2008 year in review

In 2007 I attended this workshop in San Diego and I gleaned so much from it that I decided to bring Zack to Phoenix and hosted two days of his workshop in my home. This workshop has been transformative for my reception lighting at weddings and I couldn't recommend it highly enough! To read more about my experience hosting the workshop in January, click here, here and here!


2. Developed Photojunction Templates

Earlier this year I decided to start offering my 70+ album design templates that I use to create my album designs up for sale for other photographers' use. They have been a huge hit! After Kate Wall installed and started using the templates she wrote:

"Wanted to give you feedback on your templates - you ROCK. You made it so easy to see what you've done with your templates that I was able to create a few of my own as well. I put together an album using your templates, and it was so quick and easy. :) The instructions you gave to me were also good, I got everything installed correctly and quickly."

I'm so excited about this development in my business and am working on new sets of templates that will be available soon! If you're interested in finding out more, click here!


3. My cruise

In February I went on the best vacation EVER--a 7 day cruise around the West Caribbean. It was A-MAZ-Ing! I had previously never been on a cruise before but had heard good things and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Our cruise ported in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and the Bahamas. Click on any of the links in this paragraph to read more and see some amazing photos!


4. Photogirls Retreat

In March I headed to the coast of North Carolina to meet up with 10 other girl photographers from around the nation. We hung out at a beach house for 5 days and talked about photography, relaxed, had fun and took photos. It was a blast! I'm excited for the 2nd annual photogirls retreat coming up this March! Click here, here, here, here and here to relive last year's retreat!


5. Started mentoring other photographers

In June I had my first video conferencing experience over Skype! Tanya Mills had contacted me wanting to do some mentoring. She is an aspiring photographer who lives in southern California and was going to be in Phoenix for a few days. Unfortunately, they were days that I was going to be in Omaha. So, she came up with the brilliant idea to do a mentoring session over Skype. You all probably already know about Skype, but it's TOTALLY FREE. It's so fun to talk to someone on your computer screen. I was giddy. We chatted about photography for an hour and the time just blew by.

Since then I have done 10 more mentoring sessions with photographers from around the country--even one in Bermuda! If you are a photographer interested in setting up a session, feel free to email me. I charge $100 for a one hour session and we can cover any topics you'd like. Email me links to your work and/or website and I'll give you some feedback!


6. San Francisco trip

In July I was blessed to be able to escape the Phoenix heat for a couple weeks to San Francisco where I shot two amazing weddings and an engagement shoot. Arizona has very few weddings during the summer but everywhere else in the nation it's crazy wedding season. So I love the idea of traveling to other parts of the country for a couple weddings each summer. This coming summer it's looking like I'll be shooting weddings in both Kauai and Houston! Should be fun! Click on any of the links in this paragraph to read more and see some fun photos from my time in San Francisco this summer!


7. Zero to 60 workshop & Europe trip

In August I co-taught a photography workshop in Ireland and also spent 2 weeks traveling in France and Italy. What an amazing experience! I had never previously been to Europe and had such a great time taking in the culture and taking gazillions of photos. Click on any of the links below to see posts about my trip!

A day in Dublin
A day in Paris
Rome: the Forum & Colosseum
Rome: my favorite street
Florence
Windows in Italy
Ireland scenes
The most amazing rainbow EVER
Workshop Day 1: mock engagement shoot
Workshop Day 2
Workshop Day 3
Workshop headshots
Ireland: near death experiences


8. Joined Facebook

In September I FINALLY gave into the peer pressure and joined Facebook. I heared things like, "everybody's doing it" and "it's so cool." To me it just seemed like one more thing to keep up with BUT I do have an appreciation for online social networking (I love my blog!) so I gave it a try. Instantly I was hooked. Turns out Facebook is a seriously powerful networking tool. I keep in touch with past and future clients, vendors and consultants I work with as well as photographers, family and friends. It's been revolutionary for my business. Definitely take five minutes to sign up for Facebook (& make sure to add me as a friend!) if you haven't yet!


9. Autism Walk

In November I completed my 2nd annual Walk for Autism. My team of 14 raised over $1,800, walked the 5k route together and again, had a great experience. Thank you again to all of you who gave generously. The Arizona walk raised over $400,000 all-together to help find the cause of and cure for Autism. Yay!! As many of you know, my two nephews both have Autism so this is a cause extremely close to my heart. If you'd like to see some photos from this year's walk, click here!


10. Threw my sister a 30th birthday party

My sister's 30th birthday party in November rounds out my top 10 experiences from this year. My sister is my closest friend and I absolutely adore her so it was such a joy to bless her and see her so happy surrounded by people who she loves. Click here to see some photos from this memorable party!

That wraps up my highlights of 2008. It's been a great journey! I can't wait to see what 2009 holds!