New Name Announcement!

Hello friends!

As always, life has been a whirlwind. I'm sure you can relate! The school year starts back up, there's always something to do around the house, and you're trying to take care of yourself a little bit while serving the ones you love with all you've got.

My revamping & revisioning & working-out-of-logisics for this photography adventure has gone slower than I'd like, and things still aren't perfect and all put together yet. However, I'm choosing to say, "Yep, that's life!" and move right along anyway! If I wait until everything is really ALL put together and ready before I start making announcements, I feel like we'll never get there.

SO.... NEW NAME!

Kelly Hudgins Photography, LLC is now Light Creative, LLC!

Major props to Jordie over at Anthem Craft & Designs for my branding!!

"Light" - represents how I want to serve my clients. I want to be light-hearted, I want to keep things simple (traveling "lightly"), I want to create light, bright, & beautiful photographs that capture memories well, and I want to help reflect God's light into any darkness people are experiencing.

"Creative" - I feel called to creativity. Photography is my main creative outlet and professional skill, but I would love to combine other art forms with my photography as well. This may look like hand-lettering things for photo cards, watercolor painting or crocheting things for...something...? That's one of those things I'll figure out later on, but "Creative" feels more authentic for me right now than "Photography" - even though photography is what we'll still primarily be doing around here - and I'm pumped about the possibilities that lie ahead.

Things for you to know - 

I've decided that a new Instagram is in store, so follow along at @lightcreativeart!

My Facebook page is processing the name change (but does now end in /lightcreativeart), and Twitter will be getting some Light Creative action at @lightcreativenc. 

My website is also under construction, and this blog will shimmy over there when it's done. That will be at www.lightcreativeart.com & already has a pretty landing page if you want to check it out now.

Some other exciting things happening - 

Baby Olivia is now 7 months old and I'm loving photographing her family as she grows!

I got to be the second photographer at Brittany & John's wedding with E.L. Photography over the weekend, and a rainbow decided to show up :) 

Kellay & Reese are expecting their first baby any day now!!

I'm so excited to launch deeper into this new & improved photography venture, serving families throughout life's everyday & milestone moments. Thank you for journeying with me and supporting me in this dream! Let me know when you'd like some photos!

Talk to you soon!

Kelly

Things are Happening!

Hello, friends!

Let me start off by saying that I am so looking forward to having a new website, which is in the works! You've been good to me, Blogger, but it's time for a facelift. ;)

Wow, I miss you all. It's definitely time for an update.

Things are happening! I'm in the midst of getting things checked off my list (it's a mega checklist) to be in a place where I can say, "Alright, let's get some bookings!"

• For starters, I've re-formed the business as an LLC in NC and gotten other tax licenses that I need. The business will have a new name (!!!) so stay tuned for that announcement soon! 
• I estimated overhead business costs - felt really good about it - then did more research and got overwhelmed because I didn't consider a good number of costs I'll have. As they say, it takes money to make money! (I don't like that, but it's a fact.) I've done a lot more work on the overhead amount & it's shaping up to be something much more sustainable. 
• I've done lots of work on pricing, and that will be tweaked based on the new overhead amount. As I crank the numbers on pricing, I'm figuring in the opportunity to offer pay-what-you can sessions & weddings. It's really important to me that my photography is accessible to a diverse range of people, and offering lower-cost sessions & weddings will help me provide the same wonderful experience & quality professional photography to beautiful people who typically cannot afford it. For every (x number) of full-price sessions or weddings, I'll be able to offer a pay-what-you-can session/wedding. 
• I've started brainstorming what photo products I want to offer for each type of session & for weddings, since I'm seeing the value of printed photos around one's home more and more. Y'all, my own wedding photos still live on a flash drive aside from 2 printed photos in my house. They deserve to be in an album, at least! Let those photos live their lives! 

I won't go into more detail about what else I've done up to this point... basically, I've started everything but still have a little bit to go on almost everything. And to be honest - I'm claiming the truth that that's okay. A lot of really good things have happened since we moved to Raleigh, and I'm so thankful for that.

I am also excited to get more of a move on with photography, so here's to the next two weeks! These two weeks of summer represent the time that I'm not teaching, interviewing, vacationing with family (...except for a couple days in Atlanta!), hosting people at our house, or helping my Grandmommy go through things at her house. All of those things have happened or are happening at other times (again, really good things), but I'm dedicating the next two weeks to checking more things off that mega photo biz list. 

For the sake of accountability and putting it out into the universe that these things will happen, here are some vague to-dos that are to be done in the next couple weeks:

• Finish estimating overhead costs! Pricing!
• New name! Social media!
• Website work! - words, photos, layouts!
• Product offerings! Samples!

Doesn't it sound so easy when I put it like that? 

Will personal life things come up? Yep. But! I'm reminded of something our pastor Lisa said at church a few weeks ago:

"In order to do big things, you have to believe you can do big things."

I believe it right now, and when I stop believing it I'll remind myself again. It's tough getting things up & running sometimes, but I'm so confident that it will be worth it. God's going to do beautiful things.

Thank you for reading & keeping up with us! You're the best.


Love,

Kelly


PS - In the photo above, did anyone catch the little piece of dog you can see under the table?! Haha! Love this guy. (His name is Jack.)