2021 Wrap up

I’m sure you’re just like me and can’t believe 2021 is over and we’re in 2022 already? I swear we were just in 2020. But here we are and I kinda have some thoughts about why I think 2021 went so dang fast!

In the start of 2021 I still had a kiddo in pre-school. He went 3hrs a day, so there wasn’t a ton I could do work wise. I planned for summer and fall and had no idea that I would literally hit every goal I set for my business. Way back in 2019 when I quit my corporate job, before the pandemic, we had planned for our son to go to preschool for 1year, we knew it would be tough but I could run my business part-time and still have some income and he could go to a small private preschool. It was all working out great, and the plan was he’d start public kindergarten in the fall of 2020. But that didn’t happen. We decided to keep him at preschool, he’s an August baby so it’s not a big deal to keep summer babies back a year. So my 1year struggle turned into 2 but we made it work. It’s kinda amazing how you can adapt!

2021-Families-Portland,Oregon-AnnaGrafPhotography — 2021 Family Sessions in Spring, Summer, Fall and in the studio

By Spring of 2021, I was bursting with business. So much that I had to start turning people down. I couldn’t handle it all. I was working non-stop through April and May with Boudoir, School Portraits, Spring Seniors, Grad Portraits, Family Sessions and even went to OSU for a college grad session! So fun!

2021-Boudoir-Portland-Oregon-AnnaGrafPhotography — A new session offering in 2021! Women’s Portraits, aka boudoir sessions

By June I was booking Class of 2022 seniors for August and September. And then private schools started reaching out to book fall school portraits and businesses wanted to book headshots for entire companies. Everyone had suddenly felt safe to get back to normal, remember those 3 weeks in early summer? A few things fell through, a big government agency wanted me to do headshots for an entire department and a big private high school wanted me to do sports portraits during the summer training. But budgets and timing didn’t work out. It happens.

And then senior season kicked off with weekend after weekend of seniors. The rain started and had to reschedule my senior twins a few times but we finally got a date that worked and had a killer session! This pushed into my crazy school portraits season. Photographed just under 1,000 kids in October and I’m still not sure how I got any sleep. My own kiddo was now in all-day kindergarten and picked up his first cold in 2 years. Even with wearing a kn94 all day, and we got started on a 2-week cycle of colds that felt like it lasted all of October. So thankful it wasn’t covid!

2021-Senior-Portraits-with-Anna-Graf-Photography-Portland-Oregon — Class of 2021 Grads and Class of 2022 Seniors

November brought the end of school portraits, a few family sessions, and even studio sessions for the Class of 2022. I decided to take all of December off from photoshoots. Mostly because October burnt me out and because my kiddo would be home from school a good portion of the month. And the studio is changing ownership and getting a makeover. It’s the beauty of owning your own business, need time off, take time off. But also, when there’s work, let’s do this! I love it so much and am so grateful to all my clients for trusting me to take your portraits. I truly loved working with all of you!