It was last May…I had been second shooting for a while but I wasnt yet comfortable calling myself an actual wedding photographer. My first blog was still in the works and I emailed Katelyn James to ask if she would make a tiny exception and take headshots for me, even though I was fully aware that she no longer offered portraits so that she could focus on weddings. She emailed me back and asked if I’d be interested in doing a coaching session instead, which would include headshots…She had never done one at that point so it would be kind of like a test run for her. Of course I said yes right away! I knew enough about the industry at that point to recognize that these coaching sessions were going to be super successful for her and I didn’t want to miss out on being one of the first ones!

So I arrived at her house for my coaching session last May with an outline of things to go over and my laptop from college that I had been trying to start a business on. It was a Macbook from 2008..that doesn’t sound that old, but in the Apple world it might as well be from two lifetimes ago. It was one of the white ones that got dirty easily (embarrassing…I should have cleaned it before I brought it to her house!) and it was so S.L.O.W. Also the screen wasn’t backlit because it was an older model so it was nearly impossible to color correct images on it properly even with the screen calibrated. Basically the screen made my images look really blue…so when I color corrected pictures, I was actually making them look really ORANGE without knowing it! Ahhh…

So the first thing Katelyn said was…”Ryan’s not going to like this, but you definitely need a new computer if your going to have a successful business. Just break the news to him gently.” And of course she said this in the sweetest most encouraging way possible because that’s how she is.

So post coaching session, I went home and broke the news to Ryan and he was really hesitant at first…I only had one wedding booked at that point and we had no way of knowing if I was going to be good at this or successful at all. Buying a new computer for my then basically non-existent business was a huge risk. So we didn’t…not right away anyway…I got by on that computer for two more months…trying to color correct and compensate for the way my screen was making my pictures look..and getting super frustrated when the pinwheel of death wouldn’t stop spinning and I’d have to restart it for the 10th time in one evening. So finally at the beginning of July when we knew I wanted to keep running with my new business, we took the plunge and bought me an iMac. It was less expensive than buying another laptop and easier to edit on. And I am sooo thankful and it has been such an amazing tool to help me build my business!

But I started to experience growing pains again with my business and got to a point where NOT having a laptop was really inhibiting productivity…especially when I would travel. It’s not exactly a NEED…I could definitely get by without it..but productivity is obviously crucial in running a growing business and I have a lot of weddings up in DC and I normally stay with my grandparents after…well I couldn’t exactly bring my giant iMac every time! Then I went to PA this past week for a few days, frustrated that I couldn’t really bring any work with me since I didn’t have a laptop…

And when I got home from PA Thursday night at 1 AM, Ryan greeted me at the door and said he had a surprise for me…I had no clue what it could be but he told me to close my eyes and walked me upstairs to my desk…and when I opened them there was a shiny new macbook sitting on it! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! I really have the best husband ever guys. He is so supportive of my business and I’m so thankful for the ways he cares for me! I didn’t NEED this laptop to work..but now it’s so nice being able to bring it when I go out of town for weddings and I’m also pretty excited to get to spend some days editing at a coffee shop instead of my little office for a nice change of pace. Yay! It’s already helped my productivity go up a lot and I’ve had it for less than a week!

And my 35 1.4 was another semi-recent addition to the AAP family! This one was definitely crucial! I couldn’t capture a wedding day well without it!

It’s so exciting adding new stuff to my lineup of gear. It’s hard being patient, especially when you feel like you legitimately NEED something…but I think part of being a small business owner is being patient and making what you have work as hard and as best as it can! I’m so excited for how this new gear is going to help me provide a better experience for my brides and grooms this year!