Angelsea Urban – Welcome | NJ Photographer | NJ Blogger

Thinking of my first blog post title (everrrrr) the first thing that came to mind was a boring, “Welcome to my blogsite.” But then immediately I started humming the FAO Schwarz (old school) theme song, “Welcome to our world.” Anyone on the East coast has likely made a pilgrimage to this store at some point, back when it was still in all of its impressive glory. You walked in the front doors, were greeted by a real live toy soldier, looked up at this massive two-story moving clock tower and heard, “Welcome to our world…welcome to our world…welcome to our world…of…fun!”

 

Okay, so maybe creating this blog isn’t quite the same adventure, but I’m a work in progress. And so is this blog. My current website was lacking personality, which led me to finally accept that I needed a blog. But who the heck wants to have two dot-coms to worry about (not to mention a business page on Facebook, Personal Facebook, Twitter, You Tube Channel, and don’t get me started about Google+)? I searched everywhere for something that would work but nothing that could do everything I needed.

So with the help of the hubs we created this totally custom “blogsite” to encompass everything all in the same place. A hybrid if you will.  Website + blog + storefront + proofing gallery + portfolio + personal journey. It’s been our baby for months now — lots of late nights, decision making, arguments, and tons of strange requests (more on that in future posts).

I stalled on the project because I didn’t like the direction the brand was going at the time.

Hubs: What color do you want the background?

Me: Uhhh…hmmm…I can’t really commit to that right now. I’m just not sure.

Hubs: What kind of font to you want? A new one?

Me: Uh…not sure. Do we have to decide on that now?

Hubs: Well, if you want letters to appear, you need a font.

A real comedian.

Instead of just creating a new blogsite, now I needed to focus on branding. Ugh. What does that mean? A lot of work really. Marketing work. Thought bubble: {“Marketing? I thought she was a photographer?”} YA. So did I — LOL. I have been super busy behind the scenes “branding” my business, building this blogsite, picking colors, fonts, styles, doing research educating myself on the latest trends, you name it. You know what I found out after all of this? I severely underestimated the difficulty of the project because I couldn’t make decisions on what I liked. Why not you ask? Three things really, in my most transparent brutal honesty:

1. I had no idea what I liked.

2. I had no idea what my clients liked.

3. I had no idea what’s expected.

#1. So…like everything I attempt to do the first thing was to organize my thoughts to figure out what I liked. I found this great little website called Pinterest. (You can follow my boards here). I started a board called “Interesting things…” and began pinning up things that were inspiring to me, or just jumped out at me. Eventually the board started to take shape, and took on a life of its own. I was able to notice patterns, colors, themes and styles. Hmmm…maybe this is what I’ve needed for so long! #1 was on its way. I had a plan at last.

#2. What do my clients like and what do they really want to see? Well, I went back so some of my past clients and received some interesting feedback. I found a really scary answer: They liked…me. Really? (You like me? You really like me? Okay, now you’re saying that quote too aren’t you?) What about my photography? What about my mad skills, my hard work, my technique, and don’t forget my oh so cool camera strap? Oh yes, of course, they said that’s important too, but they hired me in the end because they liked my personality and who I was and how I made them feel. They believed in me. So why didn’t I believe enough in myself to advertise…me? Hmmm…interesting.

#3. Bringing me to…what’s expected? What does the industry hold standard? What do my clients expect? How can I push myself to be better? What do I really enjoy doing? Not sure I can answer these with any finality. Maybe I never will since they will always be evolving. They should always be evolving. I hope I never deliver just what’s expected. I hope I can deliver the expected plus more. Maybe that equals unexpected? Or an oxymoron?

Bottom line is that when I tried to answer these three questions an overall theme emerged: It’s always going to be a “work in progress.” My work, my life, me, and therefore, my brand.

So rather than pretend I have all of the answers and present to you all a very shiny and new blogsite that’s all perfect and finished with a foo foo new brand of “Ooh…isn’t this cool!” I’m showing you this — my half-finished version with all of its imperfections. Because that’s me — half finished with imperfections. Most of the photography content will be moved and added over time now that we are live, such as past sessions and of course all future ones.  Oh and let’s not forget the random banter. That should be fun. In the meantime most of my work can still be seen here through my portfolio.

I encourage you to click on the RSS feed and subscribe to this site. It may be a bumpy ride as I continue my now-public journey into the unknown, but we’re human and part of our curiosity is to see what happens next. Stick around. Let’s all see where this goes. Lots of changes still coming (new store front, new boutique, latest sessions, past sessions, and much more).  Plus personal stuff, business stuff, family, faith, risks, rewards and a post about working with your spouse – that’s gonna be a good one! By all means, leave some comments and help me out with the questions above. Or just let me know what you’re thinking!  Thanks for stopping by…..and…

Welcome to my world new blogsite. 🙂

 XOXO,

Angie