day 58
A bit of sad news to start this post: I just received an email from my college saying I did not receive a leadership or an English scholarship. So I'm currently in kind of a "bummy" mood. Buuut whatever. :/
Now on to happier subjects!. My camera remote came in the mail today! Can you believe I've gone so long without one? I've been playing with it for a little bit in my room and it's so much better than manually focusing--especially when I'm trying to take self portraits. I'm just itching to actually use it for a shoot!
I didn't get home until nine o'clock tonight. Why, you might ask? Because I've been babysitting! Oh, how I love little children. I was trying to get the little ones to bed, and the boy did not want to stay in bed. I would sit on the stairs listening while he fumbled in his bed sheets and sneaked out of his room. I caught him at least three times doing it, pretending that I was walking up the stairs instead of being sneaky. The next time he got up, he caught me sitting on the stairs listening for him, so I let him sit down next to me while we pet the cat. Before he had given me a big kiss on the cheek and while we stroked the purring cat he sat next to me in the dim light. I don't know, it just felt like a really special moment. It wasn't that he got his way in staying up, I think it was that we were able to share that time and it was special because I was letting him stay up. It was absolutely perfect because right at the moment when he asked me when his mom was coming home, the garage door opened, I said "right now," and he gave me the biggest smile and dashed up the stairs, stopping for a moment to whisper goodnight and then ran back to bed to pretend to be asleep. It reminded me of when I was a little kid ...
Those are my absolute favorite moments. It makes me really excited to have my own kids one day, to be able to create memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. At the end of the day, college scholarships or remotes or school or work don't really matter, it's those moments shared with people that hold the most weight and the most value. And that's what makes me really excited about life, not only being able to fulfill my dreams, but being able to share those dreams with others and to create a million perfect moments and to just ... live.
day 57
I'm finally at day 57 of the 365 project! For those of you who don't know, the 365 is a year long photography project in which a person takes one photo a day for an entire year. This is my second year doing it, and I'm loving it to death!
This week, however, will be a slow photo-taking week as I am babysitting my favorite kids Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then going bowling on Friday. So that means I won't be able to do an outfit post all week! D: But I do love being busy with social-ish type things.
In other news, I'm working on creating some business cards for my photography business, as well as some flyers to hang around the community. It's all quite exciting!
Have an awesome week everyone!
Happy Sunday afternoon everybody! I hope you're enjoying your day off; I know I am. It's been a pretty lazy day so far. Right now I'm sitting on my bed with the covers pulled over me and a sleeping cat purring beside me as it snows outside.
My boyfriend, Matt, went on a mission trip to Russia over a year ago and bought me this scarf while there ... and just yesterday we both got rings at the arcade. We have made it a tradition to go on a date there (nearly) every weekend, and yesterday we decided to spend some of our tickets. Even though it's just plastic and the googly eyes have probably been glued on with elmer's glue, it's definitely one of my favorite rings.
And the skirt used to be an ugly dress, so I cut off the top and made the hem shorter in the front and added some buttons so it would actually fit ... and created this awesome skirt!
I'm gearing up for summer photoshoots with clients and am already beyond excited. I already have my very first wedding booked! Eep! Wedding photos are arguably the most important photos in a person's life. A wedding happens (hopefully) once in a lifetime, so the photos have to be done absolutely right. That's a pretty high bar ... I shot for a church a couple weeks ago for a building project, and that gave me a lot of good practice, so I'm not too worried about the wedding, I just want the photos to turn out perfectly!
Also I'm thinking about raising my prices for shoots. Do any of you have some suggestions? Matt and I have talked about it, and one of the things that allows me to stand out from other photographers is the fact that I'm super affordable (currently $50 USD for a 2 hour shoot, which includes up to two different locations and as many outfit changes as you want, and a cd with usually 100+ photos). The only reason I want to raise my prices (other than for being able to save up money for more photography stuff ... and since this is my only "real" job other than babysitting), is because I don't want to just give people $50 worth of photos. I would say that editing a shoot alone takes at least five hours. It's a lot of work. I love everything about photography to death, but it is still work and sometimes it's hard and tiring and challenging. So when I know that people are only paying fifty dollars, it's not very much motivation, you know? And I want to give my very best effort.
Even if you aren't a photography person, I would really appreciate your input. At this point in time I wouldn't raise my prices over $100 for senior/family sessions, but do you think that's reasonable? Would you pay that much? How much would you be willing to pay?
Thank you very much for helping me out on this, you guys are the best!
Well anyways, I hope you have a super awesome week. Stay warm! :)
