We were recently asked to speak to a group of kids about our business, which was such an honour and also such a fun way to reflect about our lives and work.
We always see October as our official business birthday. The truth is a bit more scattered, as Jonathan did shoots intermittently in the year leading up to our formal launch. So our photography business is officially 5 (ish) years old!
Either way, it's been a sweet ride.
This year, I think we'll stick to some "Gratefuls" about running our own company, as we are THANKFUL for so many things and here are a few:
1. We don't have to feel bad about checking our texts or instagram in the middle of a workday.
2. We can dream together about the future of our business and work. The sky is the limit.
3. Being self-employed makes it possible to take random days of the week off, like a Tuesday, and pursue other things we are interested in. i.e. writing a book or two (or ten.)
4. Our photo company has grown so much in the last five years. Even from an equipment standpoint, we've been so blessed. We commenced this journey with two old cameras and two old lenses, one old laptop and one even older laptop, on old version of Adobe and little else. We now have two desktop computers, one old laptop, 5 working camera bodies and a handful of lenses to use.
5. We LOVE coming to work at our own office space and a photo studio, right here in Brantford. It's a 22-minute walk from our doorstep to here and it's just right. (We'll see how we feel this winter.)
We were so excited to invite friends and family to our photo studio's grand opening last August.
6. It's a bit random that two people with such strong personalities can spend an exorbitant number of hours together a week. But we not only survive it, we thrive in it. Iron sharpening iron, baby.
7. We've pushed each other to shoot better than either of us would have ever done on our own. It's been a fun/painful/fun process.
8. We share a studio space with our friend Paul Smith, the photographer, of Photohouse Studio. It's always an adventure.
Tamarah, our neighbour/friend, recently told us that she was shocked after we'd moved in at how much we work. She has seen our early mornings and late nights and was surprised at the unglamorous side of our job.
We felt validated by her shock, but also humbled. A few of our constant priorities are to keep our life simple, work less and have dinner together on a nightly basis.
So here's to one more year of business, but one more year to keep the first things first. This year we're working on going home an hour earlier than we think we should, taking two days off a week instead of one.
The business will always be there, but these lives are the only ones we have, and we want to see them more than just through the lens of one of our (five) cameras.
Happy Birthday to us, now it's time to eat some cake.
x.