My 2020 blog post

As owner of Lori Black Photography, I know the importance of website blogging. In 2020 I made it my goal to post at least one blog post a week on some photography-related topic.

This post will be somewhat different. As 2020 draws to a close, I wanted to write a more personal post about what this year meant to me, how it affected my business and how it affected me personally.

First, I have to be honest. Almost every time I think about the year 2020, tears came to my eyes. It is easily the worst year for me in my entire life. I say that, though, not to be negative. I’m just being real.

The year started as any other year. When news reports on the mysterious virus were aired, I paid little attention. My first wedding photography job of the year was in March, the month the reports got truly real. I started wondering what was going to happen to this March wedding, though I know it was a much bigger deal to my wedding clients than it was to me.

Business in 2020

The wedding took place, but in a much different way. Rather than a large wedding with a reception, it became a small family-only wedding with no reception. The couple opted to put off the reception till the next year.

Big weddings became small weddings. I was hired for a few very small weddings in the spring and early summer, and I treated them like any other event I photographed. While no receptions were taking place, I still took the typical wedding photos. The time spent there was just shorter.

I didn’t have a full-day wedding until mid-July. I wore a mask and photographed it as normal, and the entire wedding took place as usual. I had a few more like this in the later summer and fall, though one of the fall weddings was postponed for a year. In one case, a big wedding turned into a small one as the couple decided to alter the day rather than postpone or cancel it.

I felt bad for the engaged couples that were affected by the virus, but I did my best to make their day special, and I think their day was special despite the circumstances. I believe that many couples learned that the true importance of getting married is the marriage and not the actual wedding day.

Beyond weddings, I booked my usual number of senior and family portraits, so not much was different there.

The year for me personally

On a personal note, this year was difficult. This was the year that my mother died. It was the most significant event of the year, and probably the main reason I can’t think about the year without crying. It was a very difficult time as my mother’s health declined and she was moved to a skilled care center. The staff did all they could to help, but she deteriorated and passed away on July 17.

Thinking about this makes me sad, but so do all the other reports of people who died unexpectedly from Covid 19 or something else. I lost two friends unexpectedly.

I get sad thinking about how many lives were negatively affected, how many businesses failed or were put into bad situations, and how many people lost their jobs.

For me, I lost money this year. I lost a mother. I lost business. So yes 2020 makes me sad. But we all have good things to look forward to in 2021, I among them.

So good riddance to 2020.