Mid-Year Update

This blog has laid dormant for quite awhile and thank you for your patience with that (if you are a regular attender over in these here parts) as we work to balance my full time teaching position and my photography business while also being the Mom I want to be for my children!

What a year! Last school year was probably the most difficult of my career with things that happened outside of my teaching and were beyond my control. Teaching that year felt like my constant Friend (in addition to the Lord), and the one thing I could count on to go well because I was in control of that one item in my life. Fast forward to this year and teaching Photography at NHS, revamping the curriculum from scratch, being on the CTE (Career & Technical Ed), Music & Tech department teams for all three parts of my job (Photography, Band Lessons & Communications Coordinator)—it was awesome & fun! It was also a challenge to keep track of where I’d laid things down (being in two different classrooms), fully focus on the student I was teaching (because I’d be emailed Communications items to get done in a short turn-around), and have undistracted time at home (I’d inevitably not get everything done that I’d wanted to at school). It was a challenge I embraced because of the amazing staff I got to work with on projects, curriculum, and the camaraderie was so wonderful. I will be eternally grateful for their friendship and the way they wholeheartedly welcomed me to the table without question and saw me as an authority in my craft. Their confidence instilled confidence in myself that I hadn’t been gifted in….well, quite awhile.

Gerard had a pretty hum-dinger of a year as well! He was honored to conduct the state-wide honor choir called Opus for the 9th grade level in November (photo below):

I’ve listened to a bunch of different podcasts while working on projects and one podcast I’ve stumbled upon is Work & Play with Nancy Rey and she talks about how she built her photography business, has had three children and now, she’s closing the doors on her photography studio after an 11 year run. She discussed the different seasons a business has (Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter) and what each of those looks like. Spring is the hustle of learning and getting business and clients and planting seeds. Summer is watching things grow-systems you have in place and getting the business to grow. Fall is where you reap all that you’ve sown—the harvest. Winter is where you close up shop, to be brief. After listening to it with Gerard, I truly think this business of mine is in the Fall season—I’m truly harvesting all the hard work I’ve put in the last 10 years to grow this business to the point where I’m qualified to teach at the high school level. I have loved working with the high school aged students and getting a second chance to interact with some amazing band kids in my classroom too. I love serving my school district with my imagery and capturing all that it means to #BeAWarrior. (photos below include Kindergarten Open House, first day of school, having my dad as our photography class guest speaker, photographing graduation and Laidy’s last day of Kindergarten! The banner photo for this post is after the high school band concert with a few students that have been my biggest cheerleaders through the years who are all graduating!)

But I also ferociously LOVE the families who have been with me from the beginning. The fact that I’m heading out tonight to photograph the eldest son of the first family to ever pay me for my photography services is mind boggling to me. This child now stands inches taller than me and is ready to take on the world! I’ve photographed this family and their grandparents for wedding anniversaries, family reunions, I’ve seen them through the death of their grandma and now transitioning grandpa into an assisted living facility. I have so many more stories I could share of the families that I’ve been blessed to be a part of during our shoots together, but this post is already lengthy!

(Photos below include: Loch watching Laid'y’s music program, his first dentist appointment, Laidy’s last night of soccer with a great friend, having fun at grad parties, Laidy attending the Middle School’s musical-Aladdin, & Loch’s last day in the 2s classroom (today!)). Laidy rocked Kindergarten (not without some rough days emotionally, but she did great. And Loch has toddled along with the rest of us, enjoying the events and watching Laidy on stage. :)

At times, I feel like I’ve been trying to gather everything that the combine is tossing my way in this harvest season, to the point where I’m sure some soy beans or ears of corn have fallen to the wayside. I’m trying to take full advantage of all the harvest that is been blessing our family in the last school year and I’m excited for this summer (literal, not figurative) season of photographing families, seniors (& 1 very special wedding!).

Cheers to the next 3 months of shooting!!

Carrie