I am utterly unhinged at the moment. August is always a month to re-set. I close my business to new clients/shoots and just have a couple regulars tucked away that are low-stress and require minimum brain power (aka grown up headshots!)(I do make exceptions for new babies and eloping. I always want people to know that). I do the same thing in January/February. It’s a time to get caught up on the admin side of running a small business, get schedules straight and organized for the next busy season, and just get my head screwed back on as straight as possible. Plus back to school for a newly minted high schooler and year two for the college kid. Lots of lists to go through, doctors appts to make, trips to target and ikea, etc. Fresh pencils and new kicks and seeing which pants you grew out of over the summer.
For me, August is bracing for what will come at the end of September: giving up a solid 6 Saturdays in a row for photoshoots. It’s hard. And this year? I am struggling. I am actively looking for a full time job or long term contract work or salaried part time work. If I land something by labor day, my photo schedule is going to be SHORT and limited to people I like and see year after year. If I don’t get something by then, I’ll probably lay off the job searching and do a regular photo season – but no new clients and sticking to boundaries about requests outside my set times. Last year? I was facing an unemployed husband and a wonky job market going into a volatile election and all the craziness that unfolded there. So I set myself up to do as many photoshoots as possible, THEN landed a 2-day a week job out of the blue that I love. Needless to say, I burned out. I stumbled across the finish line Thanksgiving week. Churned out some amazing work if I do say so myself but I was pooped.
This year the house spouse has a fairly decent job that he’s liking. Yes I’m still looking for full time work despite that (although ideally a regular part time gig 20-25hrs/week that didn’t fluctuate with projects or seasons would be amazing). I want to take a fucking vacation. I want to not hustle so much. I want to hire a housekeeper once a month to deep clean the bathrooms and kitchen. Lawn guys to come seasonally and clean shit out. An oven with a non-broken door and a renovated kitchen – which isn’t as much a cosmetic desire but it’s time to replace the 80 yr old cabinets and make the tiny tiny space more functional for the 21st century servantless home chef. Maybe, dare I say it, a car that’s not older than my children. Not to feel guilty when my exhausted body just can’t make dinner and we order in. Again. Not ashamed to say I want a whole bunch of middle-class normalcy that it feels like everyone around me takes for granted. Last year I posted with twee optimistic eyes about starting to look for work in light of the spouses most recent lay off – now I feel like a hardened war correspondent reporting back from base after an utterly treacherous year. 10+ months of your main breadwinner being unemployed is not for the faint of heart. 0 stars. Do not recommend.
It was an easy/obvious decision to take a step back from having a muggle job and be a self employed freelance gig employee with two small kids. Hence Katie McMurry Photography. And ghost writing/research, graphic design work from logos to report templates to social media posts, etc. I was doing ok on a lot of fronts till covid hit and a lot of freelance stuff dried up and never came back. And now covid isn’t a factor in the job market anymore. And the kids are older. And we’ve all gone without a lot for a long time and I’m done. There’s other reasons I’m not prepared to share here, gentle reader, but time will tell. For now, This is the plan. Throwing my resume and dreams out into the world like glitter hoping it sticks somewhere. And for the hell of it, here’s the 2025 resume for your viewing pleasure:
