On this last day of the year, I am choosing to reflect on all the ways God has blessed my business and boy am I amazed!  Thank you for participating in this journey with me as I would be nowhere without the continued support of every friend, family member, mentor, and client around me!!

While my list was greater than 15, I want to share my best 15 moments of 2015!!!

1. Terri Baskin Photography Promo Film

With the help of Doug Stanford, I filmed and launched my brand’s promotional film earlier this year!  This film shows a brief look into The Wedding Experience for potential clients that are interested in hiring me as their wedding photographer. It’s on my current website and my newly designed website that’s coming in January!!! Check it out here!

2. My Amazing 2015 Wedding Clients

My year was what it was because of the couples that trusted my vision for telling their wedding day and engagement love story! I was honored to serve as your wedding photographer and never take a task such as this lightly! Your kind words, referrals and images that you shared with your friends and family have definitely been a highlight of my year! Thank you! To review some of their kind words, click here!

3. Hitting my 2016 booking goal in 2015!!

I can’t believe that on this last day of 2015 that I have already hit my booking goal for 2016!! While this doesn’t mean that I am no longer accepting 2016 weddings (because I am) it means I can re-evaluate some other areas of my business and tackle a big hairy audacious goal of mine!! That’s about all of the teasing I can do about that!!  2016 looks to be an exciting year and I am focused on God’s timing in my business.  If you know someone that is recently engaged and looking for a wedding photographer, they can contact me here: www.terribaskin.com

4. WeSpeak Photography Conference Speaker Panel

The first annual WeSpeak Conference took place this year in Atlanta, GA and was hosted by Ross Oscar Knight.  I was honored when he reached out to me after speaking with another one of my colleagues, and invited me down to participate as a speaker! Say What?!?!?  This is a goal that I was planning on including in my 2016 goals and it happened a year earlier!!!  I am still in shock that Lafayette, Teshorn and Ross thought enough of me to have me participate in such a way as this!!!  I am planning and preparing myself to be ready for future speaking opportunities as they arise!

5. Refresh Retreat

A group of my photograpHER friends and I got together over the summer to hash out some goals and share knowledge in what we titled the Refresh Retreat.  Who knew that coming out of this weekend event that it would spark the interest that it did and now has us looking to do something even bigger in 2016.  In this industry it’s imperative to have people that you connect with, that can support you and give you honest feedback in order to keep from feeling like you’re alone on an island.  These girls have been all that and more in my business!

6. Black Bride Magazine Feature

When I arrived to photograph Brian and Victoria’s wedding, I knew it had the makings of something special!  Every detail was planned to perfection and that’s what many blogs and publications look for when determining what to feature in their pages.  I submitted their story to Black Bride Magazine in hopes that I would hit my goal of being featured in print in 2015 and was ecstatic when they accepted my submission.  While Black Bride is not currently on news stands as they are an e-magazine, I was honored that they featured my work in their national publication!

7. Washingtonian Bride & Groom Photographers to Follow

Wow, this was a shocker that came out of no where and boy was it an awesome feeling!!! Washingtonian Bride & Groom Blog a division of Washingtonian Bride & Groom magazine selected me as one of the 23 area wedding photographers that their readers should follow!!!  Wow, I’m still speechless about this one!  Thank you ladies!

8. Three Destination Weddings

If I could do one destination wedding (a wedding away from my home coverage area) every year, I would be pretty happy, so the fact that I shot in 3 areas away from the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland area was pretty cool!! Brian and Victoria’s wedding allowed me to travel to Columbus, OH.  David and Veronica’s wedding allowed me to shoot in Philadelphia, PA and Matt and Erika’s wedding was literally 30 minutes from my childhood hometown in North Carolina! I have some wish list places where I would love to shoot if given the opportunity- Atlanta, GA, The Bahamas, New York City, Los Angeles, CA and Puerto Rico!

9. Continuing My Education

The one thing that I will never take for granted is how much information there is to constantly learn about photography.  I mean, once you learn the basics (the rules of photography) you’re not finished. From marketing, evolving trends, business workflow, etc. I am always trying to remain current and ahead in what I am learning so that I can have a fluid business that adapts with the changing times.

