My Photography Wishlist

Remember when I tried to switch to Wordpress, and I got all stressed out and frustrated and confused? Well, I'm back here and want to share my wishlist for this year on here in case you all missed it.

1) Sue Bryce & Hailey Bartholemew’s creative LIVE class on Showreels is coming up at the end of January and I can’t wait to learn everything I can soak up about video. I need a new camera that takes HD video, and the Canon 5D Mark iii is the perfect camera to get me up and running.
2) There are so many choices when it comes to lenses, but I think the one I’d like the most is the Canon 35 mm 1.4. Perfect for video, and for those gorgeous wider portrait shots.
3) I’ve been needing a new camera bag for a while, and I just found these gorgeous Ona Bags that I’m coveting. Not too girly, utilatarian, and super durable- just what I’ve been wanting. The Union Street Messenger bag is my pick.
4) My little ibook laptop has about reached it’s maximum storage space, and it’s software is almost 5 years old, so it’s getting about time for an upgrade. The new Macbook Pro Retina’ s are what I’ve got my eye on- faster, stronger, smarter, and the display is unreal.
5) The perfect sales tool on the go, you can show slideshows, wall displays, product options, and so much more with the iPads with Retina displays. Plus, it will keep my kids busy for hours.
6) I died when I saw these Bloom Theory camera straps. There are so many gorgeous ones, but I think I love the Petite Cheri Bow strap best.
7) My kids need this Wooden Toy Camera by Keepsake Toys. Also, it would be so fun as a photo prop for my kids sessions.
8) I have an awesome white wood floor drop, but I need a couple more for some upcoming newborn shoots I have. Swanky Prints on Etsy has a ton of fun little floordrops and backdrops.
9) My iphone is great, but how fun is the Instax camera? I love the idea of mini polaroids and giving them as little gifts to clients and using them in scrapbooks.
10) Last but not least, EDUCATION! Education, education, education, people. Everyone needs it in their lives and businesses. I watched Sal Cincotta’s Wedding Photography Bootcamp when it was live, but I think I really need to purchase the course. Sal included so. much. information with the downloads, so I need to really save my pennies and purchase this course.

What are you dreaming of adding to your arsenals this year?

A Little Bit of Glam Goes a Long Long Way

This girl. Easily my favorite photography subject. She can bring it like any other model, and when she smailes, you can just see the spark in her eyes. 

She was the perfect person to launch my new Glamour Portrait Line with, and I cannot wait to get more and more ladies in on the action. Gorgeous Victoria's Secret Model hair, dramatic beautiful makeup, and lots of fun fun fun posing, directing, and shooting in my "pop- up studio".

Team Tuesday: Creative Calendars

Sooo.....obviously I never got around to sending out Holiday Cards. I suck.

Instead, I came up with this great idea to design some quick and easy calendars to send out now that it's January. If you missed the boat, and want to make up for December, here's a great, creative way to kick off 2013.



Mini Printable Calendar Tutorial from Rosemary Watson on Vimeo.

I used Rhonna Designs InstaGoals kit, mixed with Paislee Press 2013 Calendar kit and designed these fun little calendars people can stick on their fridge or desk. Perfect little gift for teachers, neighbors, anyone really.

Small Business Love: Glorious Floral Designs

There's nothing I like better than finding other small business to work with that "get" my style, my work, and my aesthetic. When I picked up Gloria's business card, I just new I wanted to work with her. I called her up that day, and sent her an email that night outlining my plans for a Valentines Day promotion for a bouquet of flowers and a portrait session. 

We came up with a plan, and she ordered the flowers she thought would look amazing together, she found a gorgeous model Nicole, and we got together for a fabulous shoot. I am so thrilled to be offering her flowers as a promotion for my business, and I can't wait to work with her in the future!

Order your Modern Love Bouquet from Glorious Floral Design by February 1st for Valentine's Day delivery! There's a limited supply available so call soon to get in on this gorgeousness. 

A Wedding for The Baby

Most families have a "baby of the family"; the youngest child that growing up, everyone looks after and  is loved especially by the rest of the kids because they're always the littlest. They're a little more protected, a little more spoiled, and a little more sweet because you long to hold on to a baby when you know there will be no others after they've grown up.

