Motherhood & Small Business: Our Personal Photos || Lynchburg, VA Wedding Photographer

I’m ashamed to admit how horrible I’ve been at this- but I’m making it my mission to catch up and be better about it! What am I talking about? Printing out our own personal photos. I know, I know- something I preach about with my clients. It’s SO important for our memories and children to have these photos to be able to relive and talk about important moments in our lives! We had a handful of little photobooks printed out and it’s one of Emmie’s favorite things to look through and talk about certain moments.  

The problem, I did not have all of my personal photos in one place. In fact, quite the opposite. Why this is the case, I have NO idea because I am beyond careful to have triple backups of all of my client photos and should be treating my own with just as much importance!

So, I’ve been working hard on getting everything in one place, organized by year and then by month. And from here, I’m creating chatbooks- about 3-4 per year as an overview and then a full book for special occasions- like vacations, family photos, etc.  It’s not anything too special or expensive- but it’s at least PRINTING out our photos and make sure we’ve got everything in a place together!

First thing I did was take a few days and collect all of our personal photos- from cell phones, instagram posts, a few different computers and external hard drives. Do you see why I’m embarrassed to admit how bad this problem is? It was SO fun going through all the photos- Emmie as a little baby and all these memories that I had totally forgotten about! That in itself was SO motivating to finish up collecting all these photos!  

Once I had them in one place, I sorted through by the years and then the months, making it super simple to then upload them to chatbooks by months!  I’m still working on getting all the books organized and ordered & can’t wait to update once I do!!

Are you good at printing your personal photos? Tell me your favorite way to organize and get your items printed!

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Ashley Eiban is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Central Virginia. Serving the Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and surrounding areas. Available for travel world-wide.  Ashley is passionate about cultivating genuine relationships built on mutual understanding, trust and lasting friendship.  

Currently booking a limited number of wedding and portrait sessions for 2018 and 2019.  Contact Ashley today for additional information!

Working ahead to be productive || Lynchburg, VA Wedding Photographer

Why is it that some days are just so much more productive than others? Anyone else run into this problem? I am constantly trying to figure this out for myself and whenever I find somewhat of a solution with my workflow, I like to share it!

First off, having set office hours is SO helpful for me. When I have a full day with nothing planned, I procrastinate and find myself quickly filling the time with everything BUT what needs to be done. Ha! So, planning ahead and knowing that I will be working tomorrow from 10am until school pick up at 2pm, then I need to be serious about my time working! 

I keep my paper planner cleaner with just the important dates and appointments, but I also use my iCalendar on my MacBook to block off time ahead for office hours and then will add some of the big tasks that I need to make sure happen during that timeframe! 

I’ve also found if I can plan ahead the night before or first thing that morning, I can stay on track a little bit easier.  I always have a running list going (hello Trello!) but each morning, writing down what needs to be accomplished that day, and being able to prioritize those tasks helps me so much.  I’m such a firm believer in getting things out of my head and onto paper so I have the mental capacity to think about other things instead of all the little things that need to get done!

For me, having it all written out and on paper is also so important to me! There is nothing like physically crossing off something to make you want to get more done!

So, I want to know- what tips have you found make you be more productive?

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Ashley Eiban is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Central Virginia. Serving the Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and surrounding areas. Available for travel world-wide.  Ashley is passionate about cultivating genuine relationships built on mutual understanding, trust and lasting friendship.  

Currently booking a limited number of wedding and portrait sessions for 2018 and 2019.  Contact Ashley today for additional information!

Defining your own success || Lynchburg, VA Wedding Photographer

Oh man, this is a hard one for me to write. I don’t want to come across as “preachy” as I’m talking straight to myself in this one, but I know as much as I need it, there has to be others that do as well! Especially this year as I'm only booking a limited number of weddings with baby on the way.  

In this industry, and paired with social media, it is SO easy to look at what everyone else is doing and compare it to what I am doing. To see that other photographer posting wedding images from what seems like being booked every single weekend. To see their gorgeous home, that never seems to get dirty and have piles of unfolded laundry in the corner and stacked up on the living room couch. It’s so easy to constantly be comparing how many shoots another photographer shoots compared to how many you shoot. We compare what other people are charging, trips they go on, social media followers and comments. It is exhausting. And not accurate.

It’s extremely difficult not to get wrapped up in how everyone else seems to be doing better and booking more weddings than you. Then it can seriously spiral from there, that you must not be as good and talented as they are. But really it needs to come down to your own personal definition of success. Your definition of success shouldn’t be the same as anyone else’s- it should be what is success for you and your family specifically.  Everyone’s journey is different and unique.  

There was a time in my life where shooting a wedding every single Saturday (or most of them, anyways) was what I genuinely wanted to do. There was a time when I was working full-time and trying to build my business and my definition of success would have been to shoot more than 10 weddings a year.

