Being a photographer in 2020 – Suffolk Photographer
How do I even begin to discuss or talk about being a photographer in the year 2020. It was crazy! In fact it was more than crazy.
I remember first hearing about Covid-19 probably around the start of January, when one of my photographer buddies mentioned what was going on in China. My friend is actually based over in Ireland, but I remember her being rather worried by the situation and her being a little panicked that it might start making it’s way over to us. I also remember being very naive and telling her not to be ‘silly’ and that we will be absolutely fine.
January shoots ran as usual and into February. However I only did a couple of shoots at the start of February as I then needed to have a minor operation which would take me out of work for 3 to 4 weeks. Of course at this point I had no idea that I wasn’t actually going to be working much on my return. I think I maybe did 2 weeks of photo shoots which were a mix of newborn and cake smash sessions and boy am I glad I got to get a little bit of my photography fix until BAM! We were hit by the news that we were going into a full national lockdown. At this stage, no body knew anything, nor did we know anything about business grants or help with wages (even more so being self employed), I can’t lie, I was definitely uneasy with the unknown.
I think we will probably almost all agree that there were some positives to come out of the lockdown, one being getting to spend time with your immediate family that you probably wouldn’t of done otherwise. My husband, daughter and I spent a lot of time in the garden with the weather being so nice (how lucky were we?) and I even took up running!
May came around and I was actually able to start doing some location photo shoots and started offering these first to the clients I had had to cancel. I even did a couple of ‘door step’ cake smash shoots which were lots of fun.
Soon came June 15th and photography studios were allowed to reopen. I made sure the studio had a deep clean, set up everything I needed and got the hand sanitiser at the ready. I knew I had to do everything in my power to make my clients feel safe and at ease, especially bringing their babies to me. To start with I didn’t feel comfortable having any hands on contact myself and therefore offered mini sessions where the clients would pose their babies themselves and I would then take the photos. Looking back I can see this was the best thing to do at the time and the photos still came out great! Below cute baby Oscar was posed by mum and dad who then added in their hands for a personal touch.
After a month or so I was able to start doing ‘proper’ newborn shoots again and it felt great. Of course all the safety measures were in place and everything was washed / sanitised between sessions.
I think by this point with schemes such as ‘Eat out to help out,’ a lot of us thought we had seen the light at the end of the tunnel right? I mean, what are we meant to think when we are being encouraged to go out in public places to eat? And therefore it was a huge disappointment when I had to close my studio doors again in mid November. November is almost all portrait photographers busiest and most profitable time of year, with clients wanting portraits for Christmas gifts and it was a huge blow.
However once again, having time off gave me time to reflect on my business and work out things I wanted to change or improve. One of these things being my cake smash photo sessions. I absolutely love doing this and wanted to offer something that no other photographer in the local area was offering and create a UPS. This is where my new birthday backdrops came into affect, which clients can now use for 1st birthday and cake smash photo shoots. I will share a few of the designs below (all can be found here).
I did manage to reopen for a couple of weeks during December and therefore didn’t have to let all my christmas shoot bookings down, but where are we now? What’s happening in 2021? I guess only time will tell. Currently I’m closed again for a third time, but I’m really praying that we will see the end.
As much as it was difficult for me and my business, it could have been a lot worse. I have huge respect for all the wedding photographers who managed to make it through the year, with most of their bookings being cancelled.
I send so much love to all the local businesses and self employed people who had a pretty tough 2020 and I encourage you all to continue supporting local businesses where ever possible. Of course a huge thank you to everyone at the NHS and all our key workers, not to forget people who work in places such as the supermarket and risk getting the virus everyday to keep us feed. You are all doing a fantastic job.
Here’s to a better year,
Jamie
# Covid-19 # Lowestoft #Suffolk #Norwich #Norfolk #2020 #photographer #Photography #Newborn #Cake smash #Baby
