I am a dreamer; creative, inspired, full of ideas and optimism. For me, being a dreamer is one of my greatest qualities and simultaneously my biggest weakness. I often get so excited about an idea that I spend hours researching, planning and looking at all of the inspirational possibilities with a smile on my face and a sparkle in my eyes as the hours rush by and before I can complete any of those exciting thoughts, another idea pops up in the midst of the the dreaming and I find myself having spent a lot of my time on exciting, inspirational rabbit trails that have the potential to be really awesome. My personal struggle with embracing my creative side while trying to be more disciplined is what brings us to the beginning of this series of blogs about my photography shed studio. The shed studio is rooted in about 500 little dreams I had, all brought to fruition. You might be tempted to give me a good pat on the back for this beautiful creation, thinking I must have found some balance and focus to have completed this task. I would have to redirect your praise to discipline and efficiency in human form, my husband. I literally married a man of my weaknesses and since I married him, Ive become better, balanced and with his help and I complete more things than I ever have… but enough about him, let me get back to the shed.

This particular dream started a few months back and like most of my dreams, it began with a rabbit trail. I was getting ready to reopen my photography business and since I need to work primarily while my children are at school, I decided to focus on maternity, newborns and babies. There was no problem with this strategy on the creative end because I love capturing this season of life, there is enough variety to keep me inspired, and I love the creativity that comes with having so many fun props. The one big hurdle to overcome was that in order to focus on those sessions, I had to have a studio space.

Now I’m not picky, I started this gig with no office at all. I worked only on location for a while. After that I shared a small office space at retail location for a few years. I was super excited about that!

My sweet friend who I shared that space with moved away and I went through a divorce which meant I renting a space anywhere on my own was out of my budget, so for a few years I literally worked out of my closet. Nope, thats not even a joke, I am determined to keep it real here. I called this fancy little space my “cloffice” and while I didn’t actually photograph clients in there, it gave me a space for editing and a lockable door for keeping my hard drives and equipment out of the reach of my children. I am convinced that you can put a true dreamer just about anywhere and we will find a creative way to make it work.

Not long after the “cloffice” season of life, my little business grew enough that I was able to rent a small office located in the most beautiful photography studio. This place was a photographers dream, an older Victorian home custom built for photography and it was amazing. My office was tiny but I covered the walls with photos and the little space made me happy, it gave me a space that made me feel “professional” and something I was proud to bring my clients to. I even had a spot on the sign by the road with my new logo on it! My favorite feature at that studio was the window room, it was crucial for me at that time in my photography business because I was only using natural light. That season of my life was so busy and so sweet.

After a few years at the studio, we moved into our dream home, the home that my husband’s grandfather built. We added a beautiful window to the spare room in the basement so that I could use that room as a studio space. It was airy and light and just what I needed at the time.

One short year after we finished all of the renovations and moved in, I found out I was pregnant with my third and last baby. I spent a large portion of my pregnancy sick on the couch, although if you ask me I will still tell you that I loved being pregnant. I think I have cute baby induced amnesia regarding the months of daily vomiting that zofran couldn’t touch. Between the pregnancy and the blessing of our house, I decided to put my little dream business on hold temporarily to focus on my family.

Three years after Mellie Grace was born, I found myself longing to create, missing adult interaction and ready to jump back into my love of photography, we just had one little issue to figure out since the studio room we created had been converted back to a bedroom in order to accommodate our growing family. Joey and I brainstormed together and looked at the handful of the options available. I entertained every idea that I could find; converting the garage, building on to the house and retail rental spaces nearby but none of those things were in my “starting back out” budget. I even checked back on that beautiful photography studio but it had been sold.

Just when I thought I’d have to settle for being a traveling photographer, I found out that there was a really nice studio co op near home. The Studio on Maple was close to my house and the owner was super great to work with. This idea was my number one choice for the moment until I remembered that I’d have to haul my props and backdrops to and from each session which was admittedly doable but not super appealing since Id only have 3.5 hours to work each day. We contemplated a few other ideas like adding on to the house or enclosing the garage but that seemed pretty expensive and time consuming and brought up other issues we would have to address.

