Four Years (another kid, a new house and the startup of my business) Later

I can't believe it's been 4 years since I sat here and wrote a post. My passion for writing had been non-stop since I was 19 until the beauty and challenges of parenthood took over every aspect of my life. I once wrote, read books, watched movies and slept 9 hours a night (11 on weekends). Now? Not so much. Actually, not at all.

Four years later we have another beautiful daughter, Isabella, and she will be turning 1 year old tomorrow. Her pregnancy was rough because I was high risk (as most of you know since Olivia was almost 6 weeks early). Her first few months were rough too including one trip to the ER and 6 days in the hospital because she caught one of Olivia's colds at 3 weeks old.

One year later I'm working on building my photography career, maintaining my current career as a Business Analyst and also being a full time Mommy, Daughter and Wife. Juggling these days seems more like I'm just surviving. Each day passes so quickly and this year has flown by quicker than any other in my life.

About a year ago when Jeff got accepted to nursing school I realized that when he reaches his goal and we're finally financially stable, I need to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. Of course I'd be happy to stay where I'm currently working (if they want me) but I didn't spend all of those years in school to be a Business Analyst. At this point a year ago I decided to set myself a 10 year goal of finally running a photography business out of my home.

About 7 months ago I decided to just start photographing people, really, for the first time in my life. Honestly my passion is travel and landscape photography, but not many married-mom's-of-2 can make a career out of traveling for a living. Sure, I'd taken pictures of people before, but it was in passing and I hadn't really tried. In my opinion portrait photography is one of the hardest because you have to deal with lighting and shadows, which is challenging when you don't quite have the money to build a business yet.

Because I learn very well visually and from trial and error I just decided to start studying photographs on Pinterest and then practicing on my kids and anyone else who wanted to be my guinea pig. Since April I've already done 8 successful shoots for several friends. Each time I've learned something different with shooting or with editing. I'm beginning to get more comfortable as people are happy with the results. My portfolio used to just include Macro, Landscape and Travel Photography and it now also includes...Maternity, Birth, Newborn, Family and Headshots. Not bad for less than a year of work.

My next steps for the end of 2013 and for 2014 and beyond?

1.) Begin blogging again (check!)
2.) Launch a website
3.) Book more clients
4.) Get an indoor lighting "kit"
5.) Get a backdrop stand


...beyond...


1.) Get a bigger, better, faster, clearer computer (iMac)
2.) Turn the baby's room into my office


I look forward to sharing my journey with you!
- Meg

PS. A shout-out to Chanel for letting me know at least one person read my blog posts. I knew I needed to get going again for not only my career, but ME, and you've kicked my butt into gear. xoxo.