COMMENTARY! The Off-Season Delusion

I used to believe I had an off-season.  I would look forward to it with child-like glee, pondering all the wonderful things I would do with my free time.  Maybe I'd make homemade Christmas cards or organize the storage closet.  Maybe I'd finally get to bake chocolate chip cookies without the chips.  (By the way, no one lets you do this) I'd have all sort of plans for my business. too.  I'd enter in the contact information from all those business cards I'd collected or spend all day working on elaborate sample albums for next season.

Needless to say none of these things ever get done because I do not in fact have an off season.  The reality is that when the weddings and portraits stop, the albums and bridal shows begin.  At the beginning of the year newly engaged couples everywhere start shopping for vendors and not so newly engaged couples start freaking out that their wedding is this year.  The first quarter for me is a crazy whirlwind of meetings, shows, conventions and paperwork.  Then it's March and I'm shooting again.

So this year, I have given up my dreams of getting-it-all-done-during-the-down-time and have simply shifted my focus from one set of tasks to the next.  Fortunately, I have found some sort of balance between personal and professional this past year and don't feel the desperate need to get away from it all.  Hopefully this winter season you can find some balance too.