01/01/2026
Happy New Year!
I wish everyone a fantastic 2026!
I also have a little announcement to make. I'm closing my photography business and returning to nursing.
I want to thank all of my clients over the past 15 years that have trusted me to deliver high quality images and document their special moments. It has absolutely meant the world to me.
Every Family portrait, every engagement session, every senior session...I gave it my all and tried to use my skills to the best of my ability to give you what I wish I had. You don't realize how important photos are until someone you love passes and you don't have that.
I lost my Mom in 2009 after I gave birth to my second child. So, she has missed my children's milestones. But I know she's proud of me and proud of the people they are becoming. And she was with me through all of your photoshoots/events. I have her photography. That is the gift she gave me. Her eye for things. So I guess owe all of that to her. Except she was able to do it on film instead of digital. Which means even more.
A year ago my husband Lee asked me what I wished I could do in the next 6-12 months. I told him that I wish I could go back into the hospital and take care of preemies as a NICU RN again. Here I am a year later, I have my license in hand and I'm working on an adult floor in the hospital that I hope to soon be in their NICU. Internal transfers are easier than hiring directly from outside the hospital. So I'm paying my dues and some days getting my butt kicked.
But here I am. Almost 45 years old and have been out of nursing for 16 years. The year my Mom passed away, I was on bed rest for the last 4 months of my pregnancy and the last 4 months my Mom lived. So this is a full circle moment that is a bit bittersweet. I'm returning to my first love, which is NICU. I know that so much has changed and I can't wait to care for my first little one, fresh out of the womb, needing someone to fight for them. That's me! I'll catch you and dry you and get breathing those first important breaths, but then I'll watch and make sure you're ready to stay with Mom and Dad. I'm looking forward to teaching families again and being there when they have questions. Taking care of 24 weekers that need us to mimic the womb so they can continue to grow and develop. 28 weekers that think they know it all and wind back up on the ventilator or have NEC surgery. 32 weekers that are learning how to breastfeed or bottle feed and get tuckered out. And then the BEST day when they are discharged home with their families! It's a sad day for me, but the best day for them.
The work I used to do was important. But so was documenting your lives. Before every session and wedding I would think to myself, "this is their one time to do this, I have to be at my best for them. " I wouldn't engage in anything risky. No rollerskating, no craziness prior to the week of a session. I just couldn't risk it!
So I want to thank you all for keeping me on my toes over the past decade and a half. Thank you for allowing me to work on my customer service and give you a better experience every time. Thank you for being so forgiving when I didn't have the answers to your questions right then, but got back to you with what I knew. Thank you for giving me something to focus on while I was raising my young family. I needed something outside my house to focus on and you gave me that. And to my Wedding Clients, thank you for trusting me with the most important days of your lives.
I have fallen in love with all of you. Every time I see your faces and people ask, I tell your story.
But now it's time for me to return to the medical world and give that same service to them. I've been so fortunate to have met the most wonderful people that have just wound up in the hospital for one thing or another. My floor takes in direct admits from the ER and steps down care from the ICU. Anything can happen. And I'm just trying my best to be prepared for when it does. This work is hard. Adults are not my wheelhouse. But I'm studying to be the best Adult RN I can be until I'm called to be the best NICU RN I can be.
I'm trying to bloom where I've been planted and accept each day as it comes. That's what I did with Photography and I appreciate where that took me.
So it is bittersweet to close this business. I've been dreading this post for weeks. But I'm moving on to positive things and I don't look back on this business in regret.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Happy New Year!
-Lydia
