My, it has been a while! 2021 certainly packed a lot in, now, didn’t it? I had my photography published in over 20 magazines! I spent two weeks in EUROPE! I decided to close down my photography business in favor of pursuing it once again as a hobby! I started homeschooling my kids! Wow!
I think quitting my business was by far the best thing I could’ve done! I’ve so enjoyed the freedom of exploring my creativity! It’s been so fun learning new aspects of the craft, and truly getting to appreciate the art again! Besides, between all the different projects I’ve got going on in my life, I simply didn’t have time to run a business anymore! #sorrynotsorry I love pursuing all my creative passions! Without the pressure of trying to make money off them! I spend so much time on it all I wish I could order more hours in a day! (and a side of Belgian fries, with mayonnaise please…or a flower-shaped ice cream cone with a tasty macaron on top! #EuropeYouRuinedMe)
Which leads me to a currently major time consumer, the Tartesso Photography Collective! I love running this group whose mission it is to help photographers and other creatives break into the industry and make a splash! I love mentoring and teaching, coordinating styled shoots, and of course creating art with others! It’s been a good year for the TPC, we’ve grown quite a bit!!! This year our goal is to grow enough to become a non-profit organization so we can more tangibly help new photographers with making their dreams come true! (Can you say scholarships and grants???)
If you want to see my latest and greatest in photography, head over to my Instagram or Facebook accounts! I still try to keep up with a post or two a week these days. At least a story update almost every day. Mostly in product photography! (Which is frightfully more challenging than I ever gave it credit for!)
I’ve also spent more time elbow-deep in my first love again: writing! Yes, I am a writer for any of you who didn’t know! I did self-publish a cute little children’s book but have been quietly working on a much bigger project. I love YA Fiction/Fantasy and hope to be able to share some BIG news soon regarding my work in that genre! In the meantime, I’ve also been playing around with some short-story concepts, both Christian-focused and general fiction/fantasy.
Oh, you want to know more about my writing journey? My hope is to use this year to build up my writing portfolio a bit more and then finally take the plunge into creating my author website and start creating a community hopefully sometime next year, or sooner if I can manage it! A lot will depend on how progress goes with my awesome-sauce-super-secret-not-so-secret-project I’m working on with my silent partner (He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named…in this blog post!). If you’d like me to keep you in the loop with my writing exploits, or if you’d even like to read some of my unpublished work then please let me know! If I see enough interest for it, then I’ll get that ball rolling a LOT sooner for sure!
So, there you have it! I’m just living the dream, during the early stage of the dream before it becomes a dream come true, but it’s still pretty dreamy. Yeah, that makes sense… I’m so happy though, you guys, I can’t believe it! I’m loving the freedom I’ve been able to experience at home with my kids and with the support of my husband. This year I will continue to pursue my dreams and help as many people as possible chase theirs as well!
SA Photography 