Hello and happy new year! I’m just gonna go right ahead and point out the obvious: I haven’t blogged in over 6 months! Last year was huge (I’ll explain why soon) but I have been missing writing and sharing in this space so much. I have a lot of work and content to share with you, and I thought what better time to jump back in at the start of a fresh, new year.
2016 was a year full of adventures, new routines, learning curves, growing relationships, improvement and dreams. Many of you may not know that as well as running my business this past year, I have been working full time for a tertiary institution since March 2016. I work with their marketing team doing many different things including photography, design, content writing, digital marketing and social media. I had never really had a traditional “full time job” before this, just focussing on freelancing and other part time work in previous years.
Working full time and trying to run a photography business is not a piece of cake. There have been highs and lows, it has been stressful at times trying to balance everything and while I miss having weekdays to myself, sleep-ins and creating my own work schedule I am grateful for this job. It was an answer to prayer for some consistency and grounding (financially and practically) for this season of my life.
While I am unsure of what the future holds, I am grateful for where I am right now, the opportunities I have and the goals (grand and small) I am working towards. A lot of people in this photography world, or maybe just creative small businesses in general, view themselves as a failure if they’re not working full time on their passion, pumping out jobs they love everyday and rolling in their own success.
We compare ourselves to others on different journeys and envy their success, lifestyle or beauty. I have learned to be happy with where I’m at, realise we are all on different paths and you can’t compare yours to someone else’s as you are completely different people! For most successful people it took a lot of hustle and hard work (which you may have no idea about) to get them to where they are. So I’m proud to be in this hustlin’ stage, working on some amazing projects, chasing my dreams and trying to balance it all!
While I’ve been working on that whole balance thing I have definitely neglected areas of my business, like this blog. Last year I was most active on Instagram and I still am now (follow me at @lydiarachelphoto) as that is what I found most efficient for my life and schedule. You can scroll through my feed to see what I’ve been up to, my adventures and my work with my amazing clients. I’ll always love Instagram’s platform but I am determined to also get back into blogging, starting right now!
Last year I shot some beautiful weddings, worked hard, went on awesome trips, made some lovely new friends, spent time with family and learned a lot. I can’t wait to share the experiences I had, work I’ve created and everything to come going forward. I hope your 2017 has started off well and I encourage you to take stock of the year just gone, what sucked, what was awesome and to appreciate your journey. Be grateful for what you have and get excited for the future!
I’m not huge on new years resolutions but I do constantly (throughout the year) write down my dreams, goals, places I want to go, people I want to meet, where I want to shoot… (ok I am an obsessive list-writer). Soon I’ll be sharing a few thoughts about goals from last year and this year and also some lovely wedding work. I hope you have a wonderful week! xx
Hello and happy new year! I’m just gonna go right ahead and point out the obvious: I haven’t blogged in over 6 months! Last year was huge (I’ll explain why soon) but I have been missing writing and sharing in this space so much. I have a lot of work and content to share with you, and I thought what better time to jump back in at the start of a fresh, new year.
2016 was a year full of adventures, new routines, learning curves, growing relationships, improvement and dreams. Many of you may not know that as well as running my business this past year, I have been working full time for a tertiary institution since March 2016. I work with their marketing team doing many different things including photography, design, content writing, digital marketing and social media. I had never really had a traditional “full time job” before this, just focussing on freelancing and other part time work in previous years.
Working full time and trying to run a photography business is not a piece of cake. There have been highs and lows, it has been stressful at times trying to balance everything and while I miss having weekdays to myself, sleep-ins and creating my own work schedule I am grateful for this job. It was an answer to prayer for some consistency and grounding (financially and practically) for this season of my life.
While I am unsure of what the future holds, I am grateful for where I am right now, the opportunities I have and the goals (grand and small) I am working towards. A lot of people in this photography world, or maybe just creative small businesses in general, view themselves as a failure if they’re not working full time on their passion, pumping out jobs they love everyday and rolling in their own success.
We compare ourselves to others on different journeys and envy their success, lifestyle or beauty. I have learned to be happy with where I’m at, realise we are all on different paths and you can’t compare yours to someone else’s as you are completely different people! For most successful people it took a lot of hustle and hard work (which you may have no idea about) to get them to where they are. So I’m proud to be in this hustlin’ stage, working on some amazing projects, chasing my dreams and trying to balance it all!
While I’ve been working on that whole balance thing I have definitely neglected areas of my business, like this blog. Last year I was most active on Instagram and I still am now (follow me at @lydiarachelphoto) as that is what I found most efficient for my life and schedule. You can scroll through my feed to see what I’ve been up to, my adventures and my work with my amazing clients. I’ll always love Instagram’s platform but I am determined to also get back into blogging, starting right now!
Last year I shot some beautiful weddings, worked hard, went on awesome trips, made some lovely new friends, spent time with family and learned a lot. I can’t wait to share the experiences I had, work I’ve created and everything to come going forward. I hope your 2017 has started off well and I encourage you to take stock of the year just gone, what sucked, what was awesome and to appreciate your journey. Be grateful for what you have and get excited for the future!
I’m not huge on new years resolutions but I do constantly (throughout the year) write down my dreams, goals, places I want to go, people I want to meet, where I want to shoot… (ok I am an obsessive list-writer). Soon I’ll be sharing a few thoughts about goals from last year and this year and also some lovely wedding work. I hope you have a wonderful week! xx
Love this Lyd! You’re on a great journey 🙂 xx