This announcement is probably not going to be a huge surprise to most of my clients, nor do I expect anyone to be super shocked. If you have watched me work then you know where my passion lies in my business. I am excited and anxious to announce that I will be photographing primarily maternity and newborn clients in 2014. Starting in January this year I will no longer take older babies (over the newborn phase) and will start to phase out my baby plan clients that are currently signed up for the baby plan. In an effort to capture time with my own family, specifically my rapidly growing children, I know it's time to pull back a little bit and do what I am most passionate about... the newborns! This year has been extremely difficult for me and my family. My Dad had a catastrophic stroke causing him to almost lose his life. I had to take a lot of time off of work to act as his advocate as he struggled to survive and I constantly struggled with the guilt that was associated with obligations I had to existing clients at the studio. This year in general has caused me to reflect on what is most important in life and at times when I was missing my son's football games on Saturdays because I was so booked I felt overwhelmed. I thought "this isn't fair" to my children and I discovered that I really don't have to work this hard and could scale back to what I enjoyed most, which are the newborns! Not only did my overwhelming schedule seem unfair, but every day I am turning down a newborn client that wasn't previously scheduled with their due date on my schedule. I felt a huge amount of personal disappointment in the fact that I wasn't able to capture that new life for their family because my scheduled was so booked. I'm excited with the possibility of being able to accommodate "call in" clients and capturing more new lives for families in 2014.
I am super excited about this chapter of my business because this is how I originally had wished to open my doors when I started out in my business. Going forward I have changed my website to reflect the change in my business. My prices have not gone up (yet) and I will evaluate that in 2014 like I do every year. I will continue to photograph all the babies that have signed up for my baby plan up until now. Going forward I will not accept any new baby plan clients or book any older babies. I will continue to offer "Mini Sessions" around the holidays and I typically don't put an age bracket on my minis so you will still be able to come and see me around mini session events, if you choose. I also will be mentoring in 2014 to photographers from around the U.S. and am really excited about the ladies that have signed up to come and see me in 2014 to learn and expand on the art of newborn photography in their own businesses.
Thank you to all my clients for being so loyal, for letting me capture your sweet babies and for referring all of your friends and family to me. I feel honored and blessed to do what I love every day. I wake up in the mornings with a happy heart and a smile on my face because I know I will get to capture a new life and snuggle a little person that is the apple of a sweet family's eye!
Blessings in 2014!
