Updates! & BIG Announcements! | Hannah Barlow Photography | WV Wedding Photography

HI, EVERYONE!

Well, apparently it’s been noted.  I was a relatively MIA on my blog this past winter which most of you have recognized is SO unlike me! I’m a people person.  I LOVE to talk, of course!  I LOVE TO BLOG!  While most photogs find blogging one of the worst parts of the job..I seriously find it to be very enjoyable!  Yep!  You are correct.  These last couple of months I have been a bit more quiet than usual.  I just want to say though… I’m SO GLAD many of you have made that observation because it reinforces the fact that you are all reading my blogs and I am SO HAPPY about it!  I frequently wonder who actually peeks and reads….so, THANK YOU!  Thank you for being so loyal! Thank you for all your support!  Thank you for loving my wedding couples as much as I love them!  You’re all the best!  Don’t forget to comment when you do read them too so we know who is watching! 🙂

So, here I am!  All is well!  Life just keeps getting better and better, I tell ya!

So, where have I been?!  What’s been going on?!  I’ll tell ya!  Here we go!

Last year the weddings I photographed were nicely spaced out over the course of twelve months.  The first wedding I photographed in 2017 was in January and the last one was just two days before Christmas!  It was a nice spread and it kept me busy and active!  It also kept my blog up and running!  So, be sure to scroll through all the past blog posts if you want to relive some of those amazing days!  It truly was an incredible year!  It made me feel like superwoman and it’s pushed me to take my business and passion for weddings even farther!  Stay tuned!

While I’m talking about it…here’s to ALL of my amazing 2017 couples!  You all rock and will always have a very special place in my heart!

So, this year (2018) is VERY different when it comes to the wedding lineup!  I didn’t have one wedding booked from January through April but have no fear!  TWENTY couples have chosen me to be their wedding photographer!  So, I’ll say it again and I have to keep reminding myself…I have TWENTY weddings to photograph this year!  I can’t even believe it! EEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!  The first one, however, doesn’t kick off until May 5th!  From then on out, it’s going to be a marathon!  So, make sure you keep looking!! It’s going to be wedding madness which means blog greatness!  Are you as excited as I am?!  I can barely stand it!

So, why else haven’t I been real active aside from the lack of weddings so far?!  Well, you all probably remember that my husband recently returned home from an almost 1/2 year long deployment overseas.  If you missed it, check out the blog here.  It was an amazing day to have him back and safe (and watching the kids while I do business stuff)!  I made sure to have all my work caught up so I could take a few days off and just really soak up some time with my family!  Military homecomings are always amazing!  Huge photo credits to Kari…she’s the best!

After only 9ish days of him being home, we packed up and headed south for two weeks!  At one point, I seriously thought I was getting hives leaving my office and business behind.  It was the first time I had done it since I started this amazing journey and I really couldn’t and didn’t leave it completely in the end.  At the last minute, I grabbed my ipad so I could still communicate with clients but TRUST ME…if I could have packed my 27 inch iMac…I would have!  I’m pretty sure American Airlines would have rejected that carry on though!  I did, however, take my camera and managed to take some very rare personal photos!  I never did end up in any of them though…story of any photographer mom’s life!

…and I mean…if anyone wants to take me to their beach wedding…I’ll be happy to photograph it!  Destination weddings look like a dream!

After that nice little trip away, we traveled back to the snowy state of West Virginia and I had to play catch up with life!  January-March is always prime time for booking weddings because all those newly engaged couples from Christmas get into super wedding planning mode!  So, it was time to get those 2019 weddings on the calendar!  I’m happy to report that trip didn’t hurt business in the slightest!  So, far…I have an all star line up for next year too!!! EEEEEKKKKKK!!  And they’re going to be spaced out from January on and it’s going to be equally amazing! 

So now I’ve been busy cramming my schedule full of engagement sessions and boudoir sessions before the wedding marathon of 2018 begins.  I have already posted a few of those amazing sessions from this past COLD winter and chilly spring.  I know many of you have seen them!  Don’t forget to tell me what you think!  The more comments the better!

I also decided (on a whim) to teach my own beginner photography class and it was AMAZING!  Not only have I been teaching my students, but I’ve learned a lot about myself.  It’s reinforced some basic principles I need to revert back to and it’s also pushed me to do even more with my photography!  It’s going to be GREAT!

Now….

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

Someone is expecting!  

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Nope…it’s NOT me!  That train has sailed!

