2018- Maternity Leave and Re-branding

If you have been with me since the beginning, you may have wondered what happened to me in 2018. The night before my Boudoir Merry Mini Sessions (quite the name I know) I took a pregnancy test. It was incredibly faint until after the recommended 10 minute window. I didn't think much of it to be honest as we had been trying for the better part of a year at the point, and the previous month I had a false positive (not to mention one over the summer.)

"I may be pregnant, but I doubt it," I said to one of my good friends/boudoir clients. She was excited for me and told me to let her know once I got to the doctor to confirm.

Well, I didn't have to wait that long. The very next day I took two positive tests. They turned positive FAST! Then the next day I took another. Positive again! I was elated! After a year of trying and 3 rounds of fertility medicine, we were going to have our second and last baby!

(insert roaring laughter) I went in for my 10 weeks appointment to confirm pregnancy and see why the heck I was already so sick. Turns out I was pregnant with TWINS.

one of many trips to the ER for hyperemesis

Come Christmas time (less than 3 weeks after initial pregnancy test) I was sick as a dog. I had hypermesis with my son for 9 months. But with this pregnancy it was so bad I had trouble picking my head up, and keeping down liquids or food of any kind. Double the babies means double the hormones which cause nausea and all that other fun stuff.

It was a pretty miserable pregnancy to say the very least. At the beginning of the year I took down my business page from Facebook, took down my website, and stopped taking photos. I got HUGE guys. I could barely walk, and was put on bed rest the last two months.

I may have hated the experience of pregnancy but I loved loved my belly so I'm going to shamelessly post my maternity photos any chance I get. (photo props to Merkai Photography [family photos] and Magruder Photo & Design)

Fast forward to the July 18th 2018 and I was finally holding my baby girls in my tired arms.

It's hard to look glamorous after pushing two humans out of your body

I'm not going to lie the newborn stage was sooo hard! In addition to having a two year old we now had two newborns and my time for business was non existent. It wasn't until the end of 2018 that I started shooting people other than my babies. The time off to spend with my family was so important to my mind and my sanity, as I could not handle anything extra! The New Year is when I started to buckle down again and get serious about my brand, and what my goals were as an artist and small business owner. I rebuilt my portfolio, dove harder into boudoir and maternity- my two favorite things to shoot! And developed a better program for moms to be that I have for now, poorly named, "The Baby Club."

New logo who dis?

You may find that I've changed the way I do business a little bit. I've restructured my pricing to reflect that of a full-time business owner, I've re branded myself, and started only putting out the content that I feel represents who I am as an artist. Most importantly, I've scaled back and changed from a high volume, low price, shoot and burn business model, to a low volume, higher cost boutique business model. My time off let me recover form the burn out I was experiencing in both business and life, and gave me a better perspective on what I want my business to look like 10 years from now. I hope you'll appreciate all the hard work I have put into giving you 110% of my time, effort, and creativity. It is important to me that you not only have amazing quality photos, but that you receive professional and personable service along with it.

No more, "meet me at the park and I'll take your pictures." I want to know your family dynamic, know your personalities and expectations. I want to capture you the way you are, and the ways you will miss 5, 10, 30 years from now.

If you're booking a boudoir shoot, I want to know why it is you are ready to get in front of my camera. I want to show you how minuscule your insecurities and imperfections are compared to your beauty. I want to help you find your confidence and my prayer is that it will spill out into other parts of your life. I have honed and perfected (and will continue to do so) my craft- no my passion- for putting the freeze button on this passage of time in your life. If you're still reading, bless your soul because I've really droned on, but if you're still reading, welcome to the new me, my new business, and my newly reignited passion for photography.