The 3 Reasons I Rebranded
The Coronavirus shut down (like for so many of us) was a big catalyst for change for me: First, for weight gain and the watching of ALL of Netflix. I mean, isn’t that what we all did for the first few weeks?? I caught up on This is Us, rewatched The Office, and started paying for HBO again. (Why?? GOT is over, Mandy!)
But then, about two weeks in, I turned off the TV (for me AND the kids…most days) spent more time outside, baked a lot of REALLY yummy desserts (macarons, anyone?), and I slowly realized what a gift this time could be — a time to check off some things on that someday (read: never-day) list. And the one heavyweight on that list was reevaluating this business.
Now, many of you know that my husband is an Army Officer. We move every few years and so I restart my business every few years. This next move will be time #4 that I’ve started over from scratch. The last two times I was pregnant and due to deliver within a few months of our arrival so things got (heavily) postponed. This next move (at the end of this year) will be the first time I’ve restarted my business without a new baby looming-er, joyfully arriving, I mean! Ha! And I really want to hit the ground running.
With that in mind, and remembering how hard it is to re-start in a new place, I wanted to make sure I was working for something I truly loved. Because the best photographs come from a photographer who loves what they are doing. As I soul-searched and considered how I wanted my business to look moving forward, I discovered these three things (the why for my rebranding):
My favorite photographs tell stories — Even in photographs from my own childhood, I have loved most the images that tell a story. The photo of my grandfather asleep with me as a baby zipped up in his sweatshirt (the same sweatshirt he wore as I entered my thirties!). The photograph of my Mom laughing in her swimsuit as she stood spraying water on us in the blue plastic kiddie pool in the backyard. These are the photographs we appreciate as we grow up. How our parents looked, their connection with us, their LOVE for us.
Film captures what still images can’t — My love of video and film started young: cooking shows with my sister and an easy-bake oven and backseat footage of family road trips and that same sister yelling at me to put the camera down, lol!
I’ve honed this skill in school with filmmaking courses and then again as an adult with online classes, yet I’ve never offered this skill to my clients. Why? I have no idea. It’s time to change that. Film brings so much that a still image just cannot: the way your toddler says “nah-kin” instead of napkin (I was devastated when my son started saying it correctly!), the sound of your daughter’s giggle as you fly her through the air, and the run-on, never-ending sentences your grade schooler uses to describe his creations in Minecraft. These moments should be captured and looked back on too!
Finally, fear was holding me back — Ten years is a long time to be a studio photographer. It’s been my bread and butter and how I provide for my family. Knowing that my heart was in storytelling didn’t make it any easier. BUT, there is no time like the (albeit, quarantined) present to dive head-first into what makes my heart sing.
So, here I am, Northern Virginia! Rebranded and ready to capture for my clients those fleeting moments that make us who we are.
I believe that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. And it is that everyday, real-life that I want to capture for you in beautiful photographs and films — heirlooms that you and your kids will look back on many decades from now and smile.
Photo Credit - Jenelle Botts Photography