I was having a conversation with my wife at dinner tonight and I said I felt like 2021 was a wasted year for me with my photography.

I really started picking up clients in 2019 and 2020 was a fantastic year for senior portraits. But in 2021, it really fell off. There were many reasons for this as I look back to try and see what happened. I was still getting clients in the Spring of 2021, but my two kids graduated high school in June. Meanwhile, the software development company I work for was bought in May. So I put a lot of time into tuning up my software development skills over the summer. In late June, we took a family vacation to DisneyWorld.

Summer is always the down time for me and my photography. It’s usually too hot and I don’t like to be crawling through bushes and grass near water when the snakes are out. By August, I was getting the itch to shoot again. But first, it was time to take both kids to college. I finally got my first senior portrait session of the Fall and was able to schedule another one for September. However, with one child at East Carolina University and the other one at Virginia Tech, my wife and I started making trips on football weekends. We’ve been to four football games so far and we’ll be at each school over the next two weekends. This has seriously put a halt to my portrait sessions this Fall.

I do have two, maybe three more senior portrait sessions before the end of November. So maybe I can build up some momentum to help get me through the Winter and get ready for a busy Spring senior portrait season.

So what can I do to get my photography business back on the upswing? Well, first, I plan to get back into shooting some high school sports, particularly girls and boys basketball. Last year’s season was, for all purposes, cancelled. I love shooting. basketball and I can’t wait to get back to shooting basketball.

Second, I’m going to advertise more beginning in January for both sports photography as well as senior portraits. I’m pretty sure the Spring season will be a lot easier to schedule shoots since I won’t be traveling to colleges every other weekend.

I’ve been posting my images on Instagram for several years now, but I want to be more creative in 2022. I’m definitely planning to blog more and I’m going to make a goal to blog at least once a week. I also want to finally dip my toes into YouTube. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, but only since I picked up my Nikon Z6 II, do I have a camera capable of shooting good video. The Z6 II, along with my new Apple iPhone 13 Pro, I have no excuse not to make some decent content.

If you are in the Hampton Roads area, and interested in senior portraits, sports portraits, or family portraits, please reach out to me. And visit my website to look at my landscape and wildlife photography. If you see something you like, please help me out and buy a print! Thanks.