Onwards and upwards! Here is my year in review for 2017.
This past year wasn’t a big travel year for me as I only went to San Francisco, a city that I’ve been to more times than Whistler as I have family there. Seriously though, I love it there. Every time I go I always think, I wish I lived here, I need to move here, I don’t like rain or cold.
As I travel to SF more and more, I’m starting to branch my explorations outside of the city. Yes, theres still so much to discover in the city, but at the same time going for hikes in the local mountains is awesome. Even though I don’t drink wine, Napa Valley is pretty sweet! Also, San Francisco has uber, which is just so convenient to have!
A big part about this trip though was to attend the Possible Workshop, which is the first in person, group workshop that I’ve been to. I chose to attend this workshop for two primary reasons, okay three. One, it was all about learning. I knew showing up that I would sit there and learn for 8hrs straight on both days. I wasn’t interested in doing yoga in the morning and then doing a beautifully staged styled shoot at sunset; shooting the same thing as the other 20 people in the class are shooting. The second reason is the content of the workshop. It was mostly about the philosophy around wedding photography, our mental barriers, why we do what we do, and how we can do that better. This bit here will end up playing a pretty big role in my year later on. The last reason was I just needed another reason to go to SF haha.
One of my biggest learnings this past year was learning how to pull genuine emotions out of couples during portraits. I often get complimented about my candid photography and thought, how could I get a similar feel for my portraits? A big part of this was learned from the Possible workshop and the rest was just practice! I feel like I’ve definitely made some good progress in this area and am looking to push this even more in the new year.
Another improvement I made was learning how to create images that are more dynamic. In short, images that are just more interesting to look at. I want to create images that are full of life so to speak. My favourite wedding photographer does this about as good as anyone out there so I did the logical thing and booked a call with her to ask! In that one call I learned as much as I have in some multi day online workshops, so it was definitely worth while!
Speaking of workshops, no I didn’t attend another one, instead I made a much bigger stride. Over my 5 years in business I have done several online workshops, several online courses, read plenty of books, many more e-books, did a one on one workshop and now a group workshop. I’m a bit addicted to learning and the idea of a mentor/coach came about. I thought, the best athletes in the world have a coach, why don’t I have one? That idea took a back seat, but one day an opportunity came about for a 6 month mentorship and I jumped at it!
One of the biggest things that I achieved with my mentor in 2017 was getting a clear direction of who I am, and what I’m all about in terms of my business and I decided that that is simply, happiness. I realized that photographing happiness was something that I’ve been drawn to since I pretty much started my photography business but I couldn’t quite make it tangible until this past year. You’ll see this on reflected in my website and this will definitely be something that I’ll be looking to build on in a big way not only for the new year, but for the foreseeable future as well.
On the personal front, I’m happy to say that there are things of note! In 2016 I worked way too much and was all about business, and to be honest, I still work a lot, but I have not found, but made more time for personal things. One of these things is gardening. Ha! Yup. Gardening. I bought this beginner vegetable gardening kit out of curiosity and then I just became obsessed. My first growing season had a pretty terrible yield but I’m really looking forward to what I will grow in 2018 as I have already bought my seeds!
The second big thing for me on the personal front was getting into kettlebells. I’ve always consistently worked out, but working out became such a drag, I wanted a workout that would be quick and efficient and if I couldn’t get into it I was probably gonna join a gym or something because my motivation to workout at home had gone way down. I looked into quick and effective workouts and came across this stupidly simple kettlebell workout by Tim Ferris that you do for less than 5mins a day, twice a week. Sounds crazy right? Well it freaking works. I wouldn’t believe if someone told me about it, but having done it, it’s legit. My resting heart rate dropped damn near 10bmp and also as a side effect, I lost 5+ lbs without any change in diet as I wasn’t trying to lose weight. Crazy!
The last big change for me in 2017 is that I joined a boxing gym. Being a wedding photographer, I work for myself, by myself and can easily spend a week without leaving the house thanks to delivery services haha. Also, I’ve had conversations with various friends about how as you get older it’s harder to meet new people so I decided to step outside of my personal bubble and join a boxing gym. Why boxing? I’ve been into watching combat sports for years and just thought it would be a good way for me to gain my knowledge on what I watch. I don’t do full contact sparring though, as I gotta look pretty for weddings.
Lots to look forward to in 2018! On the personal from I’m actually really excited about the spring and summer harvest as I’ll be growing vegetables that uh…vegetate faster? Haha. That one can harvest faster. There we go. I’m also excited to learn more about the sport of boxing. Sometimes I feel like I’m the most uncoordinated person in the class, but really, I’ve actually just got the most to learn. In the area of travel, I’ll be going to Toronto for a wedding later this year and will possible head to San Francisco again as well. Lastly in terms of business things, I’m working on a lot, I mean A LOT if new things; so keep an eye out for that!
If were gonna make a gardening analogy here, I think I spent most of 2017 priming my soil. I’ve got some damn good soil now. 2018, I’m ready to plant my seeds and am excited at the growth!