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Hello 2019! It's a new year and the same Paige. I had thought I'd give that photo a day thing a try again, but here I am on day 6 and I've only done it for one day, soooo......

I do have some actual photography related resolutions and that is what this blog is all about. So it's list time.

1. Be more intentional when taking photos My current style of photography is similar to how I play video games. Just button mash until I do something cool. Well, not entirely because I set the shot up and I change my camera settings and I choose the lighting, but anyway.. I push my shutter button a lot. While I was working Santa's Toy Shop, my flash refused to fire as fast as I clicked the shutter, and it forced me to really be attentive to the situation and press the shutter at the right moment to get the shot. I had maybe 3 chances to get the best shot and it was challenging and fun and sooo much easier to cull and edit. So my goal is to be more intentional throughout all of my sessions.

2. Document my days

I definitely don't want to feel forced to photograph every day of the year, but I do want to be sure to capture more of my kids just being themselves. I feel I've moved more towards creating these artificial moments with my kids, while my favorite ones have always been just of them being themselves. So I plan on taking more photos of my kids just being themselves on any day.

3. Learn to Market

My biggest weakness in my business, is by far my marketing. I plan on spending more time and money on learning how to better market myself. I'm fairly sure this means I'll be blogging more.

4. Learn to self-portrait

All of my favorite photographers take phenemonal self portraits. I've tried to take self-portraits so many times, but I always feel vain and self-conscience silmutaneously when I do. Self-portraiture will work hand in hand with documenting my days, and I know I'll love to have these photos eventually

5. Put myself out there

This year I was featured in the local newspaper 3 times, and twice in one week. I won an award for a series of photos I submitted for the Kansas Press Association. I also submitted photos to the Shoot & Share contest and one of my photos finished in the top 10%. I was featured twice on the instagram account @theabstractlens

Each time I was recognized I felt more confident in myself, and I'm going to keep chasing that high. I plan on entering significantly more photos into the Shoot & Share contest, but also, I will be submitting my work to other contests and hashtagging the heck out of my instagram posts.

6. Increase variety of sessions

I curently offer a lot of types of sessions like: family, senior, event, documentary, lifestyle, maternity, birth, wedding, elopement, newborn, milestone. I don't plan on adding any more types of sessions but I would love to do more birth and lifestyle sessions this year. Family sessions will always be my favorite type of session, but I'd love to venture into more senior photography and I'd love to photograph an elopement. I'd like to travel more too.

All in all, I think 2019 will be a good year. I have zero sessions booked for 2019 so I really have no idea what is in store, but whatever I get to do is going to be amazing.

Here are my first photos of 2019: