I often have people tell me that it must be great to be a photographer and spend all my time photographing interesting people, places and things. I usually smile and agree that it is a lot of fun, but the reality is that when photography is the path you’ve chosen, and you’re hoping it will pay the bills, the time you spend with a camera in your hand is actually quite limited.

We recently completed a major renovation to our studio, knocking down walls and turning our space and the business next door into one unit. I say completed, but with a 60+ year old building, you are never really finished. Sufficient to say that we now have 3,000 s.f. of space to work with and it is a much more pleasant environment than it had been.

It was a lot of work, with my sons, my wife and myself completing the bulk of it. It started on December 30, and while it seemed to be going quickly, somehow we are now in the latter part of March, a quarter of the year gone!

Yes, this was an unusual occurrence; you don’t renovate every year, but there are the other things involved in running a photography business, things like social media (which I don’t do enough of), traditional marketing, responding to inquiries, paperwork, which never ends, banking, paying the bills, ordering supplies, researching products and trying to understand which way the industry is going, attending assorted business meetings, and trying to squeeze some family time in as well, Oh, and I teach at the local community college, which takes about 20 hours out of my week.

Fortunately, it has been a particularly cold and miserable winter in eastern Ontario, so the number of days that I would want to be outside has been kept to a minimum. This week though, it has warmed up, and the ice has begun to recede, and some of the wildlife has once again started to make its presence known. I opened my bag the other day and pulled out my Z7 and actually spent some time shooting.

It felt very good. I need to do more of it, There are a few days remaining before I need to finish my bookkeeping and file my HST report.

There is a saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, and while I agree with that premise, I think they should add a bit on the end: except when you’re completing all the tasks that allow you to do that thing that you love.

More later, I need to go hear the sound of the shutter.

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