Whats Next

2011. Two thousand and eleven. It's strange but I remember a time when that date seemed like it was so incredibly far away. I was in middle school writing 1997 on my English papers and I'd see futuristic movies set in 2010 or 2012. It was so far...so far. And now here it is, 2011 and I cant quite determine my emotions on that. Not entirely. But, I am incredibly excited, I know that much. There's a lot for 2011 that we're looking forward to, a lot that we cannot wait to see. And while I had originally anticipated sharing my personal goals and our photography goals, I cant really bring myself to share my personal goals. They're intimate and precious...and really I dont think I'm ready to share those just yet. Maybe it's out of fear but I'm gonna hold onto them for a bit.

But our photography goals. Those I'm ready to just throw out there because I'm so crazy excited about them and ready to tackle them head on. So, here it goes...2011!

1. Our filing system for 2010 absolutely sucked. This year I've got a new filing cabinet, new folders, new harddrives and a whole new system. They're bright and shiny and yellow and perfectly organized. I've got a plan set for how I'm keeping track of everything and a way to keep each individual client feeling as if they're my only priority. The trick will be to not get lazy with the filing and imputing.
2. Finish redesigning the office. Andrew and I have been in our new house for a year now. A year. And ever since we put together the office, I loved it for about six months...maybe less. I wanted a new desk from pottery barn and I wanted plants and orchids and shelving and baskets and hooks and inspiration boards. We didnt get that far. Right now I have chunky black shelves and a chunky black desk...not the pretty white ones from pottery barn. So this year, I'm planning on purchasing my dream desk, and my decorations and hopefully I can keep orchids alive.
3. Incorporate a new blogging schedule. I'm holding off on that until our new blog launches. Yeah baby! You heard right, a new blog! Once it launches, we'll have new series on our blogs...Garland Puppy, Wedding Wednesday, Our Favorite Things Thursday, and Book Club Reviews.
4. Launch new blog and website. Spilled Milk Designs have been absolutely amazing with us. I cant wait to show you what they've done because we're stoked to switch over!
5. Submit at least five weddings to wedding blogs and magazines. I've never done this before and it terrifies me. I'm setting a goal to submit a minimum of five. I'm afraid of rejection, of not being good enough...but I'm going to try.
6. Book 20 weddings. Last year I set a goal of 12 weddings and we were blessed with 13! 20 sounds like a crazy amount to me. It kinda scares me a tad...what if we dont book 20? What if we book 20 and it's more than we can handle? But last year we laid our goals down before our Savior and said this is what we'd like to do, do with it as you see fit and He blessed us. So this year, we'll see what happens.
7. Shoot three creatively themed sessions. These are more for me. I love seeing those styled shoots in magazines and blogs but they're not realistic...they're created for blogs and for magazines. I just want to push myself more this year...and setting up three creative sessions is one of them. They take a lot of work and effort and extra money but I want to do it.
8. Shoot less and get more! We did so much better towards the end of the year but still not good enough. We shoot a lot of images...and what takes up the majority of our time is culling through them all. While there's a fine line between being safe and being just ridiculous, we're going to shoot less and get more quality. We're going to try to shoot less and get more quality. I dont want to miss out on an amazing shot because I dont want to take too many images. But I dont want ten thousand images of the same shot.
9. Purchase a 35mm 1.4 and a macro lens. Last year we rented our equipment that we didnt own from BorrowLens.com and while we discovered which lenses we really wanted, we wasted a whole heap load of money we could have invested into a lens. So this year, we're buying them, not renting, we're buying the new shiny pretty little lenses!
10. Make our materials match our brand. I've finally found new boxes for our high-res DVDs and new cases. They're going to be the most amazing custom packaging ever! They look amazing and they're the first on the list for things we're investing in this year. And our friends at letterpress have some new paper goods ready for us that we cant wait to share.
11. Build better relationships with our fellow wedding vendors. We shoot a lot of weddings with the same set of vendors and I havent taken the time to build relationships with them. This year we plan on making them a higher priority because they're amazing and without them, our photography wouldnt be what it is.
12. Keep tax information up to date and organized and consider hiring an account to handle all our legalities and tax stuff. BECAUSE I HATE IT! So, so much do I hate dealing with taxes and accounting and forms...hate hate hate!
13. Get more creative with our posing. We kinda got stuck in a rut last year. We werent very creative in posing our clients and we didnt push ourselves to try new things. This year, we're pushing our posing, we're practicing, we're trying to get more of a variety. As we looked over our images from last year, I noticed that I loved intertwining my clients. I loved their arms wrapped around each other and the groom protecting the bride with his arms and seeing her completely safe and comfortable in his grip. I love shots that are tight and from the waist up, focusing in on the eyes, the expression. But this year, I want to push myself.
14. Inspiration boards. I wanted to do these last year and never did. I want a board of posing a board of ideas, things that I love, things I want to buy, anything really. They're part of the office redesign, I'm designating a whole wall to them.
15. Pay off anything on our business credit card by December 1, 2011.
16. Start saving to convert to Macs. Yes, you can all gasp in shock...we do not own Macs, we dont work from Macs and we are a tad bit jealous of all the Mac products, gadgets and gizmos available.
17. This is one of the few business goals that mesh over into my personal goals but I'm going to share it anyway. I'm noticing a trend with other photographers new years resolution and goals. They all say they dont document their own lives enough, that they dont have any photos that are a good representation of themselves. We are no exception. You know that traditional photo of a young couple buying their first home standing in front of the sold sign holding keys? Or the photo of the couple eating pizza or mac and cheese on the floor on a blanket because they havent moved in all the way yet. We didnt get those photos. When we moved in, the only photos we have are the ones I snapped on my iPhone to show my grandma via email what our home looked like. So this year, Andrew and I want to document our lives. We want photos of the two of us together each season. Spring photos, summer photos, fall, winter...and every year we're going to make a photo album of that year and the highlights, the ups and downs and the memories. Andrew and I started this business because we loved being able to give that to clients...the memories, seeing themselves in the best possible light...and we want to that as well. What good is doing this if we cant have our own memories documented along the way.

And that's it...that's what we've got for 2011. I'm sure we'll add to the list as we go but this is our starting point, our spring board. As I'm sure it's 5:00 o'clock somewhere I'm going to go enjoy a nice glass of wine and spend some time over a nice dinner with my husband and our furry little Garland beastie. So here's to 2011!

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie