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Friday Fun – Hustle, Huskies & Prints

April 19, 2018

Erika&Julia-UVAGraduationPortraits-169
I’m Manali
Coach, editor & brand photographer based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. When I'm not behind a camera or teaching about systems, you'll find me at a vineyard or cuddled with my cat Keegan on our cozy couch!
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I haven’t done one of these in a while and I wanted to get back into the swing of them even despite the busy season that’s happening! April is the time where photographers’ busy summer season starts to kick into gear with most wedding photographers having pretty much a wedding every single weekend! My schedule is much the same although I have my fair share of graduation portraits and engagement ceremonies that I’m capturing thrown into the mix as well 🙂 I’m super grateful to be able to travel all over Virginia within the next couple of weeks and get shots like these!!

UVASeniorGraduationPortraitsCharlottesvilleVA-ManaliPhotography-014

However, at the same time I want to keep it real with you guys, I don’t have a free weekend until June which simultaneously amazing and exhausting! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE photographing everyone, editing my heart out, and getting better at my craft every single day, I really do, but it is a lot to manage with a full time job! People tend to just see the highlights and not realize the amount of hard work, hustle, grit, determination and hours that go behind it. But giving up is never an option because I love it WAY too much to give it up!! Which just makes me work all the harder to keep building and growing this business so one day I can take it full time. I think I came at this with the assumption that it would be easier than what it was like to be in college balancing classes, finding a job, bhangra and other commitments but turns out it’s pretty much the same if not more hours and equally as tiring. So yea this is me keeping it real on here, I know it’ll be a hundred percent worth it when I’m able to take my wedding photography business full time so I can’t complain too much! One day all my weeks will consist of taking epic shots like this!

CapitolHillDCWeddingStyledShoot-ManaliPhotography-008

Fun things that have happened this week slash more behind the scenes looks of what life really looks like over here!

  • Photographing my fourth year Hoos in Charlottesville was actually AMAZING!!!!! I know you’ve probably heard me say this about a million times but I realized there’s a reason why I photographed like 21 fourth years last year, because I actually REALLY love it!! You can literally just give me the Lawn & the Rotunda to photograph around and it will NEVER get old! Also one of my favorite parts of it was actually getting to spoil them with fun things like a code to use at Starbucks for a free drink to get them through their week and then surprising them with a little gift during their session! I got each of the girls a super cute watercolor card of the Rotunda as well as a mug that had Alumni on it which got everyone (including me!!) all up in their feels <3 It never really hit me that I was graduating last year even as I was taking my pictures and everything, for some reason it just hit me NOW a whole year later being able to look back on that time and see how life had changed!! Here’s some more fun pictures from the weekend <3
    ManaliPhotographyCherryBlossomDCProposalPhotographer_0335
  • I made friends with a husky puppy that had one blue eye and one brown eye that was literally SO excited to be my new friend. She kept jumping backwards on me as we were crossing across the road and walking in stride with me looking up at me….until she got distracted by a rock and ran over to play with that instead hahahaha 🙂
  • Speaking of REAL friends, I got to see all my DCBC ladies to figure out what the next couple of months will be like and we just sat in a random classroom in Georgetown for about 2 hours but it was the highlight of my week getting to see them <3
  • I AM ABOUT THIS WARM WEATHER,  FINALLY!!!!! Just had to throw that in there, although I’m secretly waiting for the actual absolute day where I can ditch my winter coat for good. I mean it’s cute and all but I literally just wear the one (you know if you ever see ANY Insta story) and it’s actually super heavy!
  • I got a ton of super cute prints in!! I hadn’t ordered any prints for the longest time (ironic because I’m a photographer I know) and it reminded me of how important and different it is to have PHYSICAL prints as opposed to just digital images! I’m so excited to send a few out with some handwritten cards and share the love of them 🙂
  • So most people around here know that I’m pretty awful at making food. Like I will burn anything that is possible to burn or use the wrong proportions or skip a crucial step while making food which is why I generally avoid trying to make anything new and outsource it altogether entirely too often (which is the nice way of saying I eat out wayyy too much)! BUT this week I made thai coconut pasta (enough for 3 meals, too!) which is weird in theory but it actually came out pretty decent and that is a win in my book for the week!! It’s the little things people <3 Gonna end it on this high note!

If you loved this post, check out a couple more!

Friday Fun – Brunch, waterfronts and rosé

Amphora, Headshots & Hoos

Friday Fun – Foodie Edition

 

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