Since leaving my full time job at HubSpot, there has been a lot happening in my little corner. I started this blog, continued teaching yoga, and now I am starting my own family photography business in New Hampshire. Photography has been an interest of mine for a long time now and I have always toyed with the idea of doing it professionally, but didn't make it happen until now.
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The idea to make this a profession started after I started taking Lydia's monthly photos during her first year of life. I would set up my lighting kit, make a backdrop with her blankets, and use some age tracking blocks to mark the months then snap some photos of that cherub face to capture the changes in her month to month.
Every month on the date matching her birthday (we keep this info private), I would look forward to taking her photos and editing them to make them pretty and fully show how sweet this baby was. I loved getting to go through all of them and see Lydia change throughout, showcasing what she was learning to do and her ever changing expressions.
As I did this, Aaron would show the pictures to his co-workers and they did not believe him when he said that I took them. His co-workers thought I had gotten her pictures done in a studio every month. I continued to get positive feedback from friends and family who saw my pictures of Lydia and then the conversation between Aaron and I started to change to the fact that maybe I could make a career out of this.
At first, I met him with resistance. I did not feel like I was good enough to do family photography professionally. Over the years I have had many friends who were talented with a camera and I have seen other professional photographs that I know I cannot replicate. There was an inner dialogue constantly reminding me that I was not good enough, who did I think I was?
With this kind of an internal dialogue, there was no way I was going to try to do family photography in a professional way. I wanted to keep it small and do photos for my own family and if anyone ever wanted photos, I could do it for cheap. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go for it.
The more I thought about adding family photography to my gigs, the more it felt like something I wanted. I was so afraid of failing that I was not going to allow myself to try it out, which would have been the biggest failure of all.
Most importantly, I wanted Lydia see her mom go after something. I wanted her to see me try something and possibly fail, but still try and not be afraid of putting myself out there. How can I tell her to chase her dreams and work hard to accomplish her goals if I can't take my own advice?
And here we are, I'm going for it and I can now call myself a family photographer! I have also had my first client, who is a friend of mine, Anna. A few weeks ago, I went to her house and took family photos of her, her husband, their daughter (Ellie), and their dog, Lucy. I am so thankful for the Duffy family for letting me take their photos and welcome me into their home!
Anna and I have been friends for a few months now after meeting at the Mother Goose group at our local library. Our daughters are only a month apart in age and the two girls became little friends, so we did, too! Ellie and Lydia always seem to instigate each other during Mother Goose; if one goes to check something out, the other is not far behind. All of a sudden you will see two little ruffle bums bopping over to check out a prop for story time.
The Duffy family moved to New Hampshire a few months ago from Texas, but they are originally from Kentucky, so this was a big move for them to come all the way to New England. It is certainly a big transition going from the hot weather of Texas to the unpredictability of New England, so Anna and I even went to the nearby outlets so I could help her with picking out winter clothes.
After story time, Anna and I will usually chat and swap notes about the girls with the usual "Is this normal? Yeah? Ok, good," that I feel a lot of moms probably do with each other. We have talked about the difficulties of leaving our jobs to stay home with our kids and finding confidence in yourself as a mom. We are also the same age, and it is wonderful knowing there is a friend nearby going through the same things you are.
When I mentioned to Anna that I was starting a family photography business, she got so excited and said the previous day that she had been looking for a family photographer. She was quick to say that she was interested and texted me later with a date that worked for having the photos done. My first booked client! I was ecstatic and went out to Target to get a blanket and letter-board as props.
Having my first session be with a friend was such a relief for me. I felt at ease (for the most part, I still had some nerves!) and felt prepared for the session after having done some work earlier that day to look at potential poses. We were going to be taking some regular family photos as well as Christmas card photos, and their house had a few great places to take the photos.
At their house one of the first places I spotted was a lovely black door to their garage that I was excited to shoot in front of. They also had a peach tree that was a sweet place to take a few pictures. A beautiful bay window in the living room was a cozy location for some Christmas photos as well as their couch. I loved getting to showcase the Duffy's as a family, but also the lovely areas of their home that they get to enjoy.
It has been such a joy getting to know the Duffy family and I look forward to seeing how our friendships blossom. I am so thankful to have taken your pictures and hope you enjoy them!
xoxo
TBS
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