My family is lucky enough to have two babies. My sister Eryn is six years younger than I, then six years later our family adopted my other baby sister Barrett into the family so we've always grown up with the two. The day after Thanksgiving the first of our babies got married, and the day was just a bit more special and bittersweet because she was all grown up and officially on her own.

My parents have thrown four weddings in five years and now since Barrett is 15, they luckily have  a little break before the last of us are married off. I'm exhausted already thinking of the work to be done for the littlest baby's wedding. But, of course, when the time comes, I wouldn't rather be doing anything else.

Kobe At Three Months

I've known my friend Rene for over 10 years. She was actually my high school cheer coach my Senior Year; and then about four years ago I was hired to be the JV cheer coach at Mesa High and she was still the Varsity coach there. When she announced that she was pregnant with her first baby girl Makinlee, I of course had to be a thunder-stealer and try and quietly announce I was pregnant too. With twins. 

Twelve months later she was pregnant in a new baby girl Brylee and I was super happy to not have anything to announce for once. She was getting used to life with two kids 12 months apart and I was getting used to 5 kids 5 & under. Then, when her second little girl was just 3 months old, she confided to me she was pregnant AGAIN. Another baby twelve months apart! And, shockingly enough, just one week later, her oldest girl was playing in my purse at a basketball game and pulled out my pregnancy test I had just took and was, surprise!, positive.

So, she had her baby boy Kobe on September 11th last year (her second daughter Brylee is also born on September 11th!) and I had Clementine on September 22nd. I love seeing the similarities in Kobe and Clementine. Three months old is such a magical time. Babies are so so happy and smile at everything and just so fresh and beautiful and amazing. I'm so thrilled to be able to watch our babies grow bit by bit and try to capture a bit of it to love forever.  

I'm Gonna Walk A Hundred Miles

They say that "opposites attract" and that particular saying has never been observed more than in Braden and I.

The thing about Braden is, he has a very left-brain, while I have a very right-brain. This usually creates a nice balance to our lives, and as whole keeps me "in-check" when I start to live in my dream world. He keeps me grounded, and focused on the present when I could spend all my time dreaming about all the things I want to do in the future. The problem with this is, it's very hard for him to appreciate the things that are important to me because they don't compute in his mind as important.

We do have 6 children to raise, which is no small financial feat, and as he is currently the main income producer of the family, he has a lot of stress and pressure to deal with on a daily basis. My main goal for my photography business is to alleviate most of, if not all of this stress and support our family of eight on a thriving business. Now, neither of us have business degrees so it is very hard to see eye to eye on how my business is being run, how it's being marketed, and how to gauge it's success. Where it is of my opinion that any successful business takes a few years to become profitable, Braden sees it as a more black and white, "you do a job and you're paid for it" issue and cannot understand why it should take me even a year to gain a profit from photography. He sees me putting in so much time and effort and passion into photography and to him, since it's not paying the bills yet it's not successful. I know he's not trying to be a dream crusher, and he just wants what's best for our family and he's worried about providing for all of us to have a comfortable life; but sometimes it is hard when the person you are sharing your life with doesn't believe that you are successful. So, when he told me yesterday I should "go back to school and get a degree in something and get a job when the kids are all in school because being self employed doesn't seem to be working out" it pretty much ruined my day. Again, I know he's coming from a place of concern for our family but nothing makes someone feel like an utter failure more than a lack of confidence from the person you love the most.

There are so many things I've tried to explain to Braden- like it takes most business a few years to turn a profit, photography is a unique business where there can be million different business models and you have to find the one that fits you best and that can be a process that takes time, that Groupon is not a marketing tool for all business and I don't feel like it is right for my brand, that I want to offer something different than other photographers in my area by becoming a full-service studio instead of the "shoot and burn" model I had used in years before... the list of things go on and on. Unfortunately these things are mostly lost on Braden and he sees things only in dollars and cents; and to him, since he is still the main income producer for the family and is burdened with the stress that ensues, I have not accomplished my goals as a photographer and a business owner.

I was so frustrated after yesterday's conversation that I began questioning everything I was doing. My marketing plan for 2013, my portfolio, my website, my pricing struture, the photographs themselves. Maybe Braden is right. Maybe I'm just not cut out for business ownership, and I should think about getting a job. Maybe it's not fair for me to think that I can be lucky enough to have six healthy children and support them with mere photography. Maybe that's the great trade-off. You get blessed with a wonderful family or a wonderful job- not both. Maybe everything I've worked for and dreamed about will always be just out of reach and our lives will just be filled with stress and worry. Maybe.

