I'm Back!

Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged and I promise I'll try to better in 2010.

Let's start off with what's been going on at Artistic Journeys Photography over the past year.

I've expanded the business by opening a studio in Saint Johns on November 1st of last year. After exhibiting at the Apache County Fair, I received much feedback from the community suggesting that I open a studio. So, after a couple of months of pondering those suggestions, I began looking for studio space.

I had originally wanted to open my studio in old Downtown Saint Johns. It's full of great, historic buildings that are vacant and I really want to see the old downtown revived. Unfortunately, there's a reason all of those old buildings are empty. They're not exactly structurally sound. So that obviously wasn't going to work.

Next, I looked at another historical building, which is actually a home and as it turns out, was the home and studio of the first professional photographer in Saint Johns. The home needed a bit of work to get ready for my occupancy and this may have been a little more than the current owners wanted to take on at the time. So this didn't quite work out either.

Okay...let's cut to the chase. I found a space in a brand new building right in the center of town next to the Post Office. I got a great deal on the rent, made some quick improvements on the space and moved in just in time to meet my own deadline for opening on November 1st.

Business began great! I had many bookings right off the starting blocks and took some pictures of some great looking kids and families just in time to get the pictures into their Christmas cards.

I've also covered several weddings in the past year. I love covering weddings! It's a ton of work, but capturing that big day full of emotion is the best.

New to my portfolio is athletic coverage. I've found this to be way more exciting than I first thought and I owe huge thanks to Todd for suggesting that I try it. I focus on the high school varsity teams. I was approached by a local magazine (The Sports Zone) to contribute my photos to their publication. I've got my press pass now and have taken some amazing shots of these kids at their best. I'd actually like to take my sports coverage further and make this a specialty. Sports Illustrated would be nice! I still have a lot to learn about sports photography before that'll ever happen, but I'm trying.

I've also found that Senior Portraiture and newborn photography are my favorites. Gosh, it seems like I have a lot of favorites! I guess I just love taking pictures.

We're bringing the Easter Bunny to Saint Johns this year and will hopefully make this an annual tradition. It came up on kind of short notice, so I haven't had a lot of time to make a great plan, but I'm going to take it to a new level next year (I hope) and turn it into a community event that the kids and their families will look forward to. This year, we're just going to hop around town and visit local businesses. Then we'll open the studio for a couple of days for photos with the kids, pets and whoever!

So that's the year in a nutshell. I'll try, like I said before, to return to the blog on a regular basis this year. For now, let's try a weekly update with sports and portraits sessions!

Until next week...

Sean