Abby’s Saturday // Five Hundred – The End

“What happens to ‘Abby’s Saturday’ when Abby is gone?”

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for the last 6 months.

Derrick even posed that question to me a few weeks ago.
My answer then was: “I don’t know.”
“Well, it’ll end – right? Without an Abby, there’s no Abby’s Saturday.”

I think secretly, deep down, I had hoped that whenever we said goodbye to Abby, that we’d quickly run out and get another dog – and we could just continue. In my head I thought: “We could still call it ‘Abby’s Saturday’ in her memory, but we would just keep going with a different dog.”
But equally, deep down, I knew that we wouldn’t do that. I knew that we wouldn’t rush out to get another dog right away.

And so, I put the answer to that question out of my mind as something to be answered “later”.

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I started “Abby’s Saturday” back in the summer of 2013.

At the time, I needed something to fill my blog. I was still very young in my business as a wedding photographer, so I didn’t have very many weddings to fill the “pages” of my blog with. At the time, we were living in north eastern Pennsylvania and the only willing subject I had access to photograph on a regular basis was our dog.

“Abby’s Saturday” started with a two-fold reason:
1. to give me something to photograph every single week (and thus practice my photography skills)
2. to give me something to blog on a weekly basis

Through the years, I changed up my “Abby’s Saturday” format several times.
There was a period of time where I just posted the photo and a very short caption.
There was a period of time where I didn’t write anything at all – I just posted a picture.
There was a period of time where I posed 3 questions and started sharing a little more about what we’d been doing that week.
And finally – it evolved into the bulleted “list” of things we’d done the previous week (which is what it’s most recent format has been).

But always one thing remained the same: I always posted a photo of Abby.

My photos ranged from super simple, to more complex setups involving off-camera flash and fancy Photoshop effects.
And it goes without saying that I learned MORE from committing to taking a weekly photo of my dog than any courses or hands-on-learning that I took.
That continual challenge to consistently create something NEW was hard. Coming up with a different idea every single week was exhausting, and yet, it kept my creativity alive.

When I started my “Abby’s Saturday” series, I never intended for it to include 500 posts and stretch the span of 11 years.
I honestly never had an “end goal” at all, but I think that I originally thought that once I was booking more weddings and once I had my own kids – that “Abby’s Saturday” would eventually just fade into the background.

Sure, I did take a few breaks – when we moved across the state, I took a break from the series.
When Braelynn was born, I took a break from the series.
And when Leander was born, I took a break from the series.
But I always came back to it.

And as Braelynn and Leander came into the picture, and I began including them in some of the photos – I entered a brand new state of obsession. I created a handful of photos that I began replicating every single year – and they would not only show how I was growing as a photographer, but how my kids were growing too.
Those are some of my favorite photos in the whole world.

But now, Abby is gone.
It’s been the strangest, quietest, most difficult last two weeks as we have been adjusting to her not being with us. It’s SO strange to walk in the door from grocery shopping or being at church – and not having her laying on the couch, waiting for us to come back. There’s no dog bowls on the floor of our kitchen, no click-clacking nails on the floor as she patrolled our house, no mounds of fur left behind on the couch after she would take a good roll to rub her back.

Waking up last Saturday and not having to write and publish an “Abby’s Saturday” post was bizarre. My day felt strangely “off” – like I had missed something and couldn’t remember what it was. After all, this is the 500th post I’ve written. If a habit is formed after 21 consecutive “doings”, what do you call it after you’ve done something 499 times?

When we knew that Abby’s time was quickly coming to an end, I sprang into action. There were two things I desperately desired: I wanted photos of us with Abby and one last portrait of her by herself. I posted the last photos I took of us last weekend (Abby’s Saturday #499) and today, I’m posting her last portrait – #500.

And with that – my Abby’s Saturday “series” comes to an end.
This has been my passion project, my obsession, my creative outlet.
I now need to work to find new “reasons” to pull my camera out and take photos (“Abby’s Saturday” was the perfect excuse to take photos every single week!)

Will “Abby’s Saturday” ever come back?
Maybe.
If, one day down the road, we get another dog – and I feel that tug to take weekly photos of them again, then maybe. But I’m not committing to it.
The kids keep asking if we can go get another dog, and as much as you know we would all really love that, we are also determined to wait. Derrick and I adopted Abby when we had been married just 8 months and now, we want to experience some life without a dog.
I’m sure we’ll get another dog again one day, but not anytime soon. (Unless something crazy happens and a dog ends up on our doorstep or something.)

All things come to an end.
And this thing: “Abby’s Saturday” – has been one of the best things I’ve ever set out to do.