But then, as I was waiting to pick up Olivia from school, I watched this video from Sue Bryce. One of my chief inspirations, she is THE end all, be all in contemporary portraiture and glamour. I first discovered her on creativeLIVE and have ravenously devoured her marketing and photography education as fast as I could. This video brought me quite literally to tears seeing one woman achieve such incredible things with no more tools than I have. Hard hard work, dedication, perseverance, and probably a little bit of insanity have made her one of the front-runners of photography, and man I may not know everything about running a business but I know about those things. I know that talent will never get you as far as ambition, and that is something I have never been short of. So, I sat in the parking lot of Olivia's school with tears streaming down my face as I watched this video showing Sue Bryce do what she does best, and I saw with conviction what I want for my own life.




Sue is coming back to creativeLIVE tomorrow to teach a video marketing class with the video's creator, Hailey Bartholomew and I can honestly say I will be MIA for the next three days and glues to my computer soaking in every bit of knowledge I can fit into this brain of mine. Because although it may take a little more doubt from the people I love, I'm gonna run right up this hill.

Listen to Mindy Gledhill's song "Whole Wide World" whenever you need a swift kick in the butt and little more courage to follow your dreams.

Valentines with Rhonna Designs & Free Heart InstaFrames

So many exciting things going on over at Rhonna Designs for Valentines Day, and if you are in Utah, you are the luckiest person ever because Rhonna herself is teaching a FABULOUS Chalk Art Workshop on Thursday at Dear Lizzy. Maybe I can fly in just for the class?

Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to fly in BUT Rhonna has put TEN amazing Chalkboard Cheer art designs up on the Rhonna Designs site, and now I have to figure out how I want to display them in my house <3

On the Rhonna Designs blog today there are some adorable Valentines Decor Ideas from Nancy & Melissa - visit their blogs to get all the details on these Love Day Projects. 

My favorite Valentines designs right now are in the InstaKiss kit; I've been using them in all my Instas

The InstaKiss designs go perfectly with my Heart InstaFrames I designed just for Love Day. You can download the Heart InstFrames here, and use them in endless combinations with Rhonna's Insta Kits!

The Modern Love Bouquet, Just In Time For Valentines Day

I am thrilled to bits to announce my Valentine's Day promotion for 2013. I'm working with Glorious Floral Designs and offering this GORGEOUS bouquet- The Modern Love Bouquet

Isn't it fabulous? Gloria from Glorious Florals is a doll, and she has some of the most stunning and unique floral designs that I have seen. She does weddings, holidays, any flowers arrangement your heart would desire. She came up with some extra special and so chic for Love Day exclusively for my clients. Here are the details:

Tell your husband, boyfriend, your dad for your mom, your brother in law for your sister- any woman would swoon over these stunning blooms. Roses, ranunnculas, and some succulents are the stars of this bouquet, topped with a silver metal heart.

Supply is limited and is first come, first served, so order by February 1st to be sure to have your florals delivered by Valentines Day!  

Happy Happy Happy Booth

You know I love me a good party, and my sister Eryn's Bridal shower was no exception. For the party I designed a fun, festive photo booth, complete with a 8' x 8' Celebration wall with pom poms, tassels, honeycomb balls, and glitter sequins! There was also cute photo booth props galore, and it was hilarious seeing everyone get down with their bad selves and let loose in the Happy Booth. 

My newest Wedding client just booked a Happy Booth for her Reception, and I can't wait to get together with her over coffee to create the most fun Happy Booth ever.

To see more of Eryn's Happy Booth photos, visit her client gallery!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Girl One Year Old Portraits

My one year old sessions are always cray-zay. I end up rolling around on the ground, singing any and all Disney songs I can remember, high-pitched laughing like a lunatic, pulling out my old tap-dancing skills and doing wings and buffalos (for all you dancers out there); anything to get those elusive one-year old expressions. By the end I'm sweating bullets and my voice is hoarse, but man is it worth it. 

This little darlin' is my favorite and only niece, Lola. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and my heart aches for her when she's home in Texas. I can't wait for my brother to get out of the Coast Guard and move home so she can see her cousins and auntie and uncle more. Until then, I'll have to be sure to take as many sweet and special photos of her as I can.

