“I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE A REALLY ROUGH JOURNEY, BUT I HAVE FAITH THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST DECISION I’VE MADE IN MY LIFE.” – MYSELF, JULY 2011

I have to admit, I read my last few anniversary posts to figure out what to write in celebration for this year.  As I sat and scratched my head for a bit, I thought the above quote still resonates with me.  To this day, every bit of this quote I wrote back in 2011 makes my heart drop because I remember the exact moment and the deepest feelings I had when I chose to make one of the hardest decisions for my career:  saying goodbye to the corporate world.  Yes, I still talk about it because it only feels like it was yesterday, but it’s amazing how fast time flies because this was three years ago.  Time goes by a lot slower when you’re working for yourself (or seemingly goes by slower).  Well, sometimes.

“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” – Henry Ford

Today, I drove from Los Angeles, Southern California, back to home, the San Francisco, Bay Area.  During the six hours driving back, I thought about how many times I traveled to LA and back this past year, how many times I drove on HWY 5, and how much I’ve bonded with… my music and my car.  In the past year, I’ve been there and back 7+ times, for at least 5 days or more each trip, resulting a visit to Los Angeles about every other month.  I look at how much I’ve grown geographically.  Two years ago, I said I wanted to expand my photography into Los Angeles, Southern California.  One year ago, I found myself investing more time there, and now, Los Angeles is (or well, has been) my second home.   Continuing to grow business in both regions is still a work in progress, however, I’m proud to say it’s been three full years of “have-at-it”, “blood, sweat, and tears” for Michelle Nicole Photography.  I’m so happy.  Personally, I don’t know what the future will hold, however – let this journey continue.  April 2010 is when I chose to become more determined about my photography, and July 1st, 2014 marks the THIRD year anniversary of a full time relationship with my biggest passion, photography.

Looking at the past so far, this year has been different for me.  I’m still trying new things and testing out new markets, as well as trying to better my artistry.   I think in retrospect, in addition to perfecting my craft/photography, this year was simply amazing and was all about soul searching and building more quality relationships.  My travels included New York and Houston, and I was beginning to venture into a new market (Houston, Texas).  If you can bear the Texas heat, Houston is a great market to try out.  Why?  There’s no state income tax, the cost of living is much lower than the Bay Area, California, there’s all types of food to eat, and every day, more and more people are moving there – it’s a growing city.  However, while soul searching, I realized that there’s no place like home (for now!).

As an entrepreneur and artist, every single day you are constantly changing and continuously soul searching.  I still consider myself new, but even at this level I feel continuously soul searching is okay, because you are always evolving.  It only helps you reflect upon what you’ve done and react to how you can better yourself.  For example, one day I may love the way I edited a photo, and the next week, I may have changed my style.  It’s perfectly okay, it just means that you’re growing (and hopefully more positively).

In addition to soul searching, I am also happy that I continue to meet new people along the way.  As I travel, whether it be on the plane or while waiting somewhere for lunch or dinner, it’s thrilling to learn where they grew up, where they come from, and how they view life.  Building and keeping those quality relationships and hearing about people’s stories helps you be more wholesome, and it also helps connect other people together so they can help not just me, we can all help each other.  When we can all help each other, we can grow as a whole to achieve greatness.

With a lot of soul searching this past year in addition to the people’s lives I’ve crossed paths with, I am the happiest I’ve been.  I absolutely love what I do, and every little bit of what I do every day inspires me to keep moving forward.  Some of the great additions and highlights to my photography career this past year has been:

• Creating a Dessert Tour with Kelley from Picture Perfect Events, Alice from iLootPaperie, and James from Mr. & Mrs. Creamery (Dessert Tour Facebook:  here  Instagram:  @desserttour  www.desserttour.com coming soon!  You can see our Dessert Tour blog posts here)
• Continuing my relationship and photography beauty venture with Shear Fashion Salon – we’ve been working together for almost 4 years!  We’ve worked together on so many of their nails concepts and projects.  We make a fabulous team and I would do anything for these amazing and innovative ladies!   
• Working at the SLS Beverly Hills for Toronto based company, Venus Concept – See Media Launch Party here
• Being added to a few Preferred Vendor Lists at Hotels and Resorts – YAY!!!
• Continuously meeting and photographing beautiful brides and grooms!  And continuously seeing families on a yearly basis for their family portraits and meeting new ones!  Thank you!!!!! <3
• Had my first shoot at DISNEYLAND!!
• Working with more assistants and second shooters to the Michelle Nicole Photography Team
• Continuing to keep in touch with my Scott Robert Photography Community (Scott Robert Lim, my amazing photography mentor and papa)

