I moved to Hamilton about 14-15 years ago. I fell in love over time… over a long time… I mean, lets face it, Hamilton is no beauty. But I found its intricate beauties, its uniqueness, its dark corners of mystery and wonder. I met my husband in Hamilton. I found my passion for photography in Hamilton. I found friends, and adventures, and life in Hamilton. It has been a rollercoaster, the craziest rollercoaster, and I have appreciated every minute of the ride.

And now…. I am so sad to say…. we are leaving Hamilton. We are waving goodbye to friends, family, and clients… and saying hello to a new home… Auckland. I’m scared, and worried, and …. did I mention scared? But I’m also excited.

How did this happen? Two weeks ago, Nico was made redundant. We went through feelings of fear, terror, nausea, hope, excitement, tension, stress, wonder, and horror… and that was only in the first 5 minutes. He came home from work that day, and we hugged each other, in the middle of the lounge, for what seemed like hours… my mind was moving too fast for me to even pick out any coherent thought. I wish I could say the 2 weeks since have been better, but they havent… I flick from one emotion to another in the matter or minutes, and both Nico and I have felt suspended the whole time. Very unnerving.

He began applying for jobs straight away in Hamilton. I told him to branch out, just in case. And wouldnt you know it…. the only interviews he was offered were in Auckland. We both felt the universe was pushing us up there, so went with the flow.

And now, today, he has been offered a position in a fantastic company. It is right up Nico’s alley… coding coding coding and more coding And he came out of the interview so excited about the staff and the job. And the pay is more than what he was getting down here in Hamilton… though… I have to say, the extra pay is going to get chomped up quickly by the extra costs to live in Auckland, but who cares…. he has a job… a PERFECT job him. This couldnt have gone any better.

Now we are feeling a little overwhelmed, we have to move up there and try and come up with 2k moving costs, while making sure we have enough money to live on till his first pay comes in. Not sure how we will manage, but I know we will, we always do So next week we are off to look at housing, wish us luck.

I want to say a HUGE thankyou to all of those that have cheered us on and up, that have given us financial  gifts to help us out, that have sent us positivity energy and thoughts. We so appreciate it all… we couldnt have gotten through this in the sane way we did without such wonderful family, friends, and clients. YOu guys are AMAZING.

Now… on to the sad news. I have worked my tooshy off building up my business, and I was only just starting to feel like I was getting somewhere. But now… now I have to start ALL over again. It IS worth it, because now Nico is set up with a career, and he wasnt before, and he is so very excited. But it means a big change for me, and that terrifys and saddens me.

Firstly, I will not be taking any new portrait bookings for the next month while we settle in in Auckland. All the ones in my diary are fine, we will be zipping back to Hamilton every weekend for almost 2 months for my work lol. All the weddings I have booked in Hamilton for this year and until April 2011 are absolutely fine, again we will just be travelling down for them, so do not worry if you have booked with me, nothing has changed

Once we are settled, I will relaunch my business, and try and make a place for myself in the Auckland photography market. It wont be easy, there are a lot of photographers up there… but… hopefully my unique craziness will make me stand out I do not want to lose the friends and clients I have over this though, so never fear We will make an effort to come down at least once a month, and that way if you want a session with me, you just need to book in on the weekend Im coming down Or you are all more than welcome to visit me in Auckland…. I might need the company Promise to share some milo and choccie bikkies with you

Lastly… weddings… I should really do a seperate blog post about this, but…nevermind.

Weddings. I love them. I do. But I find the pressure hard. Wedding photos are so so so important, and the thought of messing them up terrifies me. I havent had anyone complain so far, but… one day who knows. That one day scares me so much. Im… mental lol.

I am so looking forward to the weddings I have booked for this season, I have some wonderful couples to photograph, and I will love and enjoy photographing their special days, and their photos are gonna rock

But I will be backing off from weddings after this season (ending May 2011). This is a big step for me. But it means I can focus more on my love… Portraits.

I will still be happy to do weddings for family and friends, or special friends of friends. But I wont be taking on many at all, and will no longer be booking people I dont know.

SOOOOO that was a scary scary scary post. Thankyou so much again EVERYONE for being so amazing in the last 2 weeks, and all my Hamilton clients for being just… so freaking incredible over the last few years… makes me cry while Im writing this because I am just so honoured to have met you all and photographed you, and so thankful for the love and support I have received while working on my art/photography… building it up etc. Sniffle, love you guys so much, and breaks my heart to have to leave so suddenly and out of the blue.

I will miss you Hamilton. I will miss you Rose Gardens and Lake. I will miss you Chartwell. I will miss you Smith & McKenzie. I will miss you friends. I will miss you family. I will miss you clients and career.

I will miss you. And I am scared. But I am happy. We are happy.

We are about to start a new life.