Finally, while scrolling through Pinterest, I came across the idea of a shed studio. I think the first thing I saw was technically a “she shed” but the photography studio sheds followed shortly after. There weren’t many articles, and to be honest the idea of working in a shed didn’t blow me away initially but I was getting desperate so I kept looking. I started searching studio options in all of the photography groups and some of these shed studios looked okay but there were certainly a few that made the shed idea seem less than appealing. Many comments complained that the studio sheds were too small, too stuffy, didn’t have enough storage space weren’t professional, and then there would be the obvious lack of a bathroom. I started to feel defeated until I came across this post by Jaci Crouch Photography. There was no turning back from that moment. This girl made this SHED look better than any photography studio I had seen. I was finally inspired and I ran, with a big grin on my face, to show my hubby the images from her website below!

Not only did Jaci share her images and her story, she answered the questions in the group and shared so much information to help others on this same journey. I took pages and pages of notes and hundreds of screen shots as I tried to gather my thoughts but Im pretty sure it all came out a as jumble of excitement when I went to my husband. Since I admittedly have these super awesome exciting ideas regularly and they are often unrealistic and scattered I cant blame my husband for being a little apprehensive about the idea.

My husband is however, the most efficient, decisive, task oriented person I have ever known. He never just does something, he does it to perfection (his standards are high) and focuses through to completion. Yep, he is basically the opposite of me. I realize this seems like a rabbit trail but it’s all got a point. So, while my husband isn’t a dreamer, and he isn’t quick to jump on every crazy whim I have, he believes in me more than I’ll ever believe in myself. He took all of my information and looked it over with the heavy dose of reality that I needed. There was a lot of math, material lists, calculations, more math, researching local laws, thinking through where we could put the thing and so many things I would have never ever thought of like.. will if fit in the fence and down the drive way. I think of pretty and he thinks of practical. I watched him at the table.. his wheels turning. The logistics and math seemed to work and this option was ultimately more appealing than paying rent for something we wouldn’t own. A few weeks later Joey (knowing numbers mean nothing to me and everything has to be visual and hands on) asked if I wanted to go wander around a local shed dealers lot and try to get a realistic idea about sizes, options and hard numbers rather than just theoretical ones. He wanted to make sure that I still loved the idea once I saw these sheds in person.

So in the planning stages I want to leave you with the biggest tips for getting started and honestly most of these are compliments of my hubby. First, think about the location of your shed and make sure you have an easy to access (for your clients and for shed delivery) space. Make sure the space is level and then if you think it might really work, you’re gonna wanna check with your local zoning laws. We were initially planning to get a larger shed but once Joey looked at all of the guidelines and we realized just how much more it would cost and how much more work would go into it, we decided that I could make the smaller shed work in order to keep everything simple. Next, have someone that will help you to be realistic in the process. Some people over indulge and need someone to reign them in but I was trying to be as budget friendly as possible so Joey had to remind me that some things are worth investing in like… lights, an air unit and nicer walls and floors.

The next thing Ill say is that if, in your excitement, you start telling people you are going to build a shed studio you will get some judgement and some nay sayers. Seriously, in person and online people love to bring a dreamer back to reality really quick. They might tell you how small, unprofessional and dumb this idea is.. or they might just say it with their face…

But, you should find the supporters and encouragers in your life and bring them along to dream beside you because, I cant lie.. this thing was a LOT of work, it requires a team and it wasn’t easy.

In the meantime, my hubby had moved our laminate wood to the garage due to a basement flooding issue which seemed a little weird at the time but it gave me a pretty awesome temporary work space while we worked on the studio.

The big day finally came and the studio was delivered, excited is an understatement!

The single biggest tip I can give anyone looking into a shed studio is to think about the ceiling and storage space! I didn’t even think about how low those ceiling spaces were but Joey did and he had our shed builder raise the ceilings to 9 ft and he also had them raise the lofts. He submitted the order with a taller door as well, but that one detail got missed and we aren’t really sweating that because this one really works just fine. So, go to the shed lots and bring your tape measure, walk in side, take your camera with your favorite lens… think about spacing, posing, lighting and windows. Start dreaming because personally, this shed studio (that is now 90%complete)has surpassed everything I thought it would be.