A Review of 2022

Wow, 2022 really flew in a blink of an eye. 2022 offered many challenges for me as a photography business owner and as a person. With quite a few ups and downs 2022 was for sure a year to learn from. However, 2022 was the best year my photography business has ever had. We served so many new clients, learned new things, and pushed ourselves to grow. 2022 was my first full year as a business owner.

So now that 2022 has wrapped up I have taken some time to reflect on the year and all of the things I got to experience. It only makes sense to start in January;

January was the month I decided to start being consistent on social media and using automation tools to keep showing up when my life was to crazy to be online all the time. I also started practicing reels and creating video content to share. Creating reels was a huge step for me, I am a pretty introverted and shy person so making videos of myself was so scary. This was the month I also started a new work routine. My day job thankfully gives me a day off during the week every other week, so I started designating that time to automate my business and put myself in a position where I wouldn’t have to worry about social media during the week while I am working. Applying these things has really helped my business grow this year and not be so exhausting.

February I made another huge change in my business and I offered my first sale. (which I am doing again now in 2023 so stay tuned for that). I started up my “love month special” so the whole month of February wedding and elopement packages both in Minnesota or out of state were on sale. I also started trying to focus on my blog more this month and get posts up weekly (this eventually fell onto the back burner as I started getting swamped with other things).

March was so fun, I shot my first 2022 engagement session and my first ever cap and gown session. This was the month I also really started spending time location scouting in the Fergus Falls area because it was starting to warm up and I wanted to be prepared for a busy season in a new location.

April was a month I slowed down for a bit, re-centered myself in my business, and started working on back-end things. I filed my first quarterly taxes. and that was a learning experience in itself. I also started preparing for my first wedding coming up in May.

Now May rolled around, this is when things started to get a little crazy, between staying consistent on social media, launching my senior session dates and now shooting my first-ever wedding as a lead (read all about it here). This month however I also started struggling with the same negative feelings of being a failure. I was comparing myself to where I was last year with booking seniors. But I had to remind myself that I wasn’t in my small hometown anymore- people didn’t know I existed yet. So I joined local Facebook groups and started sharing my senior photography in them so more people would see that I exist now and that I am a senior portrait photographer in Fergus Falls. This isn’t my favorite marketing tool but it did help me in my new location in Fergus Falls.

June I second shot for the first time with Kendra Fearing Photo and had so much fun, we got to shoot at the Legacy of the Lakes Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota. Which was such a stunning wedding venue that overlooked the water and had an amazing outdoor ceremony space. I loved getting to work with Kendra and learning from her and getting to meet her adorable boys. I also was reminded why you should wear sunscreen and got the worst sunburn I have had in a while.

July was a BIG month for me and I got my first taste of having all my weekends booked. In July I photographed three weddings in a row. One wedding was the first wedding I ever booked (while I was still in photo school) and for two of them, I was second shooting for my former classmate Alex Rae Photography. I always have so much fun working with Zandra and getting to learn from her. This was the month I really started feeling exhausted and knew I needed to find a way to make my editing workflow smoother so that I can deliver faster without forgetting about quality and keeping myself on time.

August was another big month for me that pushed my limits. With another wedding, I got to second shoot at, putting the final touches on planning my own wedding, and just trying to recover from July I really stuck systems so I wouldn’t be so tired all the time. This was also the first time I ever had 3 sessions in one day! I had a fun day road-tripping to my hometown to photograph an extended family, a senior, and my newborn baby cousin. It was a jam-packed day and I got to watch the coolest thunderstorm on my way home.

September I slowed down, a lot. This was my wedding month and I wanted to be focused on that. I did not shoot any weddings. However, this was the month that seniors and family sessions started to pick up. I will be completely honest I was not a huge fan of family sessions before this year. I found them awkward and I always left sessions feeling guilty because I did not feel like I gave a good experience. But this year I wanted to change. So in September I really studied family photography and worked on a posing flow to create moments and laughter during those sessions. There is still room to improve but it felt really good to not feel lost during those sessions.

October was another wild month, and the busiest month I have ever had. In October I had 1 senior session, 1 engagement session, 6 family sessions, and 2 weddings that I shot. I also attended my cousin’s wedding and celebrated my stepson’s birthday. And we were mourning my mother-in-law. It was really a jam-packed month. But despite the craziness and hardships I had so much fun and learned so much in this month. I also had a goal to have 0 editing before I left for my honeymoon so I got all of these sessions edited by the first weekend in November so that I did not have to worry about work while I was in Jamaica. (if you wanna read about our honeymoon check out that blog as well!)

Moving into November however, I was ready for life to slow down so that I could breathe. I only had two mini-sessions to worry about and I was good with that. During the fall busy season, I took a break from social media and blogging to be with my family in my free time so I started being active on social media again and started catching up on my blog posts.

And now December, I love December for the holidays and for the opportunity to review and reflect. Hence this blog post. This past month I have been working on lots of behind-the-scenes things, a little sneak peeks into what I have been working on for 2023:

I have lots of plans and I plan on going more depth in the next blog post. But I have lots of exciting things planned, like new travel dates, and more sales/specials for weddings and seniors. I am also planning on a couple of mini-session dates for spring and fall. I also started working on a mailing list and you might have noticed a new pop-up on my website for that. My hope for the mailing list is to keep people updated on sales and dates if they do not check social media as often and want to stay informed.

This past year I moved my business to a new city, shot my first wedding, planned my wedding, stepped into the role of a full-time step-mom, took a new position at my day job, got married, traveled and so much more. It was a year jam-packed with adventures, emotions, hardships but most of all love, determination, and growth. I cannot wait to see what 2023 has in store for me, my family, and my business.

Here is a gallery of one photo from every session, wedding, or event that I got to photograph this year <3 2022 was amazing.