing mainly takes place in the morning now, before my workday, I have scaled back the amount of time slots per mini session marathon day. You may also notice there aren't as many mini session dates available as I used to offer.
This means, no more squeezing in extra slots and dates at the last minute! And, no more scheduling mid-December, trying to finish editing before Christmas. When I send the mini session email to my email list and you want a spot, please don't hesitate to grab one ASAP, if you don't mind! I probably won't be quick to add them to my website for the public until I've given my past clients a few days to see their email. 🙂
I'm hoping that both jobs will work out because I really want to help out my father in law and my husband with their amazing automotive repair business, while continuing with photography too!
I just want to say thank you to my awesome clients throughout these 12+ years! Because of all of you, I was able to be a work from home mom, while doing a job that I love! I'm also grateful to my husband and father-in-law for the opportunity to be able to do both of these jobs AND still have the flexibility to leave work whenever our daughter needs me to. It would be VERY hard for me if I didn't have the flexibility for her anymore! 😭
Please enjoy our Christmas pictures from 2024. No hair was cut for these photos! 😆
