There’s a reason why a lot of vacations tend to happen early in the year. For one, many of us northerners are looking for any reason to escape the cold to warmer places, and for two, January and February are just really slow months. This is why I decided to combine the monthly recap into one post. For me, a slow month doesn’t mean I do less work. On the contrary, I ended up working harder than ever in January and February, mostly in an effort to catch up on my bookkeeping and business accounting that I had failed to do throughout most of 2013.
If you’re self employed, here’s one piece of advice that everyone tells you that’s absolutely true: get your accounting in order from the get go. Otherwise, you’ll live to regret it when April 21 rolls around. As I learned, it also doesn’t pay to wait until January of the new year to seek out accounting advice. I called and emailed 8 accountants in early January, thinking I was clever for beating the rush. I only got 2 replies back; one was a flat out “sorry, I’m too busy to take on new clients,” and the other (to my relief) was a friendly “sure, let’s talk.” That reply came from Jeremy over at System Six Bookkeeping, and I’ll be eternally grateful for all of the advice that Jeremy gave to me during our meeting. While he wasn’t able to help with my taxes specifically, he did refer me to an excellent CPA who was able to effectively finish the job and save me some tax money for the year. But this was after I spent pretty much the entire month of January pouring through my receipts and emails, inputting all of my expenses manually into Quickbooks. Lesson in a nutshell: get on top of your bookkeeping and accounting BEFORE you start doing business.
With all that said, here’s a recap of some of the projects I worked on during January and February of this year, in order of when they occurred.
Travel Photography
This year, my side company Gemini Connect had the good fortune to return to Belize to check in with the client that we’ve been working with for over a year now, Hanna Stables. We were happy to see that many improvements were made on the ground, with lots of potential for expansion and further success in the coming months. We also got connected to two other local businesses, Nefry’s Retreat and Mayawalk Tours, successfully working with them to capture photos for their marketing materials, as well as revamp their online presences. Prior to visiting Belize, we also had a chance to visit Mexico and vacation in Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Bacalar. All in all, it was an amazing trip that resulted in lots of photos, as well as the successful testing of our newest camera addition, the Olympus Tough TG-2.
Music Photography
After spending 3 weeks in the Caribbean in January, I returned to Seattle and quickly jumped back into concert photography, shooting back-to-back shows 5 nights in a row. Musical highlights included:
The Presidents of the United States of America
Restaurant Photography
Similar to concert photography, the restaurant scene was pretty quiet for most of January, but all of a sudden it exploded with action in February. Highlights included:
Mezcaleria Oaxaca opening its Capitol Hill location
Dot’s Delicatessen opened its remodeled Dot’s Charcuterie and Bistro
Matt Dillon’s The London Plane part deux opens in Pioneer Square
Kedai Makan celebrated its 1 year anniversary by taking a trip to Malaysia
Event Photography
The event photo side of things was expectedly low early in the year, but I did have a few great opportunities come my way. Most notably was the invitation to photograph Scott “Lord” Disick from Keeping Up with the Kardashians during his appearance at Seattle’s Aston Manor nightclub. Also fun was shooting the second ever Seattle meetup of Geek Girls Carrots, as well as Thrive Youngstown, an event celebrating the rebranding of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle.
Lookahead to March
March is already looking to be a pretty action packed month as well. This year, I decided to forgo a trip to SXSW by instead adventuring out to Thailand for the first half of the month. During that time I’m gone, I actually set up several event photography shoots under Gemini Connect, and have a couple more lined up for right when I get back. It looks to be an action-packed month!