This year I was able to learn from some industry leaders and I can say that I am ending the year in a much better place because of it!!  The Workshops I attended were: Amy & Jordan Workshop, Blink Conference, Come Together Event with Katelyn James and Amy & Jordan, A Practical Wedding Workshop by Abby Grace and Ellements Workshop with Elle Danielle.

10. Terri Baskin Photography Bridal Guide

This year I launched my Bridal Guide- a resource for my couples to help with the wedding planning as it related to their photography experience.  This was a huge help for my brides as it answered many of their planning questions and helped ensure their timeline was adequate enough to get all of the photos taken that were important to them on their wedding day.  I am excited that my 2016 brides have already began receiving theirs!  I am also finding ways to revamp and improve it for the most meaningful experience for my couples!

11. Wedding Blog Features

I will never get tired of saying how grateful I am when a wedding blog chooses to show my work to their readers!  Sometimes I submit and sometimes I’ll get a repost and sometimes I submit and get rejected, so when I see my work in other places besides my website or blog, it makes me extremely happy!  I am excited that BuzzFeed, Black Bride, Munaluchi Bride, The Washingtonian Bride & Groom, Aisle Perfect, The Knot, Black Southern Belle and Virginia Bride featured my work this year!

12. Styled Shoot Idea

When I have an idea that pops into my head, I immediately tell my wedding planner friend- Lacoya- of Hello Love Events about it!  That’s exactly what happened with a style shoot idea that I had earlier this year.  Lacoya went to work contacting other wedding professionals and the venue to make it happen!  I am so thankful for our friendship and the success of this shoot.  I am excited to see the end result soon!  In the meantime, here is a teaser!

13. Best Wedding Vendor 2015- Washingtonian Bride and Groom

When I received an email from The Washingtonian Bride & Groom that I had been named one of the area’s Best Wedding Vendors, it came on a day that I was really questioning my purpose.  I mean, talk about God’s timing and a reminder to get over myself!  I love that I am using my camera to touch lives and again I have been left speechless this year with this accolade. Eeeekk!!!

14. The Blink Conference Photography Award

I attended the inaugural Blink Conference in 2013 and took last year off in order to attend another conference.  Well, I wanted to go back to Blink this year for several reasons- the line up was freakin’ amazing, the creators (Ike and Tash) are sweet friends of mine and I love everything they are doing in their business and with their “Her Success is Not My Failure”.  This year I participated in the Print Salon- an anonymous voting competition done by all of the attendees of the conference.  Well, I submitted into the Wedding, Family and Boudoir categories and actually won an award for a Boudoir photo that I submitted!!!! WHAT!!! My first actual photography award in a competition!!!!!  I decided not to post the actual photo that won since it was a boudoir shot.

15. Showit Article

If you’ve every visited my website, I have to tell you that it’s hosted on the Showit platform.  They are an amazing company that really helped my work to stand out on a custom designed website.  Prior to photography I designed websites and I even designed my first photography website but it lacked the umph that I desired in a website so while searching for custom websites on google one day I ran across a company (Earl and Layne) that designed amazing websites using this platform and the rest was history. Well this past Fall as they prepared for their annual United Conference, they were putting together a magazine for the attendees and reached out to me to submit an article.  I decided to spotlight the WeSpeak Conference and it’s purpose for being created and I shared some of the key points from my panel discussions on Maximizing Vendor Relationships.  View a copy of the digital magazine here!

Bonus: Last but not least is a personal accomplishment.  I got with my mom and planned a surprise birthday party for my dad for his birthday in June! He’s been so instrumental in this journey that he deserves another feature on the blog.  It was a milestone birthday for him so in a matter of a week- smack dab in the middle of wedding season- I called around and secured a venue- Grandover Hotel– created and ordered the invitations, hired the photographer, DJ and bugged Lacoya at Hello Love Events for a Calligraphy sign and I selected and finalized the menu.  He still talks about this night and I consider it a pretty amazing accomplishment that we planned all of this without him finding out!!!

And that’s a wrap!!!  My motto going into 2016: No Fear- Celebrate Every Victory- Serve Others Well!!!  Happy New Year!