February Recap

Happy Tuesday loves!

This post has been a month in the making lol… I’ve been meaning to post each of these things individually but the time kept getting away from me and once you see everything that’s been going on this month you’ll see why.

I hope February has been treating you well! Aside from the RIDICULOUS amount of winter weather we’ve been getting, and the small amount of rest I’ve been getting, it’s been pretty good… extremely busy, but good. 

This month was full of firsts for me and I can’t be more excited about the direction DFinney Photography is moving in :)

Let’s get our month recap started, shall we?

The month kicked off with Lauren on FEB 1. She came down from NY for her mentor session and we had so much fun! No, we’re not sisters but EVERYONE has said we have to be, so we’re embracing it now lol. 

Setarra & Charles were our lovely models for Lauren’s session and they couldn’t have been any more perfect!!

After wrapping up Lauren’s session, I headed home to finish packing because the next day I was headed to Little Rock for my first ever group mentor session! Monday, FEB 3 came and I met up with these 5 lovely ladies! 

We had SUCH a great time despite the cold and it made me really excited about the fact that I’m offering group mentoring sessions now!

After a cancelled flight, an extra night in Little Rock, and another flight delay, I finally made it back home to try and catch up on some work… Next shoot? Headshots with CJJ on FEB 11. These ladies were wonderful to work with and I’m so happy they were willing to brave the cold for a sec in exchange for great photos :)

Are you tired yet? Cause I am and it’s only MID-MONTH! Lol. What’s next?

If I’ve spoken to you recently, no doubt it’s come up in conversation that my girlfriend is getting married in March and I’m one of her bridesmaids… Along with that comes bridesmaid duties, one of which is event planning, and in my case, event design. Yayyyy (Was the sarcasm evident?) Lol I have a love/hate relationship with event design because while I love pretty things, the amount of work involved to get everything the way it’s supposed to be + my OCD, makes my head hurt. Combined with the amount of things already on my plate for work, and the stress has been REAL. But I was happy to pull things together for my loves and I’m happy that everything turned out nicely for their wedding shower on FEB 15 :)

Yes, there were photos of things other than the bottles lol. But those bottles? Those bottles are my pride and joy because I had to collect them, soak them, clean them, dry them, and spray paint them ALL. So those need all the facetime they can get lol.

The next big thing on the agenda? My very first workshop on FEB 22!!!

This happened on Saturday and I’m still beaming! I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before because I was pulling last minute things together (and generally doing things that I could have done earlier in the week lol) but the big day came and I couldn’t have been happier with how everything went!

My first official branding workshop class! We had such a great time on Saturday. To see the wheels turning as we dug deeper into the topic of branding was such an amazing feeling!

My mom even came! :D Since she wasn’t able to see me in Nashville at Blink, she said she wanted to come to the next one I did at home, and she did :)

You thought that was it? I almost did lol. I came home after such an eventful day and almost no sleep the night before and crashed! Then I remembered I had a shoot the next day.

Sunday, FEB 23 I had a rescheduled headshot session with Bridget! I’m so happy we ended up rescheduling because it was such a beautiful and warm day! The last one we’re going to have until… I don’t even know! It’s currently snowing again :/ Winter is just messing with us at this point and I can’t wait until this season is but a distant memory. Spring where art thou?! Lol

Anyway, so that’s my action-packed February recap! I will have posts for each of the sessions listed above, I just figured it’d be better to do a recap instead of waiting until I can eventually get up the individual posts.

How has your February been?? I look forward to hearing from you!

I hope you have a great Tuesday!

-Danielle

It's Been A While | Truthy Tuesday

*peeks in* 

Heyy loves! I know, I know, I’ve been majorly absent with blogging, but I’m here today to try and make up for that :) I guess you can consider this a late Truthy Tuesday post, but I just wanted to say hello!

I’ve been somewhat MIA these days because things have been beyond busy over here! The first quarter of 2014 has been the busiest EVER since officially beginning business back in 2009! That is great of course, but quite honestly, I don’t think I was ready for it :( I am still struggling with procrastination and time management (THIS article and THIS book have been very helpful in that regard) but I just… I know that change doesn’t happen overnight so I’m trying to honor my small victories along the way and not get too down on myself that I don’t see immediate change. To say I’m experiencing growing pains would definitely be an understatement.

But I don’t want this post to be a pity party. That’s not it at all! I am BEYOND thankful to even be faced with these “problems” and wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you beautiful people! There’s not a day that I’m not thankful that I’m able to do what I love for a living… but I don’t want to romanticize the reality of owning and operating your own business. I thoroughly love what I do, but it is still WORK. A lot of it. As mentioned before, when you’re a small business owner, you wear many hats- especially early on, when you can’t afford to outsource-  yet you only have 24 hours in a day.

It isn’t always smooth sailing. Honestly I don’t even want it to seem that way because that’s not realistic… and I would hate for someone to aspire to do what I do without actually knowing just what’s involved. So hopefully I can get back on track with my Truthy Tuesday posts and begin sharing the details of how I’m working through my procrastination/ productivity issues and some of the behind the scenes things that are dealt with as a small business owner. 

I just want to say thank you again guys for hanging in there and riding this crazy ride with me :) 

‘Til next time,

-Danni

P.S. Yes! I’m finally at that point… I need an assistant. This is crazy for me because apparently I like to do everything lol. But those 24 hours aren’t allowing me to do so anymore and having help is always a good thing :) I will post an official listing soon, so please keep an eye out for it if that’s something you’d be interested in.

