If I could give advice to aspiring or just starting out photographers, one of the very first things on my list wouldn’t be what equipment to buy, how to price your services, how to get and keep clients, or what settings to use when you shoot (although I do frequently interact and enjoy talking about these things with other photographers!) All those things are important and good, and if we are serious about this business, we grow in knowledge and experience in these areas with hard work over time.
The advice I would give first is this: Consider your Family.
Let me be real. I love what I do so much. But my favorite hobby is my family. My second favorite hobby is photographing my family. My third favorite hobby is this business. It’s still very high on the list, but it’s not first.
And let me tell you. It’s a struggle. It’s a struggle to find the time and energy to do it all. This isn’t meant to be a “poor me” post. On the contrary, I am blessed beyond measure by my clients and the overwhelming support I’ve gotten over the past several years as this business has grown and become something better and beyond what I imagined. I LOVE WHAT I DO! I literally thank God for the opportunities that have come my way every day. It blows my mind! And I am so, so grateful!
I thank God for my family every day too. And being a good wife and mom is my ultimate earthly goal. Dividing my time between family and business (not to mention other family, friends, and other obligations and responsibilities) is a serious juggling act. I am sleepless a lot. And I struggle with whether to give up time with my children during the day so that I can work, or to work in the middle of the night and risk sleep-deprivation-induced grumpiness with my children the next day. I struggle with whether to spend time on much needed and enjoyed family outings or stay home and sit in front of the computer editing photos. I struggle with whether to spend that cuddle time with my husband in front of the TV in the evenings after the kids are in bed or to sit down and respond to the dozens of emails that require responses from me every month.
I wouldn’t change what I do. But it is a daily battle to keep things in balance. To find the time. To do everything I do to the best of my abilities without sacrificing or compromising anything.
Because my kids will only be little once, and I don’t want to miss out on these years – not even in the smallest way. So, if you’re thinking about going Pro, consider the investment. I believe it can be done, and I do my very best to balance both – being a good mom and a good photographer/businesswoman. But it is difficult. I didn’t know how difficult it would be when I first decided to go Pro several years ago.
Consider your family. And be ready to say “no” a lot if you want to keep any balance in your life. It’s a lesson I am still constantly learning. I am not there. I do not always perfectly manage all of the responsibilities in my life. I need the Lord in my life, a lot of prayer and guidance to make it happen. The reason I try so hard, work so diligently, and invest so much of myself into what I do is that I LOVE this business. I invest my life into it. I invest my heart and soul into what I do. I hope the depth of my feelings can be accurately conveyed by these meager words. I won’t do it if I can’t do it to the best of my ability, to create something unique and genuine. I take the whole thing very, very personally. It can be all-consuming if I let it. I don’t want to give up being a professional, being the person that others come to for help preserving and commemorating their own lives and memories. That is such an honor and I enjoy doing it so much!
This was NOT what I intended to write when I sat down to blog our family trip to the local carnival last weekend. I was going to give a little play-by-play and a few tidbits from our outing. I hadn’t originally planned sharing these images at all. These are the kind of images I’m always taking of everything my family does, and I’ll let these few snapshots tell their own story since I’ve blabbed so much about other things.
I guess I was feeling a little guilty that I spent some time editing these photos instead of catching up on other responsibilities. But I’m glad I did it. Brief hiatuses like this help me remember just how much I love my family and how much I love preserving our lives in photographs. I feel like nothing translates into who I am as business owner and photographer at DelaLane Photography more than that does.
Who doesn’t love Pinterest these days, right? One of my absolute favorite quotes I ran into when I first signed up last year is this:
“Taking time to Live will Only Inspire Your Work.”
It’s true. And I don’t ever want to stop living so that I can work. There is nothing more life-giving than spending time with God. After that, my family is the most important and inspiring thing in my life.
Consider your Family. And then go be the best you can be. It sure is an awesome ride. 🙂
