Happy New Year! It's officially 2018, meaning it's my 5 year anniversary as a freelance photographer. Every year flies by quickly, but my 5th year of self-employment has felt like the fastest yet. In a lot of ways, it was due to an increased confidence in my photography skills. This was also apparent in my
Greetings, Friends! Apologies for the long radio silence. The last Monthly Highlights post I did was in February 2017, so this is a very long overdue post. When you see the stats below (at the end of the blog), maybe that will explain part of my absence. It's been a crazy 8 months full of
Hard to believe we're already one month into 2017, isn't it? I don't know about you, but for me, the month of January flew by incredibly fast. January 2017 Photography Business Stats Monthly Highlights Series 13 Photo shoots completed *3 less than December 55.3 Business miles driven *78.8 less than
One of the pitfalls of being a professional photographer is dealing with the inevitable creative slump. Simply put, a slump is a downturn in either creativity or available photography work. Slumps are common among creative professionals who burn out or exhaust their energy and motivation to keep producing. On the other hand, sometimes slumps can
It's hard to believe that 2016 is just about over. That means I've been a self-employed photographer for 4 years as of September. Time has certainly flown by, and I'm more energized for what lies ahead. For now, it's time for the annual performance review of what happened this year, and what's in store for
It's shocking to realize that this year is nearly over. November ended up being my second-least busy month out of the year. This was partially due to a long weekend vacation up north to Whistler, thus becoming a second annual holiday tradition. For the first time in a long time, I left all electronics at
My recent trip to Thailand was certainly off to a rocky start after losing my passport in Bangkok. But beyond the initial chaos, I crossed off a bunch of bucket list items during my trip, including one item that hadn't been there previously: getting a bamboo tattoo. It wasn't my first tattoo, nor my first
My Monthly Highlights series and blog as a whole have been on a bit of a hiatus lately, and for that, I sincerely apologize. So many life events (more on those below) have been happening that I hadn't even realized the last Monthly Highlights blog was published in July. As a result, this is a
July was an incredibly memorable month in more ways than one. Backpacking for the fifth annual July 4th Road Trip, a work trip to Chicago, photography projects for a couple of big clients, and...becoming an official homeowner! July 2016 Stats Monthly Highlights Series 9 Photo shoots completed *13 less than June 279.2 Business
I first visited the Windy City of Chicago in November 2011. Freezing cold and not particularly crowded as evidenced by the curiously empty Chicago Bean below , it didn't leave much of an impression and was high on my list of places to return to. Fast forward several years, and I found myself back in
