Happy Thanksgiving Day!

I am grateful for the opportunity to have my own craft business and the path I'm taking to begin my photography business, too. I was very happy in my old job, going to sea and playing with fish, and loved working for that company, so when I was injured, I was pretty lost for a while. This has provided me with the opportunity to make an income on my own schedule!
If my back is flaring up because I've been upright too long, I don't have to tell my boss I have to go lie down or suffer until my scheduled break. If I do something to aggravate my back somehow and I'm out of commission for a couple days, I don't have to forgo a commitment I made to a company. The only commitment I have is to my customers and most of my products don't require me to work for 8+ hours at a time, with minimal breaks. I can also craft in the comfort of my own home, where I have access to ice packs and heating pads and a place to rest comfortably, when I take breaks.
I am also grateful for those who have been supportive by purchasing items and sharing Funny Paws with others! It is a good feeling to know my work is appreciated by others - handmade items are one of those things that people either relate to or they don't. There are many artists whom I respect for doing what they love and putting their heart and soul into their work, but their work just doesn't resonate with me. I'm sure it's the same way with some people and my work!
I am in my last week of my Photography Business class online and can't wait to really get the ball rolling after the holidays. I have already put up a facebook page to display some of my work so far and hope to get at least two more couple shoots in before making it official. It is always more difficult to convince the males, it seems, when it comes to couple shoots. I am so happy my husband and I had my sister follow us around while I directed poses, for an engagement shoot. Why? Because my husband really got comfortable with the idea after the first 10 minutes and we now have nice pictures of the two of us, newly engaged, and looking naturally ourselves and happy. I feel like any noteworthy time in a family's life should be recorded - not for "likes" and popularity on social networking sites, but for the family itself to look back and recall the joy of that day, even if there was a little bit of stress involved! How long does a newborn stay a newborn before they are already in the next stage of life? How long after their wedding does a couple remember how happy that day was? How long does it take for a new college student to forget how much they've accomplished already, by graduating high school? We get so tied up in the hustle of life, it is good to reminisce at times. Pictures just make that memory more vivid! That's why I bring my point-and-shoot wherever I go - I never know when inspiration will strike, with a bright blue flower blooming when all other flowers have succumbed to the wintery frost or a tiny chipmunk chattering away from a tree at a bird that's gotten too close to its nest. And then sometimes, one of my cats is being particularly cute that day or I'm sitting next to my very shy nephew who has decided to give a big bear hug to his cousin, once-removed. If I don't have my camera, I almost feel as if a very valuable moment has been lost! Okay, so I'm a little sentimental, haha.
One of my biggest problems with setting up a photography business was that it would be so much easier to combine both talents into one company...however, "Funny Paws" does not sound like a business that does photography of anything other than animals. I got to thinking that, while I take pictures of animals in nature and of my cats and the occasional one of my friends' pets, I have never really considered myself much of a pet photographer. So, when my friend asked me to bring her new little furballs in to get their booster vaccines, I brought my camera along to use after the appointment. It's one thing to take photos of your own two cats, who know you and you know their personalities. It's a totally different task to photograph four cats who don't know you as well and you vaguely know their personalities. I had some frustration at first, trying to get them to look where I wanted them to look and wondered why these beautiful creatures looked like blurry monsters on my camera's preview screen. So, I just decided to follow them around, while they did their typical cat activities - I got down on the floor with them and rewarded them with play and scratches behind the ears. Of course! Why didn't I do that in the first place? The end result was this:

This was a perfect example of their personalities, when they are together. Link is the dominant male, at the forefront; Peach always wants to do what Link is doing, but is a good "sister" to Luma; Luma is a very playful kitten, but at 16 weeks, she still gets tired out very quickly; Zelda is a very sweet kitty, but stays aloof, when they are all together.

Not bad for my first official pet portraits, I thought. So, who knows? Maybe I will do people shoots, but specialize in pet photography. I don't think I will necessarily find my niche until I work with people I don't know as well or at all! But, regardless, I choose to keep the two businesses separate for now.