Happy New Year!

I love a new year! I love starting with a fresh planner and wiping clean my erasable wall calendar. I love reviewing how my previous year was and making all the plans for the new one.

It’s a time to celebrate successes. It’s a time to change things that aren’t working. It’s a time to dream about the future.

Lots has happened in the past year. Some of it very challenging. Some of it providing new opportunities. It resulted a lot of changes around the world and in our individual lives.

I find that I am taking more time to read and to learn. I just tuned into a Live with Brendon Burchard, Mel Robbins, Jenna Kutcher, and many others. My big take aways were:

• Every experience connects you with someone, teaches a lesson, or gives you a skill
• Your life is not determined by chance but by choice
• Fiercely protect your time
• Don’t just do more, do more of the right things
• Have a strong morning routine before you start work
• Plan 5 major moves a month, write out the steps to accomplish each of the, and schedule those steps right into your calendar

I will keep those in mind as I create my plan for the year and for the first few months. I thought I would start with a fresh look to my website. It reflects the streamlining of my business, the maturity of being an established business, and the willingness to change with the times.

This year I will concentrate more on Photo Treks – connecting with people one on one, sharing some of the skills I’ve learned as a professional photographer, and just having more fun. I will spend less time running around being at all the events and capturing thousands and thousands of photos. I will slow down and focus on more creative and intentional photography. You’ll see more photos being shared on Instagram and Facebook for more people to enjoy. Please follow me on both those platforms so that my photos show up in your feed.

I’m sometimes asked if I still enjoy photography as a business now that it’s not just a hobby. I emphatically respond “yes!” Find something you have a passion for and the lines blur between when you are working and when you are playing – it all becomes something you enjoy. Happy New Year!

I love starting a new year. You do a review of your last year and you make plans of what you want to do for the upcoming year. We have been doing some planning for 2020 and are starting to get booked for events, family portraits, weddings. Our Photo Booths continue to be a big hit, both for events and private gatherings so we will continue to offer them throughout the year. Our Photo Treks got off to a great start last year and we had a lot of fun doing them so we are creating more of them for this year. We have a list started on our Photo Trek page and will be adding more as the year progresses. We can also add custom ones so please get in touch with us. Our commercial photography continues to grow as our town grows and we look forward to offering custom photography to our local businesses. We hope everyone takes the time to cherish the memories of 2019 and plan for an amazing 2020.

We are having a lot of fun on our Photo Treks! We’ve added a new series that will take us through the summer and fall. Check them out on our Trek page. All camera types and abilities are welcome. We have boat tours with Squamish Harbour Marine Adventures, Treks on location at Britannia Mine Museum and Loggers Sports, and Treks with bird experts. We play around with light, shutter speeds, apertures, and composing better photos, and most importantly concentrate on the joy of taking photos.

Cindy

Double Shutter Images was created in 2009 as a partnership between Cindy Cardiff and Michael Kanka. We merged our individual photography businesses and as a team covered many events and projects in the Sea to Sky Corridor. Our partnership flourished and our friendship grew to include our families and friends. This year Double Shutter Images celebrates its 10^th year of business. We celebrate taking thousands of photos at our photo booths, photographing large and small races, taking photos for Sea to Sky businesses, creating and organizing community events, and capturing many special moments at events, weddings, and with family portraits. We’ve won several awards and had many images published in newspapers and magazines. It has been a very fun and successful 10 years.

We made many changes to our business over the years to keep up with technology, economics, and a growing community. This year is the biggest change yet, as Michael is retiring. He has plans to do more relaxing and travelling with his wife Monika. Michael and I come with very different skill sets which is what made our partnership so special. I learned a lot from him as his technical expertise is extraordinary and I will be forever grateful to have worked alongside him. I also thank Monika for being a huge part of our business, enabling us to cover large races and busy photo booths and for being an integral part of 10 fun years.  We will continue to see them around the community and might even see them coming back to help with some of the bigger photography projects. I will continue to see them on a more social level as we have established life long friendships. I wish Michael and Monika many happy new adventures.

So, it’s a new year and a new chapter for Double Shutter Images. Business will continue as usual as I take over the tasks that were shared between us. It’s a good time for reflection on the things that worked well and were most enjoyable as well as the things that were a lot of work for little return. Changes are inevitable, but I strongly believe change is good. I’m looking forward to taking many more photos in the next 10 years. Happy New Year to everyone!

Cindy