i fondly remember sitting at my desk one day…looking out the window and thinking, i can’t wait until i am busy shooting. i used to dream of the day when i could actually choose who i shot with…who fit into my schedule, my price range, and my business model. it was a dream. i would think about the wonderful life i would have. i would go out on a shoot with a gorgeous couple, capture the most beautiful images, come home to the smell of a home cooked meal that i remembered to put in the crockpot, my husband would give me a kiss and then we would sit down and watch a movie after dinner and snuggle on the couch before turning in early and falling into a deep happy sleep.

i love what i do. but it isn’t always rainbows and butterflies 🙂 somedays, i come home from a shoot and the house is a wreck, my kid is still in pajamas and there is no dinner {or groceries!} around. we load up in the car and grab a late fast food dinner. but i love it. i love every second of it. the second i don’t love it, is the moment i need to walk away.

one day, i was getting ready for a shoot and i told my husband, “i really don’t feel like going today”. he looked at me funny and said, “that’s when you know you need to have some personal time“.
my husband was so right. it wasn’t that i didn’t love it anymore…i just needed a break! i was scheduling myself so thin that i didn’t have time to rock my son to sleep at night. the whole reason i decided to pursue photography instead of nursing was to be with my son. i’m a stay at home mom first, photographer second. i lost track of where i was supposed to be. i wasn’t neglecting him, but i was putting my career first…and i never wanted that. it wasn’t until my husband said that, that i realized i needed a vacation!

i’ve had moments in the past where i’m just tired and need to shoot for myself. this was different. i was having fun shooting, but i wasn’t having fun after i was shooting.

we decided then and there that whenever i got too bogged down, or scheduled everyday for a week or two straight…we would make it a point to get out of town.

so that, my dear friends, is how you know when you need to take some personal time 🙂