As the first post of many for 2010 I thought it would be a good idea to show off some of our proudest photos from the past year, this is far from all of them. This is just a taste of what is to come. I’m excited to get 2010 started!

The temperature here hasn’t gone below 30 degrees celsius for almost a week now. If you know me on a personal level you know I don’t deal well with the heat. I hate the heat! So whats the solution to the heat? Well normally the solution is swimming, so lets go swimming and do what I do best and take photos while we are at it. With no real plan or end goal we headed deep into the woods to a secluded lake I know off and brought along a few pieces of gear and just wished our selves the best of luck.

Karen and Joanna brought a few different outfits just to see what we could get and I think the images turned out amazing! A simple flash on a boom with am umbrella and Wala! It’s nice to just go out with no real plan, no real goal and just sort of see what you get, see what happens when there is no solid plan. That’s exactly what this was and what happened. I have been feeling really restricted as of late with a lot of commercial work coming in and the wedding season coming to an end. Some times you feel restricted and uncreative when you start to follow the guide lines set for you by the client and it’s just nice to go out and shoot what ever you feel like shooting.

so no matter how much work matters, or how much you need to pay that power bill, don’t forget to go out and just shoot for your self some time.

Every photographer, freelancer and anyone self employed has their ups and downs when it comes to career. Photographers often start out as artists wanting to create or capture something they think is important to document. Eventually though their original intent changes and reality sets in? they need to quickly learn business, marketing and a variety of government paperwork BS that they often have no interest in. Their work place changes and things in general become diluted. Their original vision is lost…

Things become overwhelming sometimes, as you try to deal with terra bytes of data, clients with demands, crazy business ideas and trying to keep everyone happy. Have you ever tried to keep a hard drive happy? They are very moody sometimes? You just need to step back and take a look at what you have created. The photos you have taken, the documentation you have made of history and the life you are living.

When meeting with a client this morning over coffee we got to talking about an old job we use to share, we where both younger, working in retail and in all honesty, hating it. We enjoyed the people we worked with but not the job it’s self. We both where working for someone else, restrained by working hours and had little to no freedom. This was life…

When I moved on with my career and into photography I had the typical vision of creating and making people happy. Obviously life set in and I realized quickly I needed to make a living at this or go back to flipping burgers. And even more obviously I didn’t want that to happen, so I began to learn everything I could about the business side of my career.

Things have turned out well of course because I am still doing what I love. I have the freedom of working for my self. I can go for a coffee when ever I like. I can meet clients where ever I like and I don’t need to answer to anyone. Of course I need to work with others, make money to live my life and pay the bills and cater to clients every day. But I’ve never been happier in my life doing that now then I have ever been. My clients are fantastic and I get to meet new people every day.

I don’t think I would change a thing.