2021 has been strange!

To be honest, I don’t think anyone would say otherwise. As we came to the end of 2020 I, like many others, was looking ahead to 2021 with excitement. We were filled with hope that this year would make up for the last, hoping that Covid would finally be confined to the annals of history so we could return to “normal” and regroup, rebuild and perhaps even thrive.

If only we knew!

Watching the news at the moment, it’s easy to feel that nothing has really changed. The fact is, Covid has had huge impacts on my business this year. I have had to deal with more wedding postponements and cancellations during 2021 than I did in 2020 which I definitely did not expect at this point last year. Focussing on that statistic alone is pretty depressing.

But, thankfully, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.

For me, 2021 was a game of two halves. I spent the first 6 months with a lot of time on my hands and then spent the last 6 months trying to survive the most hectic few months I have ever experienced!

So lets break it down.

January to June

With a National lockdown and, later, other restrictions it meant that there was very little work I was able to do face-to-face. Thankfully, there were foundations that I had put in place during 2020 which meant I was able to explore other aspects of my business. I spent four months (on and off) consulting for a National company helping to teach their franchisees how to take better photographs and was also able to run my online “Photography for Business” Course.

With so much extra time on my hands I decided to grab the opportunity to take part in some online training. I signed up for two courses - one on branding and one on copywriting - and used the information that I had learnt to refresh my branding and create a completely new website. It felt so good to have something shiny and new that I was proud to show off to my clients.

Despite the restrictions, small weddings did still go ahead and I was excited to be able to document the celebrations of three couples. We had to wait until 21st June for large weddings to return so I busied myself by posting a photo-a-day of the last 100 weddings that I had photographed counting down to this momentous day. Of course, when it arrived, it wasn’t quite the “end to all restrictions” that we had been hoping for but bigger weddings were back at last - after 15 long months of waiting!

July - December

What can I say - the last six months have been amazing but gruelling. Essentially, I had a years worth of wedding celebrations squeezed into a two month period (July and August) and I consequently spent the rest of the year catching up with editing whilst also photographing the remaining weddings! In total, I photographed a further 29 weddings in the space of just 4 months. No wonder I’m tired!

The last six months have therefore whizzed by in a blur of shooting, downloading, editing and sleeping on repeat. Truthfully, there hasn’t been a lot of time for much else and yet I also managed to move offices, photograph a festival, squeeze in a number of pre-wed, newborn and family photoshoots and photograph a naming ceremony.

I can honestly say that I haven’t known anything quite like the last 6 months in the entire 12 years that I have been in business. And yet, here we are at the end of the year and I can proudly say that every wedding and client shoot has now been edited and delivered. All albums have been designed, printed and received and, apart from a couple of personal projects which I simply don’t have the energy to edit at the moment, my editing queue is EMPTY!

What has 2021 taught me

If 2020 was the year to show me that I am resilient and adaptable, then 2021 has been the year to show me that I am organised, efficient and able to work under pressure. At times it has felt like a mountain to climb (there have been many tears, especially when facing an editing queue of 16 weddings!) but it has encouraged me to put new procedures in place to help during any “pinch points” in the future. Looking back at everything that has happened this year feels really surreal - did I really photograph so many weddings? Did I really manage to EDIT that many shoots?! I should really accept that I am able to accomplish a lot when I put my mind to it but that lesson still needs a bit of work!

In previous years, my round-up posts have included a VAST amount of photographs - my favourite images from all of the weddings that I have photographed. But, this year, I’m not going to squeeze hundreds of photos into the one post (plus, it takes flipping ages to do it!) because for the first year ever, I have also stayed on top of my blogging. If you really are interested in seeing lots of beautiful images from the amazing weddings I have shot this year, all you need to do is go back through this blog. Every wedding (where the couple were happy for me to share images) has been documented. I’m actually pretty proud of myself for managing to keep on top of the blog despite being so busy this year!

As always, I know there are lots of other things that I should mention but not wanting this post to spill into thousands of words and with 2022 nearly upon us, I’ll leave my round-up post there.

Notable mentions

Emma - business buddy extraordinaire who is always my biggest cheerleader

Nick - who I now officially share an office with. We’ve faced so many questions of “isn’t that a conflict of interest having two photographers share an office together”? But I think we’ve proved that our businesses are stronger for doing so - it’s all about community over competition after all!

Sarah, Alex and Judy - my wedding industry support network! Thanks for all of the coffee, cake and conversation!

Caitlyn - for helping me out in return for some experience. I”m still full of admiration for the fact she took the initiative to reach out and be pro-active.

Kara - who published a FLIPPING ACTUAL BOOK! I’m so proud of what you have produced and feel privileged that you invited me along for the ride.

Stuart - for forcing me to move offices!!! I’m not sure where my business would be had I not met him all of those years ago.