Looking Back and Looking Forward with Southcoast’s Baby and Child Photographer
I love this time of year. It offers a time to reflect on the past – both good and bad. It’s a time to assess what has been working in our lives and what hasn’t been. And it’s a great time to look towards the future and plan out changes of greatness. This holds true for both our personal day to day lives, as well as for businesses, work, and future goals.
This past year, personally, I’ve made a lot of changes. I’ve adopted a healthier way of eating, I’ve added running and I’ve added yoga into my routine. I’ve become much more zen in the process. I’ve started practicing gratitude. Every morning, I make a list of 10 things that I am grateful for. Every day, it has to be DIFFERENT things. The first day was very easy – I’m grateful for my children, my husband, my health, my house, my car, my business, etc. But each day would get more and more difficult to find unique things. And just when I thought I couldn’t do it – that it was impossible to find anything else to be grateful for, I had a break through. It didn’t need to be BIG things. It could be (and one day was) that I was grateful for purple nail polish. As soon as that aha moment happened, I started noticing everything and being grateful for so much more.
So for 2019, I plan to continue my practice of gratitude. One of my new year’s resolutions is to practice on living in the moment – so I can enjoy life more fully and so I can savor my girls’ innocence for as long possible.
That brings me back to my photography and one of the main reasons why I started my business in 2011. I wanted to be able to hold onto each precious moment of my then just one daughter’s life. For me, photography is the closest thing to bottling up time. As much as I studied my babies’ every little feature and reveled in their giggles and silliness, I still forget a lot until I see the photos I have of them. Once I see those photographs, I’m transported back to that day, to that feeling I had when it was happening, to the love I felt then (which of course, has just multiplied through the years). That’s what I love doing for my clients.
Looking back on 2018 – I had the privilege of photographing 86 newborns, 15 sets of newborn twins, 72 babies (3 months to 2 years old), 47 children (ages 2 1/2 – 14), 26 pregnant mommies and 17 family sessions (not including the family photo that I include with all maternity, newborn, and first birthday photos). I met so many awesome families and had the privilege of photographing a lot of repeat clients who started out as clients in the past, but have become my friends. I am so blessed!
I was going to make a collage of all of my newborns from 2018, but that seemed redundant since it’s something I’ve done every year in the past and each of you can go through my Facebook Business Page and see all of the adorable photos I’ve taken this past year. So instead, I’m going to share below my favorite photo I took this year. It’s of my girls – my reason for living and my reason for being a photographer.
Looking ahead to 2019, regarding Miss Z Photography, I have plans to hire more employees (some office people to answer phones and emails, some sales people to do the consultation and sales sessions) and a backup assistant. I have plans to offer more Drop-In Sessions, like my Halloween one, which was a huge success. I have some special projects planned for both adults and children. I also have a paint session with the talented Laura Casey planned for February. There are many other exciting things on the horizon for Miss Z Photography, but I can’t quite reveal yet.
I would love to hear about some of your new year’s resolutions, your hopes, and dreams for 2019. Please be sure to share this post, comment with your resolutions and tag @misszphoto so I can see.
Thank you for another amazing year. I look forward to creating new memories, meeting new friends and capturing more of your hearts in 2019.
My favorite photo of 2018 – My own girls.