Blog Entry #1 - 2.8.23
It’s taken me a bit to sit down and write this out because I’m still a bit backed up with work from ‘22 but now that I’m finally catching up, I wanted to take a few minutes to recap the year.
To sum up 2022 in one word? Insane. Absolutely batshit insane. I learned a lot. I learned that you can do 61 weddings in a summer/fall season. I also learned that doing so is a terrible idea, and I never want to, or plan to do it again. 😅 I had multiple weddings almost every weekend from May to November. I learned that while I’m still very young, my body certainly can’t keep up like it used to.
Working 61 weddings wasn’t exactly by plan. There were multiple occasions where I ended up with last minute weddings due to other photographers/videographers cancelling, getting COVID, etc.. Quite a few previously booked clients pushed to ‘22 from ‘21 due to ongoing COVID restrictions, and venue closures. It felt great to accommodate those couples, or step in and save the day, but this seriously bogged down my schedule and created an enormous amount of backlog on the editing side.
In September I got really sick. Like really sick. I unknowingly ended up with Pneumonia, but I was able to power through the end of wedding season thanks to multiple rounds of antibiotics and steroids. But I was still down bad. There were Sundays & Mondays after 40-hour wedding weekends that I legitimately could not move from my bed. If you know me, I’m not very good at sitting still.
It seemed like just a few years ago I was just taking photos and editing for friends and family, and that was it. It was still a lot of work, but it was simple. 2022 was the year that everything became very real, and I was smacked in the face with more and more behind the scenes “adulting” responsibilities and distractions. It was my first year having to sort out my own healthcare, being a homeowner, more complicated tax situations, getting 100+ texts/emails per day, dealing with lawyers, contracts, a million types of insurance, etc.. (basically all the really “fun” parts of owning your own business 😅). It made it incredibly difficult to sit down and actually get through photos.
I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work with hundreds (if not thousands) of incredible individuals, couples, charities and businesses this year. So many thank-you's to the wonderful hospitality so many of ya’ll showed at weddings and events. I continued to visit some amazing places that I never dreamed “work” would take me. Although it’s extremely stressful behind the scenes, I really can’t imagine a career where you have more fun on the job.
There really are way too many people to thank for helping me get through the past year, but just to shout out a few.. my amazing parents, my awesome crew of videographers and video editing teams, my friends who I call when I need to vent, and last, but certainly not least, the Instacart and Doordash drivers who essentially kept me living for the last 12 months.
I’m looking forward to a very much needed few months of down-time before weddings start up again this spring. Normally this time of year I would be in an exotic country on the opposite side of the world, but frankly I’m too burned out for that right now. There will be a time to travel again, but not right now. I’m enjoying being home and taking on some smaller projects locally in the meantime.
Much Love,
Joey