It's been a crazy day….MOPS this morning with my other mom friends, hanging with my kiddos all afternoon, periodically checking outside with the painters that are transforming our house, dinner, bedtime routine….ah, peace and quiet finally!  And to top it all off, hubby just offered to go get me a blizzard from Dairy Queen, I didn't even ask!  While I wait for his return, I thought I'd give a little personal update on this blog.  I was doing so well during the holidays to stay on top of blogging my sessions.  Now that I've slowed down, I've lost my momentum.  I have two sessions I need to share, and many more coming in the next couple of weeks, but for now I wanted to reminisce a little.  Please indulge me!

I was recently reorganizing all my backup discs from client sessions.  As I was going through them all, I found the ones from the very first family I photographed (not counting the few sessions I did on film! NOT my best work by far).  Heather H.are you reading this?! In November of 2003 I remember being at a women's lunch event for our church.  I had bought my first digital SLR and had been taking an online correspondence course on photography.  As much as I wanted to specialize in landscapes so I wouldn't have to deal with people, I knew the money was in family and children portraiture.  And there were plenty of both at our church at the time.  I remember talking with Ms. Heather about it…and she either offered her kids, or I asked if I could borrow them.  Either way we agreed to meet at Hollis Gardens that Saturday morning for a holiday session of her two children (she now has 4!).  I set my camera to auto, popped on my cheap 28-200mm zoom lens, and started shooting.  I had NO idea what I was doing! Lucky for me I had decent composition back then and a great mentor for photoshop so I could "save" all my underexposed images.  It's so funny to think that was really the beginning such a fun and exciting "job" for me now.

Back in 2003, I had been employed as a staff accountant since I graduated college in 1999.  I stayed in the accounting field until 2006 when my daughter was born.  I then quit my job to be a stay home mom.  When I took my first accounting class in high school, I fell in love with debits and credits!  In college I worked part time during the summer at a small life insurance firm.  Each lady had her own desk in a big open room, there weren't even cubicles!  But I LOVED it. I remember telling the girl I worked with that that is exactly what I wanted to do with my life, have a cubicle of my own, my own little space to work and not have to see customers or deal with people.  Just stay behind the scenes crunching numbers and balancing spreadsheets.  And that was my life for 7 years…and for the most part I really enjoyed it. 

It's weird to think that now I've had my own photography business for 7 years as well.  I still tell people it's a "part time" business as being a stay home mom is really my full time job.  I do look forward to the years ahead when my kids are older and in school and I can really devote all the time I'd like to the world of photography.  But the balance is good for now, at this stage of my life.  Most of my clients are moms just like me and totally understand that I can only get work done during naptime and after bedtime. 

I don't really have a clearly defined point to this post, other than realizing how fast time flies in this thing we call life.  My "baby" is almost two, and my first born is about to turn five!  3 years of college, 7 years of corporate America, and now 7 years of this little photography business.  I'm so thankful for the path God has brought me down and can't wait to see where the road ahead leads.