Personal – Summer is here!

Well it appears as if summer has finally arrived…! Warm nights, cold wine and of course, WEDDING SEASON!
With the NHL playoffs finally at a close and our little one holding up her own head to take a peak at the world around her (she seems to be growing at light speed) Its time for me to start preparing myself for my return to photography. It’s been a brief (but wonderful) mommy-break, but to be honest I’m ready to go back. Being a wife and a mommy is absolutely wonderful but being your own person who does your own thing just for you has its benefits too and while I love cleaning poopy diapers and being constrained to the couch to breastfeed as much as the next gal it’s time to get my shoot back on.

This summer is jam packed with weddings for us. Most Saturdays Brad is going one direction with the photobooth while I’m off in the complete opposite direction to photograph a wedding. We haven’t quite worked out all the babysitting kinks yet and I haven’t figured out how I’m going to deal with my own baby-seperation-anxiety (I have a love/hate relationship with the clingy-ness) but we make a pretty good team when it comes to pressing out the wrinkles (and of course by that I mean I freak out and breathe into a paper bag while Brad maintains his ever-present-monk-like-sense-of-calm).

To add to the madness (as if running my own photography company while tending to a newborn wasn’t enough) I have decided to return to my roots in photojournalism and will be returning to The / La Source towards the end of summer. I was truly humbled when editor Mike Lee invited me to return as their main photographer and absolutely could not bring myself to pass up the opportunity. Photojournalism has lead me to some fantastic shooting opportunities in the past and Im excited to see what the future will hold. Since the paper is published bi-weekly I will, of course, continue to accept commissions  for weddings, boudoir and portraits. I have a passion for photojournalism but I gotta admit – working for myself is also pretty sweet.

Also (just to see how much a woman can take before she snaps and loses it) I’ve also decided to take a few extra courses at Langara come late summer/ early fall. I haven’t decided exactly what I’ll be taking just yet but Chris Morris is teaching an editorial photography class and he’s an excellent professor (I previously studied lighting in his classes) so I’d be interested in checking that out. There is also an architectural photography class which looks cool. I’ve never done much architectural or landscape work but Brad’s been bugging me to put some artwork up around the house forever and putting up photographs of other people’s weddings would just be creepy so I’ve got to find something else to photograph. ;) I dunno though, it seems weird — maybe it’s just my modest-side speaking (yes, believe it or not, I have a modest side), but it seems sort of narcissistic to put my own photography up around the house… yeah?

With all these changes I feel like it’s time to give the company a bit of a facelift too. We’re going into our 3rd year and we’ve had the same website and blog since the beginning and it’s all starting to look a bit dated (in my personal opinion, but then again I see it every time i log in!) It’s hard time find time to update everything though and when I do have time it seems like I’ve got to do it one handed while I tend to a tearful tot. For example we are in the middle of changing our current album line over to Renaissance Albums in N.Y.. This week it took me almost 30 hours to design and layout a single 10×8 sample album with all the interruptions. I finally invested in a Moby wrap so that I could have both hands free so I can work and snuggle Tia at the same time (the thing is seriously a lifesaver…and a sanity saver too!)

Anyways, my goal is that by the end of summer, save for our logo, we’ll have a fresh new look! On a final note, along with all these changes I got a spa-day from Brad & Tia for my first mother’s day which I’m anxious to use. I always feel that with emotional changes or life changes I always need to see a physical change in myself be it a radical new hairstyle, a tattoo or maybe something a little more meek like a change of nail polish colour. Needless to say I’m excited to get a bit of my own makeover over at Eccotique, hopefully later this month.

Well that’s all for now! Hope everyone is enjoying that sunshine – I know we are!

-K