Shoulder surgery, IRIS prints & movie night

It feels like forever since I wrote a personal blog post! Which isn't anything to complain about because we have been beautifully busy with weddings and portraits all summer and autumn! But this week has certainly been a bit of a change from wedding blogs, editing & photoshoots! 

This week 3 exciting, scary & awesome things happened in our life & business! On Tuesday Matt had surgery on his shoulder which has been planned for months, conveniently scheduled for after wedding season. Years ago he damaged it and has been putting up with shooting pains in it since. So this week when the surgeon told us that the surgery was a complete success we were relieved & very happy! In a few months time once everything is healed Matt will feel like he has a brand new shoulder with zero pain! And in the meantime while he has a couple of weeks off work, I'm having to adjust to having someone at home during the week while I'm working - funny how fast I've gotten used to working home alone! 

I've also spent countless hours this week finalising my IRIS Award prints. The IRIS Awards are our national prestigious professional photography awards and the calibre of entries each year is mind-blowing. The process itself of entering these awards is daunting, mentally exhausting and that doesn't even begin to describe how it feels to watch the live judging of the prints in a few weeks time! The hardest part is knowing what images are worthy to enter. I am emotionally attached to my photographs because I was there in that moment & the image triggers feelings for me. It's hard to detach yourself and objectively wonder what a judge will see; whether it will make the judge feel something or does it tell a story they can connect with. Once you've actually selected your images you then have to get the editing fine-tuned, make sure your printing is flawless and only then go get the images matted to the specifications required by the awards system. It's a gruelling process (my office is littered with test prints!!!) but today I sent my prints on their way to Wellington and now all I can do is wait until judging starts in three weeks time.

And lastly and most excitingly...this week we announced our very first Annual Winter Event for our past #heidihortoncouples! Invitations are landing in mailboxes this week & we are so happy to announce we're hosting a fun movie night out as a way to catch up with our couples & express our gratitude for them being a part of our journey! The evening will include catching up over glasses of bubbles, a movie screening at the cinemas AND (drumroll....) we haven't even told our couples officially yet but we've also got a surprise anniversary giveaway for one lucky couple on the night!!!