Updates on Megan Hoffer Photography as we navigate our re-opened world

2020 was considered by many small business owners as the year of the pivot. 2021, while not as dramatic, has continued that trend for many of us as our lives, businesses, families and the market have continued to unfold in new and sometimes unexpected ways.

2020 for Megan Hoffer Photography was all blah blah blah the Covid story you’ve all heard a thousand times over from everyone: We lost 12 weddings which crippled our income for the year. Many of the 18 weddings I did shoot were “just the ceremony” and a couple hours of coverage at most with the intention of having the “big party” this year. 3 of the 12 totally canceled due to rescheduling complications or they broke up. Of the 9 remaining, 8 rescheduled for 2021 in a year I was already as booked as I normally would be putting this year’s projects at an all time high. 1 wedding from 2020 even rescheduled for 2022.

Much like I said many years ago that I would never photograph weddings, I once also said I would never go down the teaching/photography education road. Both were said out of fear of the unknown. With so much time on everyone’s hands in 2020, I started getting question after question in my inbox from my fellow community photographers. And, much like I felt after shooting my first wedding, I found that I actually love teaching. The thrill of hearing that, “Oh my gosh. Yes, of course!” was just as intoxicating as hearing squeals of delight from my clients when they saw themselves on my camera LCD screen on a session. So, I started down the rabbit hole of learning “how to teach.”

In November 2020, just when I started really getting into it with an entire ebook course published and for sale on my website, we decided as a family to pull Finn and Rita from daycare after one of the teachers got Covid and it seemed like people all around us were turning up positive for the virus. I didn’t have much client work over the winter so it just made sense to keep them home. I admit I felt like I was making a sacrifice going back to stay-at-home-mom status while letting the education piece drift.

We made it through the winter with a new sense of togetherness as a family and in February we let the daycare know we were ready to get them back to school hopefully in March. Finn and Rita were put on the waiting list….and we waited….and waited. I am not one to want to bother people so I kept waiting.

This is how the spring felt for us as a family.

My wedding season started in April and things got hairy.

Marc is still working from home for now too so we were both staring at full time work loads AND had a 3 and 5 year old running around needing all the things that they do at that age. Since Marc’s job requires him to be “at work” from 7:00-3:30 it was my work that got pushed into the “get it done whenever possible” timeframe. I started working every evening from the time the kids went to bed until late at night.

Marc would get the kids breakfast in the morning and put on a show for them so I could sleep a little longer while he started his work day at the living room coffee table with his laptop. I worked on my phone at the park as much as possible and eventually had to wave a white flag. It was too much. With an average of 60 clients on my books at a time, no amount of preparation over the winter, new systems and computer software or organization could prepare me for the overwhelming physical and mental exhaustion that ensued in the first few months of Spring 2021. I finally had to admit I couldn’t do it all myself. I know it all seems so effortless from the outside but here was my schedule on a Saturday wedding weekend knowing I would have the kids all week too:

Saturday

Wake up with the kids at 6am, shower, pack, get ready, spend a few minutes time with the family, makeup and hair, prep and prepare, review timelines/names/etc., eat something. 10:00am leave for wedding. 11:00am arrive on site. 11:30am start shooting. 10pm wrap up, pack up gear and drive home. As an FYI, FitBit tells me I burn between 3,500-5,000 calories on a wedding day. Shooting a wedding well is extremely physically demanding and mentally exhausting. Get home around 11:00pm. Pack-in gear and move it all to the basement. 11:30pm cull memory cards from ~6,000 images down to 1,200, load and back-up the keeper image files, select and edit a few sneak peaks. Post a few in stories and schedule at least one to be posted for the morning. Go to bed at about 2am.

Sunday

Sleep in until about 8am because my husband rocks, spend some family time, shower and start working on selecting and editing the highlight photos around 10am while Marc takes the kids somewhere during the day. Have dinner with the family and keep working until about 11pm or later if needed.

Monday

The kids watch a lot of TV while we both work. I push to get the 300-400 highlight photos edited and loaded in a gallery, write the blog and schedule it to post for Tuesday morning. At this point I am so physically and mentally exhausted I am simply not myself.

