james pauls • photographer

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas update and 2010 recap...

Christmas day is winding down and It's time for an update.

We had a great Christmas Eve playing games and stayed up really late to open presents on Christmas morning.
Each of us woke up to fun things in our Christmas Stocking (even Ozzy our dog and Sassy our cat) and a pile of wrapping paper from our late night gift-giving.

Everett and Erin spent the night so we could have a complete celebration together and eat tons of great food (they now both live on their own in apartments with roommates). It is so much fun to spend time with our children and we are so proud of how they are maturing and facing life. We look forward to all of the exciting experiences they'll face in the future and all of the blessings they will encounter.

Peggy Jo has experienced another very productive year in real estate. I'm so proud of her as she works so hard to serve her clients making their buying/selling experiences enjoyable. She stays very busy and she does her job with excellence. She loves helping people find just the right home to buy or make a move at the right time. You can visit her website.

Our travel schedule this year was not as extensive as last year's was. We traveled to Washington (Seattle) and and to Colorado along with a few shorter trips. We have already made plans for some extended trips this year involving, Mexico, Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah to get things started – we'll add more as the year progresses. Considering we are headed toward our 25th anniversary next November we'll be planning a fun trip at the end of 2011 (It'll be a surprise).

Two of my largest commercial photography contracts involved the Echo smart pen by Livescribe and a new assortment of chocolates, confections and desserts for Norman Love Confections through his marketing firm, Priority Marketing. These shoots were done in addition to my ongoing effort to provide high-quality commercial photography through my primary stock portfolio managed by iStockphoto. Throw in the requested weddings and senior shoots, it's been a busy, productive and very rewarding year.

My photography studio will be moving back home as of the end of December. We have vacant rooms that work perfectly for the limited studio set-up I need. Also, my specialization in commercial stock photography allows me to utilize a greater portion of our home for shoots. This is an exciting opportunity to not only redirect income but to take on other photography challenges and broaden what my current portfolio offers.

We're really excited about the future as we watch our family mature, our business grow and other opportunities come our way. Most recently we started a new business in the health and wellness industry which is not only creating great benefits for our well-being but allowing us to impact the lives of others the same way. Peggy Jo and I have been watching and praying for something in addition to photography and real estate that would allow us to work together and we found it in Genesis PURE. We are striving for better health and we have aggressive financial goals so we're excited to have another vehicle that will help us reach them.

2011 is already looking promising and we are excited about the journey ahead.

We are thankful for our family and friends and wish many, many blessings on all!

best regards... James Pauls • photographer www.eyecravephotography.com