I’m turning 29, next weekend! There are approximately 375 days left of my 20’s. Turning 29 seems like a really underwhelming age. I feel like there is a certain pressure to make sure I REALLY ENJOY this last year of my 20’s. In reality, I’m so excited about the future and even though turning 30 sounds slightly (completely) daunting, I’m looking forward with great hope and expectation!

But first, a little trip down memory lane from the past 9 years…

20: I was in my last year studying Graphic Design. I was working as a photographer part time for the University of Auckland. The job was pretty sweet, but not what I was passionate about. I still thought I wanted to be a Graphic Designer.

21: I graduated from AUT with a Bachelor of Graphic Design, and Sam and I got married! Yeah, we were pretty much babies, but I have no regrets! We travelled to the Cook Islands.

22: I got a job with a wedding photographer! I photographed my first wedding, and judging from the chills I kept getting all day, my mind was made up. I would start the journey to becoming a wedding photographer, and owning my own business.

23: A few days after my birthday I started my blog. Kate Robinson Photography (‘& Design’ back then) was officially born! I can hardly believe I’m going to share this… here is the link to my very first blog post, published August 12, 2009. I had a blogspot blog, I had no idea how to make photographs fit the page properly, and there are some CRAZY photo editing techniques going on…but everyone starts somewhere! I photographed my first wedding under my own brand. I won a seat to the Jasmine Star Workshop by entering this crazy photo. We also travelled to Bora Bora.

It was a big year.

24: Wedding photography was getting really busy this year and I was loving every minute of it. I still had my job at the University, but was hardly ever there.

25: Sam decided to start a PHD in Bio Med, and we moved from Auckland to Melbourne! We also travelled to Cairns and Darwin. Even though I was excited about moving, I did get really homesick. It was a pretty hard year if I’m being honest. I was travelling back and forth between NZ and AU for weddings, mostly shooting in NZ.

26: I had my first wedding photography workshop, Planted With Light! We travelled to Singapore for a wedding.

27: This was the year lots of travelling happened! Sam had a conference in Malaysia, so I tagged along. We were so blessed to travel to Sri Lanka for a beautiful wedding. We did lots of back and forth travel between Melbourne and Auckland. We visited America for the first time! (San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and LA) We lived in SLC for a month for Sam to work at a lab in Utah, and to see if we could potentially move here!

28: We packed up our life in Melbourne, sadly said goodbye to all of our amazing friends, and moved back to NZ for a couple of months. We found out some exciting news, I am pregnant! We moved to Salt Lake City, Utah for Sam to begin his new job. I had a scary idea to start a podcast, Planted With Light (which is launching NEXT TUESDAY AUGUST 4th NZ TIMEI’m SO excited). The next adventure has well and truly begun…

I was digging through my old blog archives last night as I was preparing this post, and so many amazing memories came flooding back! It was hilarious to see that very first post on my old blog, and I just want to take a moment to thank you. Every one of you who commented on those very first weddings I shot and blog posts I wrote, every one of you who took the time to encourage me in my journey – thank you for believing in me. I feel amazingly blessed, even though that word is overused, it’s true! Things would probably look quite different if it wasn’t for your encouragement and positivity.

I am SO excited about the future. I can’t wait to welcome a baby into our family in October, I have a feeling this next season might even be more exciting than the last. Have a wonderful day friends. xxxx

 

Thank you Caitlin for the photo above. x