Simplify – My Theme For The New Year

I feel like I have been a little neglectful of my blog recently, but truth be known I have been happily un-plugged. We spent most of the Christmas break at our island home and it was an eye-opener. A simpler and quieter life with few distractions, as seen in the peaceful images below. No internet to spend hours and hours on, no t.v., no shopping except for a hardware store and grocery store (or the book store that was open on occasion but only to 4 p.m.), no errands to run and no real chores as the house is very streamlined. This experience brought me to the conclusion that my theme for this year would be to “simplify”. Perhaps not a groundbreaking or original concept, but now seems the right time to simplify life.

With my photography business, Hunter Photographics, I began simplifying a bit last year. I redid one section of my studio and went for a clean, light and uncluttered look. I propped the studio out accordingly, went with soft lighting patterns, and the result was “simple”, but it worked. This year with Hunter Photographics I will be continuing to simplify. This year we have decided to change our format for wedding photography; gone are the old-fashioned version of the wedding package and instead we are introducing a photographic coverage solely based on the bride and groom. Seems like a simple idea to focus on the bride and groom on their wedding day, but in recent years the brides and grooms have become lost in the shuffle of family politics and wedding party dramas. We have decided to simplify and give the bridal couple the proper attention they deserve. The details of the new coverage will be available on our website shortly, or email us for the details. Portrait photography will also see a few minor changes in becoming more streamlined, as will the specials.

I am hoping to simplify all the other aspects of my life as well….well as much as one can with five children (enough said!). I am hoping a simplified life will bring more time for all the other projects I am working on: my photography projects that are not portrait based, my fibre art and natural dyeing,  my painting and of course, blogging. I am hoping that by making life more simple I will become more productive.

So how does one simplify life? That is a pretty good question. My approach is going to be to live life, even when we aren’t on the island, in the style we live when we are on the island.  It is time to streamline our house and business, stop running endless errands, have less silly commitments and focus on living life rather than letting all the insignificant stuff run interference.

I am looking forward to this new direction. I feel inspired by island life. I took the first step towards simplifing last night and cleaned my desk……and for anyone who has ever seen my desk they know that was no small undertaking!