Giveaway | Branding Workshop Seat! [CLOSED]

UPDATE 2/6: Bree Thomas @bananaboatbreezy of @noellethomasphoto is our winner of the free seat!

I was moved by her heartfelt entry and feel that she is definitely deserving of the free seat to my workshop! You guys all rock because I had so many great entries so thank you to everyone who participated!!

——

Happy Wednesday lovelies!

Fresh off of Monday’s big news, I’m back with something exciting to share with you guys- a brand new giveaway!

I want to give away one of the few remaining seats to the Branding Workshop!!!

From now until February 5, you have a chance to win a FREE seat to the Branding Workshop! That’s ONE WEEK! The winner will be announced on February 6.

Entries will only be accepted via email.

Nominations are accepted as well! So if you know someone who would like to attend this workshop, you can email me sharing why they deserve to win the free seat with a link to their website.

If you’ve already secured your seat for the class, you ARE eligible to enter as well! If you are selected, your payment will be refunded.

I think that’s it, but if you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I will respond as I’m sure others may have the same question(s) as well :)

Thank you again guys for all of your support! 

Have a great Wednesday!

-Danni

EXCITING NEW FEATURES + Limited Spring Availability

Happy Monday!!

I am super duper excited about this news today you guys!

NEW Blog Features!!

You see those shiny new buttons over there to the right??

—————————————————->

They lead you to BRAND NEW PAGES!!

BEFORE & AFTERS
I’ve been asked quite a few times about showing before & after images of my photos, so now I’ve added that as a permanent feature to the blog! That way both clients and photographers alike can see exactly what I do to get my images to look the way they do :)

FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
This will eventually be a separate site, but for now, all information regarding mentoring and upcoming workshops will be housed here!

Super pumped about this becauseeeee…. I’m now offering GROUP MENTORING!!

GET EXCITED!!! Lol

One-on-one mentor sessions are still very much available, but I will also now be offering group mentor sessions! 

Group mentor session dates for early 2014 are as follows:

Little Rock, AR
February 3

Charlotte, NC
May 16

Washington, DC
May 24

Atlanta, GA
June 7

If you are interested in participating, please email me ASAP to secure your spot! Group mentor sessions are limited to 4 people only so if those spaces go quickly, second dates may be added if there is enough interest. For those in DC, group mentor dates will be added as frequently as the need arises, so no worries if you’re not able to get in on the May 24th date. If that date fills up, then I will place your name on the waiting list and you’ll be first on the list for the next date.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to have my first group mentor session in Little Rock next Monday and I can’t wait to share with you all how it goes :)

So this is all very exciting, but I have oneee more thing to share today…

Limited Spring Availability

With my schedule is filling up so early in the year, dates are being booked farther out and as a result, Spring dates are just about gone!

The following dates are available for Spring sessions:

2 Available dates in March
Friday, Mar 28 [BOOKED]
Sunday, Mar 30 [BOOKED]

2 Available dates in April
Friday, Apr 4 [BOOKED]
Sunday, Apr 20

3 Available dates in May
Friday, May 9 [BOOKED]
Friday, May 30
Saturday, May 31

That’s it for Spring!

Not to worry if you’re interested in minis, those will be held on May 3rd & 4th and will be available to book in March. But if you’re interested in a standard session, you’ll need to email me ASAP to secure your date while they’re still available. Depending on the timing, headshot sessions may still be scheduled during the week on occasion.

Well this was certainly an action-packed News & Updates! Let me know what you think about the new blog features and about the group mentoring!! I can’t wait to hear from you guys :)

Talk to you soon!

-Danni

Models Needed + Winter Vacation

Happy Tuesday!

Just wanted to pop in for a brief update! I have quite a few one-on-one mentor sessions coming up, and as always, we will need models :)

This time we are looking for couples! We will need two so when you email your photo for consideration, please indicate which of the two above dates you are available or if you are available for both.

The Feb 1 session will be taking place in Washington, DC around 1p and the March 1 session will be taking place in Alexandria, VA around 2p. Exact times will be finalized by the time the models are selected :)

The Feb 9 session will be taking place in Alexandria, VA around 2p. Exact time will be finalized by the time the model is selected.

For your participation, you will receive a complimentary digital gallery of your images and a complimentary 11x14 print. All participating models must be able to pay $70 for professional makeup application (your only cost).

Unfortunately due to the high volume of submissions, you will be contacted only if you are selected to participate. Thank you in advance! You guys always are so eager to participate in these and I’m bummed that I can only select a few.

What else is new?

Well I’m officially going on my first planned vacation in… I don’t know how long! Lol DFinney is heading west!

This weekend I will be heading to San Diego and Los Angeles with my girl Dori for vacation! This will be my second time visiting LA, but it’s been a long while! I’ve never been to SD so I’m definitely looking forward to it. This is also Dori’s early graduation trip because she graduates from UMD in the spring, so yayy! Early congrats to her!! :D

I will officially be “off the grid” workwise beginning Friday through the end of next week. You can follow our journey on instagram @dfinneyphoto as I’m sure we’ll be sharing tons of pictures :)

Have a great day loves!

-Danni