Shoot and Share Competition | What I Took Away | Finalist

Finalist against more than 30,000 other photos?! YES, I AM FREAKING OUT!

If you don't know what this is Shoot and Share is a fun and addictive photo competition that anyone can be a part of!  You can add up to 50 photos in numerous categories that fit each niche of your style and passions. 

The photo of mine that made it the farthest was my pancake cake from a shoot last year! This photo made top 100 in it's category coming out to be 25th out of 7,635 photos. <3 Every time i saw my photo when voting my heart would skip a beat and then start to beat faster and I would get giddy with excitment! It is so much fun knowing someone voted for you!

This is my second year entering photos, but my favorite part is the AMAZING talent I see when voting. I have learned that flowy dress portraits can make me sit in awe for minutes where I never want to look away,  movement in photos can cause a almost dreamlike quality to photos, leading lines make wedding photos pop. I learned any time it has a mermaid theme or a corgi in the photo I will vote for it!  It has been such a cool inspiration and new goals that I want to implement in my own photos!  

Here is a little screen shot of some of my favorite photos from this year competition.  The photo by Lexy Parks was my ABOSULTE Favorite from the contest!!  I encourage anyone who love photography to either enter or vote next year! WARNING: Voting for the shoot and share contest is extremely addicting and will steal many hours of your life, but will fill your mind with beautiful photos!

Looking back on 2016 Goals | Minneapolis Wedding Photographer

 
In 2016 I made goals for my business. They were not big picture goals but new things I wanted to try.  Looking back I think I took big steps with hopes to make the MW Experience for my couples even better.

As a reminder these where the goals: I want to learn Marketing | I want to create a bridal book for my brides | I want to network with other creatives | I want to shoot a styled shoot | I want to grow in my social media | I want to plan out my blog posts

The goals I accomplished this year were: networking with other creatives through outlets like Rising Tide's Tuesdays Together in Minneapolis and coffee dates at Caribou Coffee. I shot my first styled shoot and had it published by Ruffled!!! I was so excited that others loved this shoot as much as I did. I grew and refined my social media to only facebook & instagram on recommendation by a social media expert. I do not regret my decision at all!  What I feel was my favorite think, I am SO excited to say I FINALLY finished my bridal book!!!!!!!  It took a couple of months and some hard work, but I loved how it turned out. My bridal book is a pdf book for my MW brides that will help them know what to expect and how to plan for their wedding day from my experiences as a wedding photographer. 

The goals I struggled with were learning marketing to the extent I wanted to. I took a couple of classes regarding this and they did help but I wanted to go deeper.
I really failed beautifully at planning out blog posts this year. It was a matter of laziness that I could have done better. I will continue to improve next year!

I plan on sharing my 2017 goals in a couple of weeks ( working on that planning ;) ). I hope these help inspire you to take steps for your own goals.