Today I asked my Facebook friends for ideas about my blog post. Some days it’s super easy to come up with ideas, sometimes I have piles and piles of pictures (after weddings are especially bountiful!)….some days, it’s a pretty boring day! Today feels like one of those days. I dragged my feet to get up…to do my devotions….to respond to emails….to workout…. Every. Single. Thing. I’m also a little down today for a number of reasons…particularly for reasons pertaining to my business….

I had two friends respond…the first suggested my favorite color….it’s black for clothes, purple for weddings (this post represents a lot of my purple weddings), and I absolutely love green when I’m outside.

The other suggested “Why did you choose to become a wedding photographer?” This is a GREAT question. The short answer is, a friend asked me to shoot his wedding and something just felt so right about it. I’ve enjoyed shooting weddings over the years, and that’s why.

But then I started to think about why I STAY a wedding photographer….and I thought, you know, it would be a great exercise for ME to remember those reasons…especially on a day when the business side is bringing me down.

There are a number of things that I DON’T enjoy about this job. I am the boss, I am the main person deciding everything that goes into my business. Sometimes Bret will help me decide things and he’ll take a final look through of the edits I’ve done. But most of the time, it’s just me. If I don’t feel like doing something, it’s up to me to rally the strength to do it. (Like today!) Sometimes I hate having to make decisions about things…how to word an email, how to explain my policies, etc. Honestly, it all comes down to pride…I’m not going to lie here. I like to be right 100% of the time, I like everything to run smooth and I HATE it when I don’t know something! I believe I’ve shared before that the last almost two years being a full-time photographer has been a BIG humility lesson!

Now that I’ve gotten a few of the “hates” out of my system, let me tell you why I continue to do this….

• Because I believe God has blessed me with the talents to do so. I have a TON of things to work on, I am SO not perfect, but I continue because this is where I believe God has me right now.
  

• Because I can capture huge emotions that will be saved forever.
  

• Because I get to work with my super fun husband….who is also my biggest fan, encourager and “helping-me-to-grow” person.
  

• Because I get to meet amazing new people who I never would have met otherwise.
  

• Because our clients feel this way about us – “I felt like Jennilyn and Bret were part of our family for the day – they fit right in and did everything in their control to make everything run smoothly. I have no complaints at all and could not be happier with our beautiful memories.” – The Ruperts
  

• Because I get to meet other photographers and awesome vendors
  
  Photo credit: Moshe Zusman.
  Other person in the picture: Shawna Sherrell Photography

• Because I can be my own boss. (I have a love/hate relationship with this, if you haven’t picked up on that yet!)
  

• And lastly, because I have no idea what else I would do!