Summer is officially here, and I can’t believe I’m writing my list of goals for July already. July reminds me of the mid-summer point…so as excited as I am for the upcoming month, I am hoping to make the long days last. While this post is a little late, it is better than not posting it. :)

Before I get into my July goals, I wanted to update you on my June goals.

– Network with other photographers and learn from their experiences/mistakes. I have been working on this a lot – especially by reading lots of forums online and staying in contact with all my J* Facebook people. I am hoping to have a meeting in the next few weeks with my cousin who is a wedding photography superstar.

– Photograph the bachelorette party I am hosting like a stylized shoot. Submit it for publication on wedding blogs. Well, I was avoiding answering this one because I did not achieve this completely. In my crazy, overambitious mind, I thought I could be the party host, rockstar bridesmaid, friend and event photographer. Let’s just say I took on too much. By the time I was ready to shoot my hor’ dourves spread, it was half eaten.  Live and learn.

– Get back into the gym. For real. It is beach season now….I made it there a few times. That is progress people.

– Use my speedlight more including as a fill flash on outdoor shoots. I started doing this more toward the end of the month, and I can see a huge difference in my work already. I will keep at this goal.

– Increase my number of Facebook likes on Brittany Bekas Photography. I am not exactly sure what the number was when I posted this, but I have had more likes over the last month. Now I just need to keep at it!

– Make 4 new recipes. At least two recipes need to include meat for the boyfriend. I’m not going to lie. I totally waited until about 8 days before the end of the month to do this. (Oh yes, procrastination.) But I successfully made a burrito pizza (con polllo) that I had ripped out of a magazine 2 years ago, three cheese steak sandwiches (thanks Food Network), spinach dip cups and mini peanut butter cupcakes (Pinterest). All were delicious.

Now here are some of my July goals:

– Learn to shut down my computer one hour for bed (i.e. stop bringing work into the bedroom!)

– Launch Brittany Bekas Boudoir. I have been shooting boudoir throughout June, but I want to get my boudoir site up and start booking more clients! Anyone interested?!

– Spend two afternoon/evenings shooting things that inspire me around Chicago. I get so caught up in weddings, events and portraits, I forget to sometimes just capture the day to day around me.

– Read two books – one non-fiction and one fiction.

– Create my new packaging for my clients. I’m thinking purple, black and white….just need to tie everything together!

Well, here is to achieving these goals in the next 21 days!