new blog, new partnership, new year!

April is the new January, haven’t you heard? I agree with daydream lily and many others who have their own sense of time, but I’m sticking with April. The next couple weeks of spring cleaning and a long lull before the next big holiday is my time to truly recover, breathe deeply, and gear up for the rest of the year.

Since Mike isn’t too keen on my hairbrained notions to re-decorate, re-paint, and re-create our home every spring, I’m lucky I have a blog to help me get my fix. It’s sort of the same thing :\. I’m calling it virtual nesting. Meanwhile, my house is ironically lacking in the nesting department, so I promise to be more brief in the future… brace yourself =).

I just wanted to remind y’all, since some of you may not know the full details, that I’m officially an associate photographer for Kimberly Jarman Studios. I don’t shoot IN a studio, but I’m part of a team with a studio home-base in downtown Mesa. I’m still a natural light photographer and will continue shooting my same style at my favorite outdoor locations. This is huge for me and my family. I’ve had questions, congratulations, and some doubts coming from all directions about the new setup, so I thought I’d lay out all my cards face up and let everyone know about the details. First of all, it’s a wonderful thing… all the way around. I strongly believe God has a plan for my life, and this opportunity has worked out in such a way that I never saw it coming until it hit me over the head. God has mercy and I think a sense of humor… He hits me over the head every once in awhile, but not until I fully realize that I’ve been hauling a$$ in the wrong direction. Looking back over the last several years, it’s neat to see all the pieces come together – all the triumphs and failures leading to this partnership. When the idea of joining the studio team first came up, the one that meant Kimberly Bee Photography would be dissolved, I put a lot of deliberation and tears into this long thought out decision… tears of grateful joy about all the good things this means for me, and tears of sorrow about handing over the reigns after years of keeping my head above water and (nearly) drowning with the complexities of running a business and a young family. Let me back up. The thing is, I’m a bona fide perfectionist and a hard core over-achiever disguised as an easy going blondie who needs a wrist watch to remind me what day of the week it is. Except that I’m a brunette now, by the way. I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and have dreamed of nothing else but owning my own business. I went through childhood, skipped right over high school, and went straight to college with this mindset, and then moved from Tucson to big city Phoenix ready to conquer the universe. I had big plans. But within 7 short months of moving here, this independent, headstrong, doozy of a girl was instead married, preggo, and picking out my first family home. I never thought in a million years that I would have a family that would be the center of my world and more important than life itself, let alone IN PLACE of a career of ruling the universe. This extreme paradigm shift… going from she-ra, princess of power to stay at home mom was enormous. Since the moment I found out I was pregnant, my family has undoubtedly been my top priority. I’ve been able to run a business from home since day one, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. Running an effective business that provides amazing customer service was always my goal in life, but if you have children, a husband, and a healthy set of priorities, you know perfectly well that family trumps all. It’s been several months now since the partnership with Kimberly Jarman has been underway and I truly couldn’t be happier. My clients couldn’t be happier! I’m very proud of our team, our customer service, and the elite quality of our work as a whole. It turns out that THIS is the business I never knew I always wanted. For the sake of myself and my family – to hell with running things on my own. It isn’t any fun, it sucks the life right out of you, and it’s simply impossible to be effective and amazing. Now I get to partake in field trips and pour myself into my family without feeling guilty about all the loose ends in my business flailing about, AND I’m part of a professional team that will knock your socks off. It truly is the best of both worlds and I am grateful for the opportunity – misty eyed, lump in my throat grateful. I already realize this now, but I think I’ll look back in 10 years and know without a doubt that joining this team was one of the best decisions I ever made.

I’ll continue posting my personal pictures and projects over here, but all official client sessions can be viewed over on the studio blog. I’ll be posting every week on each blog (at least that’s my goal), so feel free to visit me over there! Three of us contribute to the studio blog, so there’s always something fun going on.

Here are some recent articles I posted, just to get my feet wet…

Anyway, that’s my long winded circuitous version of recent happenings and how it all came to be. For those of you who made it this far, thanks for letting me talk it all out. I feel much better now =). I hope this helps friends, family, and peers understand my decision. My guard is down, but my chin is held high… believe me, my family and clients deserve this =) and I’m proud to have my priorities in check.

All my love, -k-