The Other Half - Sandi's Take on the Family Business
Welcome to the “other half” of CASS Imaging! For warning this is my first attempt at writing a blog and most of my writing is for work where I am speaking in third person and completing assessments on only my observations and no opinions, well this should be a little different…a lot different. I would like to start off by saying never in a million years did I picture myself writing for our own photography company… but then again the last few years are nothing what I would have expected my 30’s to be like. I always imagined to be in a traditional family home, with kids, a dog and to be a social worker for a good part of my life trying to save every child in the world! Instead…things happened a little different, well a lot different. After years of trying to have the perfect family we are taking a little break and staying in our townhouse with our crazy cats and photography equipment everywhere, but I wouldn’t change it for the world!
The year 2013 started off with a bang, Jay starting a couple pretty cool new projects, and I left my fulltime job to put more time towards Cass Imaging. Things got to be a little too much for both of us to still hold our fulltime jobs while trying to run a successful photography business, and it was starting to hold us back, so we made the move. At the beginning of the year I dropped down to part time and now I’ve taken over a lot of the responsibilities of the business.
We already had 6 weddings booked for this year, and were hoping to book some more after the new year…and we have. We just finalized and signed the paperwork for our 8th wedding this past Friday night, and it’s one that will be a little different and a fabulous wedding addition to our portfolio. We are going to the Rivera Mia, Mexico to photograph a high school friends wedding! Jay and I definitely thought about doing a destination wedding when we were getting married but we decided for a wedding in the Poconos instead because we did not get that excited of a response from our family members. But good news for the bride she has had an overwhelming response and they are expecting over 50-60 people coming to Mexico! Jay and I are really excited to go, and with the bride and groom willing to pay for our travels really shows how far we’ve come in this past year. We are even going to be staying for a few extra days to soak up some Vitamin D! …diet starts tomorrow..well Monday…haha!
Jay and I are constantly looking for ways to change and improve our business and how we interact with our clients, so we decided it would be good for us to feel what it’s like to be the ones being photographed again. So Saturday we did just that and got to be on the other side of the camera for a change. Since Jay and I started dating...almost 15 years ago we don’t have any professional pictures of ourselves…I actually love being the one taking the pictures now because I do not like my picture taken...I never have. It was often a game to Jay’s mom to try and get pictures of me when I wasn’t looking, and because I didn’t enjoy it she was often thrown off. She often found photographing me to be a challenge because her two children were raised with a photographer as a mom always taking pictures of them, and I honestly do believe, no matter what they say… love being in front of the camera.
Even though I hated it, she always managed to sneak a few in and they would come out great. Since her passing now we really don’t have pictures, she was our only hope…so our friend Ray from KGM Expressions took the challenge and even with our winter weight we fell in love with the pictures! It was a very beneficial photo shoot because Jay and I got to get the feel of what our engaged couples feel like and picked up a lot of tips from Ray who has been doing it for a few years now.
So this is the first of many blogs to come since my schedule has changed a little and I need to take over some more of the duties of CASS Imaging, and also because I feel that Jay’s blogs aren’t always written for the ladies out there. I also will be doing more posting on Facebook and Twitter (TWITTER…UGH…ENOUGH SAID..HAHA)…and EDITING! So I guess blogging is actually the easiest part. I am going to be researching and writing about weddings, bridal tips, baby shoots and all the props they include. I am actually starting to make our own headbands and accessories…yes 2013 will be a very busy year! For the first time in my life I will write about a few topics that I have personally went through or going through that I know a lot of women struggle with because I am sure there are women out there that can relate. I would love to hear everyone’s feedback and ideas, thanks again if for reading this. Jay and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all the love and support from our friends and family!
Click HERE to see the rest of the pics from our photo shoot.
