It's Been A Minute...

What gives with the radio silence?!

Let's take a minute to talk about accountability. I've been basically MIA on social and updating my website pretty much all year. While it wasn't the plan and not what I had intended on doing heading into the new year (which coincidently is now almost over), it's something that needed to happen. That's on me 110%, I own that and I intend to fix that. That being said, here's what's been going on in my life this year....

As anyone with kids will tell you, you just get busy. I heard the phrase a million times growing up and when my wife and I were first married, but always just shrugged it off as an excuse people used. Turns out it's not "just an excuse" and you really do just lose track of things once your kids are in activities (like a sports class, nature class, two different soccer programs and more just to name a few for us) and all the planning and driving that those entail. Add in more regular trips for things like the zoo, playgrounds and other things and your schedule fills up faster than you'd ever imagine.

One major thing that has kept me from stating on top of my previously regular updates has been a seemingly constant number of personal issues with various family members. The unexplainable stress and mental drain of dealing with those things for, honestly, years is something that finally came to a head and resulted in having to make some tough decisions. While those issues haven't been completely resolved, at least not yet anyways, I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lastly, and most importantly for me, what has really kept me busy is the sheer influx of work I've had this year. I was finally able to cover the Design of Medical Devices Conference at the University of Minnesota again this spring which, in turn, has opened up a great partnership with another department within the university and multiple events from spring until now. I've been very fortunate to have seen a pretty decent increase in the number of people reaching out either from my website or simply by word of mouth from past clients for both families and seniors. I was also chosen as a featured photographer for one of the companies I contract with in the Twin Cities, which has lead to about a 30% increase in bookings for me through them year over year. The last area I've seen tremendous growth this year is my sports work. I started working with a local high school to try and get my name out there more and start having a little more fun with new ideas for sports again. We came to an agreement to cover a little of all of their fall athletics on sort of a "show me" type deal for the athletic director. Seemingly overnight that turned into the football team needing game day coverage and then the entire youth football program needing coverage as well. Add all of this up on top of fall in general just being plain busy for pretty much any portrait photographer and it all adds up to me being home less than I was out shooting or editing for about a two month span.

I'm hoping to get back into a regular groove again and posting more regularly. I have a plan in place to learn some new techniques to up my overall quality and also to grow my business even more. I always appreciate the love and support I've gotten from friends and clients and truly feel like I've been letting them down by not staying more on top of this, so this is at the top of my list moving forward.

Currently Listening To: With Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends? by Sleep On It