Goals

      Finally! I am almost done with this monthly challenge! (Not that I really have kept up on it anyway.) I have two more things I have to write about to be completely finished. The first one is my goals for the next 30 days. Thats actually a big one because I have so many goals right now! It all has to do with my photography business. I am hoping by January I will be completely self employed. I have no doubt that will happen. Winter is always the slowest season when it comes to photography, but this particular winter is decently booked for me. I also just applied to be part of a group called BNI. It's a business networking group. I was going to join this group a year ago but ended up having to go through a divorce and all that fun stuff, so it didn't happen. Now, I am finally ready and in a great spot in my life to really concentrate and give lots of time to my business. 

      So, my big goal for the next 30 days is just to concentrate on my business and get it to grow even more. I would also like to work as much as possible at the pediatricians office up until January to have extra money to save up, just in case. That won't be hard because the winter season is so busy at the Dr.'s office, so there are always shifts to pick up. I want to make sure I have time on top of my job and photography sessions to do at least one photo shoot a week for myself. No of myself, but for myself. This means my ideas, choice of location, maybe working with other photographers. Even if I have no time to collaborate with someone to model for me or with another photographer, I will go outside on a walk and take photos of random things. Or bring my camera along when going to friends houses. Anything! Just as long as it is for fun, and for me to learn and practice. 

      I always find myself in some kind of photo rut when the season gets cold. Especially after the leaves have fallen and everything looks dead and gross. I'm hoping that if I take the opportunity to learn during that time that I won't get in that big of a rut this year. 

      Last year when the season started to get cold I wasn't doing photography at all! It was because my camera had broke so it was in the shop for the entire month of October being fixed, and on top of all that I was going through a divorce and had to do everything to concentrate on myself and figuring out life a little more. I had no time for photography. Not photographing really made my creativity kind of disappear, I guess. I wasn't doing anything, not drawing, painting, photos, nothing. Thats not like me, and it really got me feeling awful about myself. Because of that I didn't know if I was even going to continue photography at all anymore and thought of just quitting. Photos slowly started to become meaningless to me. It was hard to get back into the groove of things once the season warmed up and my camera was good as new, but I am glad I never quit! 

      I feel like when I started doing photography again after that bad of a rut I had lost some skill. I felt as though I forgot everything I have learned from the years prior of practice and I was starting all over again. This really discouraged me! If it weren't for my friends that inspire me I honestly don't know if I would of continued trying at all. It's weird to think about how awful I thought I was then and looking at my work now, I feel as though my work has gotten drastically better since then. Thinking of that makes me feel much better. I can see myself in another year writing on this blog about how much I have improved and learned within the past year, and every year after that it'll hopefully be the same. I'm excited to see where I will be in a year with my business!

      The last thing I am supposed to blog about is something I am passionate about. Well, thats an easy one. If you know me, you know what I would choose..FOOD! And talking about food opens up so many more discussions about so many different things..so this topic I will save for next time..It's going to be a looong one!