-2019-
This has been an incredibly pivotal year, both for me personally and for my business. One of my biggest goals in life is to do better and be better. I mean, if you're not constantly striving to be your best self and live your best life, what are you even doing???
JANUARY
I rang in the New Year with some of my favourite people and we danced and sang until the early hours of the morning - one of my favourite and most memorable New Years thus far. I kicked off the year by going on my first international trip. A couple of my friends and I traveled to Bali, Singapore and Thailand. We learned a lot of things the hard way, but there’s no better way to do it, right???
February
I got to shoot a wedding in LA for Katherine Elyse Photography. I was incredibly honored that she put her trust in me to go down and shoot this wedding for her on my own. I was suuuuper nervous, not only because I had to live up to the amazing KEP standards but I also used her equipment to do so. I’ve been a Sony user for a long time and had never shot with Canon - it was a whole new world. I may or may not have been bingeing YouTube videos all night on how to use her cameras… Anyways, it was super fun and I loved shooting with Canon and it was an all-around amazing experience.
MARCH
I dove head first into wedding season. At the time I had NO idea how many weddings I was going to be doing in 2019. I really did just think of photography as my “side hustle” and really just a hobby. I never intended on it being anything more than that because I never wanted to get tired of it. At that point, I had intentions of taking course to get certified in SQL and Python and I wanted to move on from my job as a financial analyst to more of a marketing database analyst type of job (i.e. another desk job………). Spoiler alert: my mind would change about that in a few short months.
APRIL
I did my first Indian wedding with David N. Sachs Photography. I was not prepared for the amount of insane that is an Indian wedding. They’re absolutely beautiful and a BLAST. The details, the food, all the different traditions - it's all incredible. And it's so wonderful to get to be a part of it. I can't thank David enough for all of the opportunites he's given me. I've learned SO much from him and I am so grateful.
MAY
I did sixteen senior shoots, two maternity shoots and three weddings. That's it, it pretty much consumed all of my time. Oh, and I went skydiving which was pretty cool.
June
Again, just more weddings and hiking and lots of hanging out with friends during those lovely, warm summer nights.
July
I started the month out by shooting three long days of Indian weddings. Three days of Indian weddings = ALL THE INDIAN FOOD. It was exhausting but so much fun! I also flew to San Diego to visit friends and a chill weekend at Sea Ranch with my family. And of course, more weddings.
August
Many adventures were had in August. I went to MacArthur-Burney Falls and then to Lassen National Park and got my butt kicked by the Cinder Cone. I also went to Tahoe and started a hike at 2:30am to watch the sunrise from the top of Mt Tallac. We may or may not have lost the trail more times in the daylight on the way back down than we did in the dark on the way up…oops. I also shot my first wedding at City Hall in San Francisco and IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL.
September
I visited Spain and Portugal. I ate a million pastel de natas and had lots of wine (and probably gained like, 10 pounds haha). It was so much fun and absolutely beautiful. La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona had me SHOOK. There was so much to do and so little time - I'll definitely be going back. I couldn't stay away too long though - I was super excited to get back and shoot more weddings!
October
October was my busiest month of weddings. It was fun. It was exhausting. It was all the things. Ya girl also finally made the switch from Sony to Canon (SO EXCITING).
Up until this point, I had pretty much exclusively worked with Kate and David. I had a few open weekends so I sought out the opportunity to work with some photographers. I had the privilege of working with Kayla Esparza Photography, Michelle Angeli Photography, and Nicola Leigh Photography. They were all wonderful and it was incredibly eye-opening working with a few new people. It made me realize there’s really no “right” way to do things. Everyone has their own style in terms of shooting and editing and you really just need to figure out yours and make it your own. As cheesy as it sounds, it was pretty inspiring.
This was also the month I decided to just SEND IT and pursue being a full-time photographer. As mentioned previously, I'm currently a full-time financial analyst and had full intentions on keeping photography as a "side thing." I've always had people ask why I don't just do photography. To be honest, it terrifies me and I'm afraid I might not be good enough. But I'm still striving to ditch my desk job and do what I'm actually passionate about because life is too short to hang out in your comfort zone, ya know???
(Side note, I don't know if I used the phrase "send it" correctly and that's how I know I'm getting old...)
NOVEMBER
I wrapped up my 2019 wedding season and was super bummed about it. Looking back, I can’t believe I would ever get sick of shooting weddings. THEY’RE SO MUCH FUN. Every single wedding is different and it’s so much fun getting to connect with each couple and all of their friends and family. I truly am grateful to be where I am in life right now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also got to do something I've been wanting to do for a looonnnng time - do a sunrise shoot in Yosemite! You can check that out in my last blog post.
December
I went to Peru and Panama. Peru was probably one of my favourite trips I’ve done so far. My friends and I did the 4 day Inca Trail and it was UNREAL. Although, note for anyone interested in going: altitude sickness is no joke - take the time to allow your body to acclimate. Aside from that, it was absolutely incredible and I want to go back like, yesterday. When I got back, I spent the remainder of the year enjoying the holiday season with friends and family.
A lot of lessons were learned and many adventures were had this past year. It really blows my mind to look back at myself a year ago or even months ago and realize how different everything is and how far I've come. It's a really good reminder to always keep in mind that everything happens for a reason and no matter what's happening right now, you're going in the right direction.
We only have one life and only you have the power to decide that each day is going to be a good one.