Reality Check

Ok, so you know those weird moments when all of a sudden everything comes into perspective all at once and you finally see your whole life at that single moment so clearly? I just had one of those moments.

I've been trying so hard to get motivated at the start of this new year, and I just can't seem to find the spark to get me going. It's not that I'm un-happy per se, but I know I'm not where I want to be. I know I should be grateful for everything I have, and everything I accomplish on a day-to-day basis, but the truth is, I'm not. I'm so busy striving and planning for perfection, that I never actually achieve anything at all. I make goals, I plan, I make a schedule, I re-do calendars, but when I get up in the morning all that seems to go to right to hell, and when I lay my head down on my pillow at night I wonder what the hell happened to my day and why was my only real success taking a shower that day? I mean, really. I know that most moms feel this way every single day, and this may sound bad (and I really don't mean it to) but these small victories are just not enough for me. I have real, big dreams and goals that I want to achieve and I just can't seem to make myself even excited for them.

I made a priority list on New Years Day, like what I really wanted to focus my real efforts on month by month and for January I really wanted to focus on my kids. Being pregnant last year, then having the baby, and pushing my photography business, then the holidays really made me super crazy busy and I know I put being a good mom and a good wife on the back burner. I mean, for crying out loud, I made breakfast, lunch, and dinner from scratch the first day we got back and I felt like I deserved an award for not ordering out a meal. It had really been that long since I had done that. No frozen food, no giving the kids cereal for dinner because I was too busy to make a proper meal for them, no $5 Lil Caesar's pizza. Not that there is anything wrong with those things, but shouldn't someone who loves to cook actually, like....cook? And I haven't been. I haven't been reading my kids goodnight stories, or watching movies with them, or playing board games, or painting nails, or making racetracks, or having tea parties, or teaching how to ride bikes, or making forts.

For this month I really wanted to focus more on the kids. Really make an effort. I've done pretty well with it; as well as one can do with a houseful of flu, and under 60 degree weather (that's COLD for us here in AZ). The problem is, I don't feel satisfied with just making 3 meals for my family, brushing everyone's teeth and hair, reading stories, actually getting laundry done, and keeping my house clean. I know I should be proud of accomplishing my goals, but I feel like I am not tapping into my potential. I guess the real problem is, is that I recognize you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't give all your energy to a new business and still have some for your family. And you can't give 110% to your family life at home every day and still have motivation and drive to put out the best work possible. This makes me sad, but it's better to realize the truth now than drive myself nuts in the end and let all my balls drop.

So I've decided to simplify things. I had a few different blogs going for the different facets of my life, but I realize it's insane to try and keep up with like 4 different blogs, because I'm clearly failing miserably at that. I'm just going to put everything here on my personal blog and that's just going to have to be all right for my business. There are so many different experts that will tell you that your wedding photography clients will not care what you made for dinner last night, what your 4 year old is currently loving to dress up as, or about digital scrapbooking. I've also heard that your Senior Portrait clients do not care to see photos of your Wedding photography clients, or your families you photograph, or newborns; but you know what? I think that many of the Seniors I connect with DO care about those things. They look at me and see a little of themselves in my life and can envision being a part of all those things. No, they may not look at the things I create with the Rhonna Designs kits that I create and say, "yes, I'd like to get into digital scrapbooking", but plenty of those Seniors and Brides and Moms see my instagrams using the kits and may want to spice up their own instagrams. And plenty of Brides will see my newborn photos and the things I write about my own kids and think "I want to do those things when me and my fiance start having babies."

I think that all in all, the people I want to work with and connect with through my business and on this blog are the kind of people that can look beyond today and can identify with my art and my life. They can relate to me on a number of different levels and will appreciate me for who I am not just what I can do for them now, but how I can inspire them in the future. Because really, I'm in this for the long haul friends, and I'd really like you to take this journey with me.

Starting today, I'm going to post everything I want to blog about here, on I Heart Rosemary Watson. You'll see my family, you'll read my memoirs, you'll see my home ideas, my Rhonna Designs projects, my style ideas, and of course ALL my photography. I may end up changing my mind later on, but for now, this seems to be the simplest answer and the best way I can start being me again.