Anyone who ever though being a pro photographer was easy is so wrong, but anyone who thought running a business for real is easy is even ore wrong.
I just got off the phone with my accountant (that sounds to official, doesn’t it?). I owe him $250 for doing my junk for me. I owe federal $2150 and state and ther $250 for taxes. ::cry::
I’ve been SOO busy. Not really doing many shoots this week, but just working on changing everything over. I haven’t been able to say so ahead of time, but a local photographer and I are teaming up permanently. Frankie of Stylized Portraiture and I are now full partners (in crime)! We’ve been working on this for months, but I couldn’t hint too much in case the other local photographers watch my stuff. So, I’m now 1/2 of Stylized Portraiture. Frankie is taking the appointment bookings now, and she will match the client to the photographer based on what they want. I’ll be doing on-location, babies, children and fairytales. She’ll be doing studio shoots, weddings, seniors and urban. In fact, we just got our first call today with the new system! The client wanted an outdoor baby shoot, so it went to me. Pretty cool! I don’t have squat to do for the first 2 weeks of April though, so I’ve got to get my butt in gear.
Check us out at http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/
My younger brother got married in Ohio over the weekend! I adore his new wife, and he just can’t wait to be a daddy! It was about 23F out there that day, but they allowed me to torture them outside for a few photos.
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Note to photographers:
When your subject bites through her lip, the shoot is over.
I was shooting a charity program for the homeless shelter here this morning when one of the ten kids tripped up the playground stairs and bit through her bottom lip. She started crying right away, but I was RIGHT behind her and thought “Oh, she’s just skinned her knee.” Then she turns around and is GUSHING blood. Oh, it was bad. I yanked the poor kid up and she’s got her hands over her lip, but she’s still covering herself and me in blood. I rushed her out to her mother who was unconcerned until she saw the girl’s lip, which obviously needed stitches. Since they’re homeless though, she didn’t have a car. Poor baby had to wait 30 minutes for a cab to get there so they could go to the ER. Luckily, the girl was fine (as fine as you could get with a gigantic hole in your face) about it all, quit crying not even 5 minutes after it happened. Her mom (5 kids and 6th on the way) was all pragmatic about it too, thank goodness. I was calm, but I don’t think I could have handled a crying mom and the little girl. I just hear back from them; she ended up with 17 (!) stitches.
I can now add this to my list of interesting things that happen on/during photo shoots.
I totally suck at updating. Honestly, nothing is going on! Work has been slow, which has given me time to get my business up to speed in terms of new policies and junk. Nothing you really want to hear about, just new ways of doing things and new products to offer. Booooring. I have a few things in the works for the future, but nothing I can really talk abut yet.
January really blew in terms of emotional stability. I was up, then down, then up, then down. Feb is looking better, but it’s still been a little bit of a roller coaster. I need a real vacation that doesn’t have anything to do with work or friends getting killed. Valentine’s day is small this year (like every year, really). John and I had planned to go to the Tenn. Aquarium, but it’s just too much $$ in my slow month. Instead, he brought me breakfast in bed (Diet Coke in bed day!) and he hid a hand-colored note in my laptop. Awww!
I’m out of things to type about. More photos!
I really thought I’d be bored out of my head right about now, but it’s looking more and more that I’m not getting crap for time off!
Jan 2-3: Wash clothes and order dresses for fairytale collaboration with Frankie
Jan 4-10: Imaging USA in Tampa, meet up with several forum members while there.
Jan 15th: Captivated by the Light in Atlanta
Jan 19th: Shoot collaboration promo photos with Frankie
Feb 3rd: Bellies and Babies seminar in Atlanta
Feb 5th: First shoot of the new year (so far. I’m supposed to call back two clients for shoots in January).
Mar 14-16: Shoot collaboration sessions w/ Frankie
Mar 17-20: Edit collaboration sessions
After this, my normal bookings will begin again because the weather will be warm already. WTH?
Okay, so I’ve been so lax on updating as of late. I suck.
Work: My job has been going thrillingly well. I say ‘job’ loosely because it still doesn’t feel like I should call a year of self-employment a job. A job is something you do for someone else. This holiday season has been eating my butt though. I have a few things I need to do differently next year, but on the whole I’m pretty damn happy with my work for a year. In January, I’m changing pricing structures and adding a few new policies. I’m also headed to Imaging USA in Tampa for Jan 5-9, so I can go through the tradeshow and other kickass stuff. I’m going with a few photographer friends of mine here as well as meeting up with a few flickr friends there. It should be awesomeness.
Personal: I’m over my cold, but now poor John has it. On his birthday too. I got him some prints from the totally rockin’ Ursula Vernon. John now has a copy of the years-coveted Edgar and the Ham Fairy, much to his delight. We also found out that she’s only a state away from us, but he’s reluctantly agreed that she doesn’t need a stalker. For Christmas, we’ve decided that we’re going to wait until afterwards and buy a Wii together. Yay!! I have to say, I’m tempted to buy a Tivo too, because Heroes has eaten our brains. We went though all of season 1 on DVD in the past week and I’m just dying for more. It’s free to watch on NBC, so we’re all over that once I finish work.
