One year on and it’s time to reflect…
The pandemic bought everything to a standstill, and I think it’s made us all assess our lives.
We’ve learnt lessons, we’ve lost, we’ve loved, we’ve laughed, and we’ve cried.
This time last year my girls were leaping around the living room with the thought of not having to go to school.
Then very quickly excitement turned to tears when they realised just how much they would be missing.
They had worked so hard towards their SATs, and they had a residential trip to Cornwall booked with school.
It was the penultimate year of primary and it was going to be taken away from them.
But in the grand scheme of things, we faired quite well.
Thankfully, we didn’t lose anybody we loved, for this alone we were very lucky indeed.
But what it did do was it took away my business.
I did one winter wedding, a couple of summer shoots and a handful in autumn.
I missed all my bluebells in spring. All my weddings in the summer. And most of my beautiful autumn leaf sessions.
But we quickly adapted and with the help of government funding, we didn’t lose out too much financially.
Again, we were very lucky.
Like everyone else, we did lose was our freedom.
I haven’t seen my family now since summer last year, as they live in Derbyshire and I live in South Northants.
It seems odd that even though they are only an hour and a half away, we still can’t actually meet up.
But I did have a lovely year with just me and my girls.
I know a lot of people found being locked up with their kids quite difficult. But thankfully the girls and I are very close, and they are very well behaved.
I must admit I found the last few months of primary easier than the beginning of secondary.
While they were still at primary, we had the freedom to do what we wanted. We baked, we walked, we had little adventures, we did art and we totally transformed our garden.
As with most people our garden was our sanctuary last year.
With the fantastic weather, it gave us an extra room, which in turn gave us a bit more space.
We grew veggies and we grew flowers, we even got a little greenhouse.
But when they started secondary, it all changed.
I hardly saw them. They would go up to work at 8.30am and not come down until dinner time. That was tough!
One year on and we’ve all had time to reflect…
So, what have I learnt?
I’ve learnt that family time is far more important than having money in the bank.
I’ve learnt that I love my little job and I miss it.
I’ve learnt that even though anybody who knows me knows I’m not the biggest hugger on the planet, I’ve missed hugs.
More than anything else, I’ve missed my family and I can’t wait to see them again.
One of the biggest things this year taught me, is that weddings take up a lot of my family time.
And therefore, I’ve made a very big decision…
I’ve decided from now on I won’t be taking on any more wedding bookings.
I do still have 11 booked in and I will be giving them 120% of my time and my enthusiasm as I always do.
But after these I’ll be concentrating on my family photo shoots.
I have also decided to follow the specialist brand and commercial photography path.
This is something that is becoming ever more popular in the business. And it reiterates my intentions in life, to help people as much as I can.
Helping people to build their own business with a better visual profile is exciting. I’ll be working with Bee More Design a local website and branding designer.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has learnt a valuable lesson this year.
I hope when this pandemic is over, that we will stop, and take time to reflect once more.
That we take heed, and we concentrate on the things that are most important to us.
I do hope we can all go forward taking at least one positive thing from this year.
If anybody is looking for a brand shoot or a family shoot, please contact me here.
Until next time…