Then, before I hired my amazing assistant, Theresa, and my editor, Janelle Joy, I would spend the rest of the week half parenting (mostly just keeping the kids alive) while answering emails, meeting with and booking new clients, preparing for the next wedding the next weekend and finishing editing the rest of the 1,200 or so photos. Since hiring Theresa and Janelle, I’ve been able to post the blog, send off the rest of the photos to be matched and finished, and take some time to be a good parent and re-coup from Tuesday-Friday. As much as this was making it work in the moment, It was still not ideal. I was dead tired and the teaching was not happening at all. A random helpful blog, post or email every once in a while was about all I could make happen.

At this point April-May I was still waiting, waiting on word from daycare for reprieve from this hellacious schedule believing it would be soon.

There came a day I was just so overwhelmed I emailed daycare to see what was up. I found out that when I sent the email back in February they were in the middle of a transition themselves and my request was never formally processed to get Finn and Rita on the list. I admit, as much as I totally understand that these things happen, this news hit me like a ton of bricks in the stomach. Luckily, I sent that follow-up just in time to get them in for the full-time summer program and they just started 2 weeks ago.

The first week I cleaned our house and got things back to some low level of order. The second week Marc and I took our “anniversary week” staycation. It’s funny how our bodies know how to tell us to slow down and pay attention. On a week I (for once) didn’t have any shoots scheduled for the weekend coming up I got sick for the first time in years forcing me to actually rest and then to just enjoy our time together. It was like my body was saying, “you have time…rest.”

We managed to get out to a few lunches, hikes and bike rides.

So, I’m in yet another transition phase myself as I navigate what our new schedule looks like…again. I’ve gone from feeling like I have the kids too much to now not enough as they are in daycare M-F and I’m shooting on the weekends. Life really is like a dance. We give. We take. The important part, I have found, is in the habits we create for ourselves in our daily lives to fall back on. Constantly checking in on these habits and what they say about our lives is what it’s all about. I definitely de-railed over the winter and this spring as I worked myself into the ground but I’ve realized it, accepted it and am ready to get back to my exercise, work, family and meditation habits. I’m ready to re-claim my mental and physical health for the rest of the year.

Here’s what’s important for my clients moving forward through the summer of 2021 and why I am writing this today:

The reason I was getting blogs and highlights out so early was because I was spending my entire weekend killing myself and working out of necessity while Marc had the kids knowing I would have them all week. NOW, I’m making the executive decision to take off on Sundays (or a non-wedding day) to spend that one day as a family. The kids are now in day care M-F so I will still be getting blogs and highlights out a light speed…but probably more like Wednesday or Thursday instead of Tuesday. I know that kinda stinks if you’ve been watching and counting days comparing it to your wedding dates coming up for the past few months but it’s going to have to be that way and I know you all understand.

Who knows what life will look like in the fall. Finn will be starting Kindergarten and Rita will most likely cut back on the daycare days. If I’ve learned anything from Covid, it’s to make the most of what you’ve been dealt and always come back to what’s important to you….make the habits…keep the habits. As James Clear says, “Make it easy. Make it obvious.”

No matter what, I promise you, my Fam, that I will always deliver your photos as fast as humanly possible within the parameters of my family’s needs and my own physical and mental health. From what I understand, my “taking an extra day” is still way faster than the majority of other photographers so I’m trying to give myself some grace on this.

And, I’ll tell you what, sitting at a computer desk for 2-3 days straight for 10-12 hours a day is not good for my health. I have made a vow to myself to at the very minimum hit my 10,000 steps a day no matter what…even if the blog isn’t finished….sorry.

I’ve also decided I don’t want to let the education piece drift anymore. I’m still working through what that means and how I want that to look and how it fits into my life but I would like to move forward with it and gain some more momentum again. I do know that means I will be shooting FAR fewer weddings next year at the very least to give me and my team the space to work on it.

Here are the ideas I’m toying with at the moment for next year:

An online photography course specifically for florists to learn how to take and edit professional level photos of their arrangements themselves without needing a whole course on photography
An all-encompassing, online portrait photography school that would cover the light, equipment, software, camera settings, editing, pricing, building a business, connecting with people, posing, and MUCH more with assignments to turn-in and personal feedback from ME over a length of time very much like being in a college online class
In-person, specific topic workshops…the sky is the limit for topics and what those could look like

If you have feedback on what would be interesting to YOU, please comment on the blog or post I made to bring you here or email me at hello@meganhofferphotography.com. I would really appreciate and benefit from hearing what you actually want.

Here’s to being over the hump for 2020 and finishing strong!

XO - Megan