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”  Colin Powell

Upon this next year, prior to my fourth, here are some of my goals I would love to begin and continue with:

• Continue photographing my gorgeous brides and grooms!
• Continue building a portfolio with my beauty portraiture and begin learning more about the commercial photography world
• Expand our Dessert Tour!  (See us in New York, NY and San Francisco, CA!)  During our process, I would love to learn even MORE about food photography.
• I’d love to learn more about humanitarian work and travel (I love helping others)
• Travel more to continue seeing the world

“To Accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”  – Anatole France

So there it is, three years being full time.  YAY!  Time flies when you’re having fun… I mean, hustling.  My journey may not be the same as your journey, however, I hope to inspire you to pursue something you love doing.  I also hope reading about my journey becomes an inspiration to you, your friends, colleagues, families, classmates, strangers, or anyone else you would love to share this with.  I leave you with my takeaways and pieces of advice that I’d love to share with you:

• Find a mentor.  Find not one, find more.  Shortly after WPPI in March, I met with my mentor, Scott Robert Lim.  It’s been a long time since we’ve actually caught up and had a 1-on-1, and… let me just say, my batteries recharged, ten fold!
• If you have a passion, invest in it.  My passions are travel + beauty + music + desserts + photography.  I haven’t figured out how to incorporate music yet, however, travel, desserts (Dessert Tour), beauty, and photography are slowly merging together.  They’re not quite a niche, but slowly but surely.
• Surround yourself with people you want to be like.  Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of  the five people you spend the most time with.”  If you don’t like who you are and who you’re becoming, look at the people who are surrounding you.
• Meet people and network, but sometimes it takes a little bit more than shaking their hand and exchanging business cards.  Did you make an impact with them that sticks?
• Don’t give up.  Don’t let anyone stand in the way of making your dreams happen.  If so, you can wrap it all up in a present and give the gift to someone else who wants it more.
• Set goals for yourself.  Set long term goals that are 5 years down the line, but don’t forget to set shorter term goals that are easier to attain.  When you find you are reaching and achieving your short term goals, you will find that you are getting closer and closer to your long term goals.
• Stay positive.  Happiness will come.  😀

If we don’t know each other personally, and we do happen to cross paths sometime, please don’t be scared to say “hi”, I would love to get to know you!

ALSO, Happy One Year Anniversary to my Brides from May/June/July, 2013:

Alyson + Daniel:  See their wedding here.

Julie + Steven:  See their wedding here.

Nikki + Chris:  See their wedding here.

Courtney + Eric:  See their wedding here.

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

THANK YOU to:  My wonderful friends, fans, and amazing clients!  Thank you to my photography papa, Scott Robert Lim & the Scott Robert Photography Community who has taught me from the beginning and continue to support each other.  Thank you to the photography/videography friends of Shutter Clique, my friends in San Francisco Bay Area & Los Angeles who continuously share ideas, work, and love.  Thank you to all the friends around the world who continue to share my work and my journey.  Thank you to my old coworkers who I continue to keep in touch with and share the “good ol times”, my old MOXY team, and thank you to my boss, aka “Faja,” your mentorship and leadership.  Thank you to my family in Los Angeles who offer a warm place to stay whenever I travel to LA!  Thank you to the future clients that I will meet, I look forward to working with you!!  Most of all, thank you to my parents who continue to support and believe in me – you are my #1 fans.  Without all of you, I would not be here today.  You all have an important place in my life and are all helping me make this dream happen!!!  Thank you all for sharing my craft and my story – cheers to many more to come!