Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Overwhelmed, but still loving this job!

I just got my calendar for the rest of October and the first half of November done. I am beginning to enter "panic mode". I have photoshoots galore, am buried in editing (which I love...don't get me wrong!) and have a wedding to photograph in just over a week! Yikes...I was hoping to have all of my editing for sessions taken before the wedding completed before the wedding. Not going to happen. For real. There just isn't enough hours in the day. And I only have 2 TIMESLOTS available for sessions this year!!!

Come January, the business is getting a bit of a revamping, I am seriously considering making a large investment in some much needed, better equipment that will help me produce much better images and hopefully make my editing process a bit easier and quicker. I am restructuring some thing including price (hopefully nothing so drastic that it will scare my clients off!) to account for the better quality images my clients will be receiving and also to account for the fact that they are getting a much more experienced photographer than when I started. Lastly, I am CONSIDERING possibly starting to sell prints! Eek. Not sure about that yet. Hopefully these changes will go over well. :)

All in all, I am way busier with this photography gig than I ever thought I would be when I started out. This makes me so thrilled! And honestly...I am in love with doing it. Seriously, I have yet to meet a family or child that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed photographing...it's actually kind of unbelievable the incredible people I have had the honor to meet and photograph! Wow, this job is STILL my dream job and now I cannot imagine why I waited so long to do it and can't imagine ever doing anything different! It brings me so much joy...and stress. Ha! My plan for the revamping of Jennie Peakin Photography in 2012 will hopefully decrease the stress level though! We shall see!

I am at the height of my stress at this point in regards to Jennie Peakin Photography though. I am getting emails left and right and for the first time am having to turn people away! Ugh. You all know how good I am at saying, "no"...not good at all! It is absolutely necessary though. That doesn't change the fact that I HATE saying it! In addition to the stress that saying, "no" causes me, I am totally nervous (yet still excited!) to shoot my first wedding (and ONLY WEDDING I will EVER do!) on the 22nd. I'm praying for perfect, cloudy skies and NO RAIN! :) Ha. We'll see how that goes! I am going to feel so incredibly releived once that weekend is over and I know I got good shots for the couple...I PRAY I get good shots for them! It's just such a huge responsibility that I'm honored they are trusting me with when they know I've never done a wedding before. Wow...they are a pretty amazing couple! I will take huge sigh of relief once I sit down with the images on my computer and can start to edit them. :)

My plan is to have ALL 2011 sessions (including the wedding) edited, on disks and mailed to all of my clients by Thanksgiving! All that PLUS I was hoping to run 100 miles by then?!! Ha! It's looking as though I'll be lucky to make it to 50 miles by then! Darn it! Oh well...I'm not giving up yet...maybe I'll change it to "100 Miles by Christmas". :)

1 comment:

Sara said...

I totally understand what you're saying. I'm not good at saying no either. Last year was hard with music lessons. I was trying to accommodate everyone and every request. I started to dread lessons each day. I changed a lot of things this year and it has been great! So cool that you are doing your dream job!