End of year recap and plans for 2019

On the personal front, 2018 meant:

- purging hundreds of items from our home, which helps me feel less distracted and more relaxed

- Nova had 16 vet visits

- I read 14 books (out of my goal of 12, yay!)

- we've lived in the US for 6 years (the original plan was 3-5)

On the photography front, 2018 included:

- 34 paid documentary family or newborn sessions

- 15 non-docu sessions, portfolio sessions, or new-gear-practice sessions

- 15 families that I've worked with before hired me again this year

- 4 friends in Finland and Sweden had babies that I of course had to photograph

This comes up to a total of 53 times that I made pictures and managed the workload that comes with it.

For 2019, my goals are:

Good goal: 40 paid sessions

Better goal: 50

Best goal: 60

I want to work up to 60 paid sessions per year by 2020 – but it would be amazing if I could reach it in 2019!

I hate to tie success to numbers and money, but if the business isn't profitable enough to pay me a great salary, it's just not worth the work. Instead I could work at a company where someone else worries about the big stuff, and keep photography as a hobby.

60 is a great number since I've seen in 2018 that I can handle the workload and still balance it with marketing and all the admin work that I do for my business.

This means that for 2019 I have slots per month open for:

1 Day In The Life

3 four hour sessions

1 woman's portrait session

I'm excited to start doing women's portraits again, as that is how I started my photography journey here in the US, practicing with local models.

Australian Shepherd Nova | Bay Area Dog Photography

Focus for 2019

In the past 2-3 years my focus has been heavily on the business side of things, with courses as well as with business coaching.

In 2019 I'm giving myself permission to focus on my art, my photography.

- studying photojournalists and street photographers that do amazing work

- classes

- guidance from a fellow photographer that I admire

- work on a personal project

Beach day.

Lastly,

I want to thank you for your support throughout 2018.

Whether you hired me for photography or were liking and commenting on posts, you've been an important puzzle piece in any successes that I've had in 2018.

I hope you have an amazing year ahead, and I hope to see you all in 2019! You never know, right?