Do you ever get the feeling that your to-do list is never going to go down? The feeling that wherever you go there’s always tonnes to do? For those of us working in the wedding industry winter is generally supposed to be our quiet time, the time we use to catch up and then relax a little in preparation for the crazy hours and constant shooting and editing that wedding season brings. The time to reflect on what can be improved, perhaps work on new techniques, look at things that could be done differently. This year though, for us winter has been anything but relaxing…
Last year was an amazing time for both of our businesses and we each took great strides towards being the practitioners we would like to be. We worked incredibly hard all year and started to see great results from it, but once the wedding season passed we still hadn’t finished our mission. As winter set in we started another huge task that had evaded us for years: refurbishing the studio – a huge task and one that had quite a steep learning curve to it having done much of the work ourselves. Alongside that though we were still working on shoots, finishing off editing tasks and of course working on this very blog including starting to put in place some exciting new ideas that we’re looking forward to sharing with you all.
All in all it’s been something of a busy year and I think it’s fair to say that the work/life balance hasn’t exactly been on an even footing. So much so that despite it being a very successful and exciting year professionally, Dominique and I celebrated finally having a tidy house again yesterday harder than we celebrated Dom winning an award earlier in the year.
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Considering that apart from for weddings we theoretically don’t work on Sundays we were both surprised to find that yesterday was in fact the first Sunday we had both had off and spent no portion of in the office since probably this time last year. It was in fact almost the first full day we had both spent in our house since that time too. People often tell us how nice it must be being paid thousands of pounds for working just one day a week, being abled to take a lie-in whenever we want or just decide we can’t be bothered with work and spend the day watching TV instead and they’re right. How nice that must be for whichever lucky sod has managed to achieve it. Personally though I’d settle for the odd 48 hour working week rather than the 60-80 hours most self-employed photographers and videographers enjoy.
But this year we’re determined to move a step closer to that goal. We’ve completed most of our major projects we had planned and have been working hard to get that valuable work-life balance back. So with a finally tidy-house, a newly refurbished studio with the final pieces of furniture arriving any minute now and a year ahead that’s shaping up to be something really special, now is the time to try to reap the benefits of all the hard work we’ve put in. The work-life balance is after all incredibly important and it’s that time put aside to relax that inspires you to be able to push even harder when work begins again. We love what we do whole-heartedly but sometimes in the relentless pursuit of your dreams it’s it’s easy to lose track of everything else. It’s time, in short, to kick back with a cup of tea and get ourselves ready for the upcoming storm.
Exciting times lay ahead, and by god, we’ll be ready for them!