So, guess who!  Can you guess?!  Do you know?!

Wait for it!

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Anyone recognize these two?!

Yep!  That’s right!  Kari and David are expecting their first child this summer!  She was also carrying around that little peanut at the tail end of wedding season last year!  For those of you who don’t know, Kari and David were one of my couples, of course.  Kari first hired me to be their wedding photographer having never met me before!  Shortly after the date was set, our client/photographer relationship morphed into a friendship I never saw coming!  It started with some simple emails back and forth to a mock 1950’s shoot!  Our similar personalities and mutual love of photography and weddings prompted the idea that she start assisting me in exchange for education and use of gear…and it’s been life changing!  I couldn’t imagine life (or weddings) without this girl now!  Isn’t it amazing how life throws you curve balls?!  She assisted and shot almost all my 2017 weddings with me!  It made my job exponentially better and that’s saying something because I had it pretty great to begin with!

So, much to Kari’s protest, I’m forcing her to take a “time out” from weddings for the tail end of her pregnancy so she can soak it up and get ready (and not go into labor while we’re photographing a wedding…let’s be real here). HA!  If all goes well and she gets her way, she’ll be back behind the camera mid/end of September!  Don’t worry…she’ll also be at the first six of this year too!  I could only cut her off so much! HA!

They did their announcement this past weekend!! OMG! Look how hilariously and stinkin’ cute!! EEEKK!  Any Bob Ross fans out there?!  We could NOT stop laughing when we took this!! I’m not surprised, but this was the first “take” and David’s face was so perfect!  We tried to redo it but this one was simply THE BEST!

Of course, we had to throw in a little photo session when they came to visit too!  I must admit…it’s a little nerve racking taking photos of Kari these days since girlfriend has some of her own mad photography skills now (and her approach is very different than mine).  But I loved these so much!  I hope she did too!  I even let her cull her own images in my office.  Jeesh.  Look how far we’ve come in just one year!

WEEEEEEE…..I see a baby bump!!!!!

Kari’s a big fan of “filling the frame”…I, on the other hand, am not typically a frame filler but I reminded myself to branch out and I am glad I did because this is one of my favorites!!!!  Toward the tail end of last year, I encouraged Kari to yell things to me while I was photographing….”FILL THE FRAME” is one of those “calls”!  It’s actually nice because it reminds me to do things I wouldn’t normally do and gives my couples a great variety to their galaries!  It’s also nice becasue she can see things I can’t when my camera is up to my face!!  We make a great team! 

So, now I’ve been preparing to give Kari the temporary boot for a couple of months and have been busy training another amazing individual to assist!  Meet Jenna!  Photo credit goes to her father in law who snapped this before we went to see the orchestra last Christmas!  

Jenna and I have known each other for years!  We first bonded over our general love for the nursing field and our ability to do well in our jobs under serious pressure…like…cardiac arrest! AHHHHHH!  I assured her weddings aren’t nearly as stressful!  She’ll definitely be able to hone in some of those nursing skills though…being on your feet for 12 hours, running around like a chicken with your head cut off, not eating or peeing at normal intervals…well, photographing weddings and nursing are actually relatively similar in so many aspects when you think about it!

So, we’ve spent the winter working on her skills as just not an assistant but a second shooter!  She’s volunteering her time to help me out and she’s becoming quite the photographer already!  So, you’ll be seeing her fill in here and there while Kari is on maternity leave and when Kari’s generally unavailable (and exhausted) with the itty bitty baby!  Check back at the end of the year to see her in all the behind the scenes and outtakes too!  It’s going to be GREAT!

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So, this is the current state of affairs in my office! YIKES! My husband even came into my office the other day and suggested I use the walk in closet in our guest room for storage and then use it as a write off as a bonus! HA! I won’t be doing that…just to be clear!

I’m currently working on getting my office super duper organized so when wedding season hits, my mind and life are organized too!  I’ve kept Amazon and all the photo equipment places in business getting new stuff that needed replaced plus bigger and better gadgets.  We’re SO excited to play with all the new goodies!  I’ve got it on my “to do” list to reburn my Red Hot Chilli Peppers CD from iTunes.  It barely made the 2017 season (and you all know how NOT superstitcious I am about that 😉 ).  I need to check and see if they have new songs!  I also need to update my wardrobe! Yikes!! I have more to do than I thought! Goodness!  I better get going!

Don’t forget to check back!! 2018…as I’ve mentioned…is going to be outstanding!

Toodles! <3