Welcome to the last Cairn of the year, the last little entrepreneurial trail marker that comes before the new year. As this year wraps up, I find myself wrestling with a few things. I owe these wrestlings to my boyfriend, who is constantly challenging me and keeping me accountable. Just as my dad would, he is challenging me to do the work, and do good work. December has brought a few tough tasks business-wise.
Read More5 Common Pitfalls To Avoid When Hiring A Wedding Photographer
Planning a wedding can be a stressful whirlwind. In the chaos of finding and booking venues, choosing color schemes and tasting food, it can be easy to make quick decisions and miss some details. Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life. It’s understandable that you want everything to go just perfectly. Unfortunately, things seldom go perfectly according to plan, but you can minimize major hiccups by avoiding these pitfalls when hiring your wedding photographer. I can’t save you from disaster with other vendors, but I can offer up my advice as a wedding professional.
Read MoreTop 10 Favorite Office Supplies
I LOVE office supplies. I’m an addict. Office Max is just as dangerous for me as Target. Perhaps it’s a good thing that I went into a field where office supplies are necessary. Then again, probably not as many office supplies as I have.
Read MoreCairn vol. 18 // Feeling Like a Fake
I’ve been a business owner for 3 years. I’ve been a designer on a professional level for 5. I’ve been a photographer for 11 years and doing it professionally for 7. I started my life as a creative in 2006, thirteen years ago. And you know what? I still sometimes feel like I’m not enough. I still feel like a fake and a fraud. This month, all of these feelings came to a head and I was forced to confront them. One of these moments came in the form of a creative breakdown where I realized that I hated what I was shooting, erased the card and went and cried my eyes out in the bathroom till I felt sick.
Read MoreThe Power of a Good Creative Brief
Hiring a designer should be very little work on your part, right? Right. Clients tend to have little interest in being heavily involved in the design process. They are busy people and have work to do and companies to run. They’ve hired a designer so they can avoid doing extra work. So why the hassle of a creative brief, and is it really necessary?
Read More3 Lies I Believed When I Started My Business
You have your degree, you have some work experience, and you’ve decided to make the leap into self-employment. You went to conferences and networking events and you’ve been cleansed of the 9-to-5 by inspiring speakers, waxing poetic about “the grind,” “the hustle,” and how your product will sell itself if it’s worthy of the market. You’re beaming with starry-eyed confidence, you’ve been inspired by people who have made it, and you’re ready to dive in. There’s only one thing: the inspiring people who’ve been there may have misled you.
Read MoreIn My Bag // Graphic Design Edition
About a year ago, I promised a look inside my bag and what I carry as a graphic designer. Amazingly, I got to how I travel as a freelancer before I got to posting that. What I need as a designer varies from day to day, depending on the project and what I am working on, so this post could really be a short chapter book. To narrow it down, I’m going to cover what I take to a meeting where I will be working at the meeting location afterwards.
Read MoreThe Traveling Freelancer: My Failsafe System for Working On The Go
I’m not one of those freelancers who is always on holiday, but in the past few years, I have gotten to visit some pretty interesting destinations, and see some new places. As a freelancer, I’m always taking my work with me, and this makes traveling with work a little different than traveling with a regular job. I’m going to walk you through how I successfully travel and work from anywhere.
Read MoreIn My Bag // Wedding Photography Edition (UPDATED)
Wedding season is officially underway, and a lot of clients want to know that you have the tools you need. Not every client does but occasionally you get the client asking about what kind of gear you have. They may recognize your tools of the trade, they may just want to know that you're prepared and not just bringing your iPhone to their big day. I thought I would give a rundown of what I carry with me on wedding days and how I prepare to capture my clients' most valuable moments.
Read MoreBlack Sheep // dealing with the naysayers.
When I started my own company, I fully expected to meet resistance. I didn’t expect who it came from. I expected it would come from people who think I’m overpriced, who think I don’t have a real job or that freelancing is just a fancy word for lounging around all day. Some of those lines of thinking were true, but they didn’t come from people in my professional life. They came from people closer to me in my personal life. I’m not writing this to air my dirty laundry about what people have said. My purpose in sharing these things is to offer people a way to deal with the people who push back, because it can be really hard to deal with sometimes.
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