Struggling

Well I have been struggling with getting my business up and started.  Not so much getting in started but deciding how to do what I want to do.  I love taking pictures, most of you know that by now.  I have been having such a great time learning about my new camera, learning more about lenses and practicing different editing techniques.  That is the easy part to me.  Deciding prices, how to do scheduling, contracts and so on is the hard part.  So here are some of my ramblings if you care to join me...

The topic is digital files...

Yes I love taking pictures of old barns.  That is the Tetons behind this one.

I take pictures, or rather portraits, so people can display them with pride and cherish the memories that they bring.  I hope they enjoy the time they have with me and the fun it is when you get the portraits back and see the moments that I caught on film (figuratively now that everything is digital).  So that brings me to the point that everything IS digital now.  I have an external hard drive that is completely full of pictures that I have taken over the years.  I have downloaded those pictures online so if something ever happened to my hard drive, they would be protected.  But now matter how amazing those snapshots are, they are still stuck there on my hard drive an I have to hook it up to my computer or TV to browse through them and relive the memories of when they were made.

My sweet Jon, as he looks on my computer

I also have a ton of great snapshots of my kids that are framed and either hang on my wall or are brought out by seasons to sit on my tables and mantle.  But I have a portrait that proudly hangs by my front door so it is seen by everyone who enters the house.  This one PRIZE that I have is a portrait that we had done when the boys were about 7 and 5 (they are now 18 and 16).   It was purchased on canvas and is framed.  Why is that my prize?  Because it's NOT a snapshot, we look great, we are all together and it looks like art work.  Sure I have some church directory family photos hanging on the "photo wall" upstairs but they are not even close to my PRIZE downstairs.

Love this one of Daniel at a track meet

I want to create PRIZES.  I don't want to create digital files that fill up a CD or a flash drive or a folder on your computer.  I want my "art work" to hang on your wall so you can see it every day and remember that time in you life with joy.  It might be when your baby was a newborn, or you little girl turned 2 or when your son graduated.  Maybe it's just a place marker in the wonderful life you are living now.

That is what I want to do with my business.  Now how to make that happen!