New Year ahead

To say I blinked and missed 2023 is an understatement. I know it's the old cliche thing to say, 'that year went by so fast!' but to me, this one went faster than usual. I don't know if it's because this year was a particularly busy one for me or if it was just one of those years, but I am ending it feeling extremely blessed nonetheless.

This year saw me visit Iceland, a place that has been on my bucket list, forever. My husband and I got to visit the blue lagoon, go whale watching and explore everything Iceland has to offer. It was a dream come true and I cannot wait to visit there again one day.

We also went on a cruise with my family to celebrate my Mom's big birthday (I won't say which lol.) We visited Norway and Denmark which were lovely places and the ship we were on was fabulous. It wasn't an eventless holiday though with 3 out of 4 of my immediate family getting ill - I escaped it, luckily - but we still made the most of the good days.

Then in the Summer we went out to my in-laws villa in Spain for our annual Summer holiday together. We feel so blessed to be able to do that each year and soak in the sun and sea for a couple of weeks. The girls absolutely love being there, in the pool every day and eating ice cream!

This year saw me welcome back many of you again and also meet lots of new faces. I have photographed over 40 newborns this year, 20 cake smashers, 23 Christmas sessions and many other types of sessions in-between. I love being able to work my job around my family and not have to miss anything with them.

I also got to November this year and decided I wanted to give my business a freshen up. I have rebranded (still Erin Kate Photography) and from January I will have a new look for my business. I have new logos, a new colour scheme and my website will be revamped. It is all very exciting and I can't wait to share it all with you. The Christmas break will give me chance to transition everything and hopefully WOW you all in the new year!

I took some time off entering competitions for quite some time as when you do that, you tend to take images which you hope will qualify and so you can lose a bit of enjoyment of just being creative. I felt like that was happening to me and so I gave up on the idea and instead really worked on my skills and allowed myself to be creative. I can proudly say that taking that time really has helped and I feel like my style is really becoming a developed style. To end the year I decided to enter an international competition I have never entered before and to my amazement, all 3 images that I entered were chosen as winners. It is nice to have some recognition for the hard work you put into your images. I don't just do it for that reason though, I do it because I am passionate about what I do and I really want my clients to have the best.

To end the year on a higher high, one of those winning images placed 3rd!

What's in store for 2024?

This year will see me push myself in the business side of Erin Kate Photography. For the last 2 years I have put my all into perfecting my photography skills and taken lots of training, so this year will see me try to grow my business with advertising and different approaches of sharing on social media platforms. I will be sharing more behind the scenes, more practical information and writing more blogs about what I do and also about things that interest me (and hopefully you)

I really hope to see many of you again in 2024 as well as lots more new faces - Thank you for being my tribe!!! x