Surgery Date Moved Again, Life Update

Where has this month gone!?

I’ve been busy shooting sessions (when the weather was nice) and hanging out with my boys.  I really want to write more often, but it’s just hard to find that free time anymore.  The other night, I got an urge to just get up in the middle of the night and write something on my laptop, but I was just too tired and never got around to it–such is the life of a mom!

Some basic updates on the past couple weeks:

• Jasper’s surgery was supposed to be this Thursday.  He’s been coughing a lot lately so I brought him in and it turns out he has an ear infection.  Obviously they want him to be 100% before they even consider putting him under general anesthesia, so after talking with the nurses, the doctor, and his surgeon, they all thought it would be best to hold it off…. again.  Part of me was a little relieved, even though I DO want this thing out of him, this week was just so crazy and busy and I was dreading the trip and I also have a wedding this weekend.  The surgery has been moved to November 19th now.  They wanted to make sure he was completely over the infection before going any further.  So the waiting game continues… until further notice I will not think and/or obsess over it! 
• Nathan has been to South Dakota and back, like, THREE TIMES now trying to finish fall harvest.  The weather basically sucks down there, and even here our gorgeous fall has finally slipped away.  My heart breaks every windy day that blows the fluttering leaves away.  We truly had a spectacular fall, with some amazing days that were almost impossible to believe they were real.  Brilliant leaves, sparkling sunshine  and windless 65 degree days.  I shot as many sessions as I could to capture those moments.  And now, the weather has turned stark and cold, and I’ve seen a few flakes here and there.  Most of the branches are now bare, and there is a chill in the air and has been making outdoor photo sessions nearly impossible with little ones these days….
   
• Which is why I’m thrilled to say I FINALLY found a place for a winter indoor photo studio!  Those of you following me on Instagram probably already know, but after many searches around town, looking at buildings and potential locations for a heated space I could do newborn and kids sessions this winter, Nathan finally decided I could use our old house at the shop!  It had been talked about in passing before, but I had always said it wouldn’t work because of the lack of natural light.  Which it still lacks… but I decided it was time to make a leap to something I never thought I’d do before.  STUDIO LIGHTING.  Before you begin to shudder at the thought of MissMeg leaving the safety of her purely natural light days behind, I actually found the kind of studio light that is perfect for me.  It’s called a Spiderlite, and it mimics natural daylight, creating this beautiful "sliding glass door" light on your subject.  It’s also not a "flash"–the light is constantly on.  So you can just set it where you want it and start shooting away!  I’m still trying to learn all the tricks of it, but knowing that I’ll be able to shoot in the comfort of our prior home could not be any more perfect!  Plus, you know… I won’t have to pay rent, it’s already heated, has dish Network TV, a full kitchen, bathroom, laundry and two bedrooms!  (Some of the old buildings on main street in our town were going to be at least several hundred dollars a month just to HEAT over the winter!)

Ok, I’m tired of the bullet points now. 😉 

Anyway, the new studio at the shop had its inaugural session a few days ago and it went fantastic! It was a newborn session, with new clients who had drove TWO AND A HALF HOURS to see me.  I was a bit nervous thinking the baby would be impossible (car rides are notorious for making babies sleep, and I figured if he had a 2+ hour nap he’d be wide awake for the session) but it ended up being the complete opposite.  He was sleepy and easy to pose and I had an easy time, thank goodness.

The first thing they said when they came in was, "Wow, it’s nice in here!" 

It really is the perfect place for a studio, as far as comfort for the clients goes (which can be just as important, especially during a long newborn session!)  The dad got to watch the football game on TV while we took pictures, I offered them bottled water from the fridge.  It was warm and cozy inside on a pretty miserable day weather wise (not that we would have done outside pictures, but knowing it was warm enough inside to do the newborn session was a big concern when I was looking at the older buildings).  There is plenty of space to stretch out after a long car ride, too.  We totally rearranged the place and I got huge prints made up to put on display.  I still have an old connection from my days working at UND and I can get big 20×30 prints made up on foamcore for $6 a piece!!

I’ll try to get better pictures, but here is a panoramic iPhone shot to give you an idea.  I actually CAN do newborn beanbag
poses by that one window which gives off perfect natural light, but for other stuff and poses using props I go over by the wall and use the Spiderlite (which got kind of janky in the panoramic photo).

 

And here are some of my ‘test shots’ with Jasper!

This is the entrance/prop storage area.

Newborn beanbag area.

 

Anyway, it’s really going to be a great spot.  It’s only a mile from my house, so not far to drive, but yet it isn’t IN my house, so there’s some separation there.  This winter I’m trying to decide if I’ll just designate one or two days a week to be ‘in the studio’ days and just do all sessions that day or what.  I want to cut down my time away from the boys as much as possible, yet still make a good little living off the wintertime studio sessions.  I was just about ready to give up on the whole thing when I couldn’t find an indoor space.  I felt like we exhausted everything (I even looked at the back of a liquor store storage room!) and it just wasn’t worth it to me.  But one night driving home from the city Nathan and I started talking everything through and he just went, "Y’know, you really should just use the shop…"

"Well, of COURSE!"
 
So much has changed with my views on my photography business over the past few years.  Especially since I had kids.  Photography used to be my LIFE.  I eat, breathed, and slept photography.  I did six destination weddings in one summer, flying coast to coast.  I could because I had time.  I had the drive.  I had the energy.  Nathan was busy harvesting in the summer, I was busy shooting.  I loved it, it was fresh and new and I was still the "only" one doing this kind of thing.  Slowly things changed.  The babies came and suddenly I didn’t want to do those destination weddings anymore.  I didn’t want to drive to the city three times a week, I didn’t even want to drive to a client’s house three miles away.  There were times I wanted to give up, and it was heartbreaking.  Yet somehow I managed to dig down and get that drive back, albeit in a different way.

I see how saturated the market has become, even in my own town.  I was once one in a million… now I’m just one of the millions.  I’ve seen my very best clients go somewhere else… whether it be because it is ‘cheaper’ or just because of availability, I guess I’ll never know for sure.  Yet in the midst of that, I’ve seen some amazing clients that love me for me and would pay any amount, wait in any line, just to get a session with me.  Those are the clients I work for, I strive for, and the ones I truly want to work with.  I must remind myself of that in those times of self doubt. 

I feel a little bit like my photography business is being ‘reborn’…the way I’ve portrayed myself has changed a lot over these past few years.  I used to say "I don’t have a studio because I bring the studio to you"…. now, I don’t feel the same way.  I told another photographer recently that things have come full circle.  For awhile there, the "in home" stuff was all the rage.  In a way, it still is, but at the same time, I think you have a definite advantage if you have a space where clients can come to YOU.  They want that experience of somewhere else, not the tiny cramped living room or a too-dark bedroom that they have to clean up because a photographer is coming.  This summer I proved that by offering our beautiful woods as an outdoor location.  I knew the light, I knew the trails, I knew the time of day when the sun would sparkle through the oaks and the way the river grass would create the perfect frame around whoever would sit in it.  And people drove from all over just to come here.  And I hope they’ll do the same for my studio.