New Year
All this new years resolution talk got me thinking. Why does it have to be January 1 that we “start fresh.” My new years “resolutions” where made back in August when my daughter was born I suppose you could say. If they hadn’t started then, Id still be working at Olive Garden with no way out. Or worse in my opinion.
I was determined not to go back to waiting tables and use my photography education! I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it as I had never had a sense of direction with it, even when I first fell in love with it at 14. I had been done school since 2011. I was living in Colorado looking for “my calling.” I was even offered a photography job with Vail as I fortunately waited the right table at one point. He gave me his office number and where to send in my information for Vail. I held onto it, I still have it somewhere. However, never applied.
If you know my love for Colorado and Vail skiing, this makes no sense at all! For some reason, it didn’t feel like the right move, so I guess I never made it. I follow my intuitions, sometimes to the point where I feel like they may have not been intuitions after all, only to find out they must have been because I ended up in the right place!
When I was 36 weeks pregnant I went to my midwives’ childbirth education class in Boulder where I met my first birth photographer. I can’t remember her name, though I really wish I did so I could tell her she changed my life. Maybe one day Ill find her! There aren’t that many out there after all. Anyway, to the point, that is obviously when I knew what I was going to do with my photography education!
In a way, it is very suiting. When I was in college I almost switched to Biology as life and genetics really fascinated me, I even toyed with ultrasound technician for pregnancy as I thought the development of babies in the womb was incredibly amazing. Never could get myself to do it though because I couldn’t get passed cutting open dead animals and I wasn’t going to graduate without taking that class successfully. So I went back to photography, not disappointed, just realizing that biology wasn’t for me. Well, my head was in the right direction, just not quite there yet! I watched my first birth outside of my own and thought it was absolutely beautiful! I thankfully even was allowed the crowning shot in a hospital! If the doctor didn’t clearly dislike me, I would have given her a hug for letting me stand behind her! It all came together eventually.
I made the goal to be at a birth by January 2013 in August. Cut it extremely close as this birth was very early this morning! (Happy Birthday MJ!) It almost looked like life was trying to tell me this wasn’t for me as I was let go as a birth photographer for several moms since August. First one in September, November, and then December. However, it was great! I love documentary style photography much more than planned for some reason. It might be my own spontaneous nature, and my LOVE for candid photography. Tried to bring that to toddlers, and I’ve decided I need a new approach so that is a work in progress until I can become a full time birth photographer ONLY!
Speaking of yesterday’s birth, it brought me back to an old time resolution that I never really MADE a resolution. Yoga. I have wanted to teach yoga almost as long as I have wanted to be a photographer. It seemed unrealistic to do both so I just became personally engrossed in it and it practically ran the show at my own birth. I was doing yoga everywhere that day. Yesterday’s birth, being the first one I had seen outside of my own, made me realize instead of offering my clients maternity sessions to get them interested in my work (though birth photography typically speaks for itself) I want to offer them several private yoga sessions with their package instead (maternity will still be available of course). This will be made possible by a prenatal/postnatal yoga training I have been eyeballing for a month.
Birth is very important to me to not only make beautiful and remember-able for mom’s, but enjoyable as well. I firmly believe birth can be enjoyed when not presented as a scary situation and prepared as one of the most beautiful moments in your life.
On a very side note, I am also offering postpartum doula services, not as seriously, but to the occasional client who really enjoys me as a person I will do this for them as I LOVE babies and need occasional fixes so I don’t end up making 10 of my own because 10 kids of every other age is a little much to handle for me haha. Not to mention my yoga training also covers postnatal yoga which every mom needs a little guidance back into their exercise routine after such a dramatic bodily change.
It is hard for me to imagine that in only several months I have managed to form a reality for all the things that I love in a way that they all connect and work well together. I didn’t need New Years Day to push me for it either and if I had waited until New Years Day…well I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am now.
I have a website I am about to launch as well as a new name for my photography. I have work to present, business cards to pass out, networking that couldn’t be traded for the world, and past clients that I enjoy knowing and hope to work with again in the future. I have successfully become one step closer to being a birth photographer exclusively and I am crossing books of my training lists for both postpartum and yoga. All the while raising a beautiful baby girl at home (not easy by the way!) Babywearing and breastfeeding in between editing, sessions, reading, networking, and occasionally she will even let me finish my morning yoga routine.
I can’t wait to see what I get out of my 12 months as I am only 5 months in!