It’s so important when running your own business to take everyone else out of the equation and ask yourself- what is success to you? What makes you happy at the end of the day- that says, I feel fulfilled, content and am doing what I need to do for my family.

For me, my definition of success always focuses on my family. I am able to do what I love to do, but also be available for my family. When Michael has a Friday off, we can go on a lunch date (always El Jefe downtown for tacos and margaritas! Can’t wait to go after this baby is born- I’ve missed those margaritas!!) or I can go on field trips and volunteer in Emmie’s classroom.  I love that I’m doing something I am so passionate about, can love on my couples and have my family stay a priority as well! I haven’t always been able to balance everything well- especially when I was first full-time with my business, or balancing both working full time and trying to build my business up. It takes some work and learning to adjust, but you can get there!

Keep your eyes on your own paper. Be encouraged by looking back at what you have accomplished and how far you’ve come- not how far you feel that other people are in relation to where you are. It’s totally okay to grow at your own pace, and be as busy as you want to be!

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Ashley Eiban is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Central Virginia. Serving the Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and surrounding areas. Available for travel world-wide.  Ashley is passionate about cultivating genuine relationships built on mutual understanding, trust and lasting friendship.  

Currently booking a limited number of wedding and portrait sessions for 2018 and 2019.  Contact Ashley today for additional information!

Our baby shower || Trivium Estate Baby Shower in Lynchburg, Virginia

OH MY GOODNESS you guys!! This weekend was oh so good and I feel overwhelmingly blessed. Our Lynchburg friends - turned family - threw us a baby shower and it was beyond fun. Seeing all these people that mean so much to me, who love me & my family, and really are our village & love and help us in so many ways.

Heidi, from the Trivium Estate was so sweet in hosting the shower. The Trivium is one of my all-time favorite wedding venues, and it was so amazing to be there and celebrating our little guy! It’s always so beautiful there, but my goodness they went so over and beyond for our set up. And oh my gosh you guys- stereotypical pregnant lady thing to say- but the food! Sooooo good! They even knew my love of cannolis and had Jennifer, from La Bella Torta, make some homemade. And let me tell you- they were freaking amazing! A huge thank you to my sweet, sweet friends Sarah & Micah, who planned everything. I can't even describe how loved I feel. 

We are truly blessed with the most generous friends and family who completely spoiled us rotten with all the goodies to be a little more prepared for a new baby! So many adorable, teeny-tiny outfits, diapers, and baby gear! I’m finally feeling more prepared for our little guys arrival! We’ve got about 6 more weeks left- give or take, which is insane. Feels like forever away, yet that it will be here so soon! Now to go finish organizing the nursery, folding the most adorable little baby clothes, and probably take a nap as well! ;) I can’t wait to share photos from his nursery soon!

(A big thank you to Jenny & Rhiannon for grabbing my camera and snapping some photos during the shower too! SO thankful to have these!!) 

Behind the Camera: Planning for the Year || Lynchburg, VA Wedding Photographer

I know, I'm a little bit weird (please tell me I’m not alone in this! ha!) because I LOVE the process of planning and especially love getting a new planner and starting to organize my year. I get out my pens (of course, you know I color-code my planner!)

When I’m first plugging in dates, it seems like I have tons of free time. Everything I’m writing in are big, important dates- like weddings I’ve booked, birthdays & anniversaries, school start dates, etc.  But I learned if I don’t plan days off ahead of time, I can so easily over-book myself and feel the burnout.

One of the most important things I do when I’m first planning out my year, or when I book a new wedding, is I will, of course, block out the actual wedding day, but I will also schedule a work day AND a day off.

With a new baby on the way, this year is going to be totally different and face a whole bunch of new challenges, so setting myself up for success is going to be so important! I have a whole list of my wedding and event workflow, and know how much time I need to block off for my workflow steps- from uploading cards, culling, editing for my blog, and outsourcing steps, which is so helpful when planning ahead. I know that I most likely won’t have super long stretches of time to get everything done in one day, at least at first, so having that time set aside is super helpful.

I also schedule a day off for each wedding that I shoot. I learned quickly that if I don’t go ahead and block it off on my calendar, I will try to squeeze some things in on that day & end up not getting the day off. This is especially important for months like June, September and October- the super busy wedding and engagement photo sessions.  Also, taking time off for important dates, like Birthdays, Anniversaries, and planning vacation and time away with my family. It can be SO difficult to take a day off when you work for yourself, but please, take it from me, the burn out you’ll feel if you don’t is not worth it!

So tell me, am I alone in LOVING the “school supplies” and fresh starts of new calendars, planners, and color coding.  Do you schedule your work days and off days ahead of time as well?

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Ashley Eiban is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Central Virginia. Serving the Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and surrounding areas. Available for travel world-wide.  Ashley is passionate about cultivating genuine relationships built on mutual understanding, trust and lasting friendship.  

Currently booking a limited number of wedding and portrait sessions for 2018.  Contact Ashley today for additional information!