what's in a name?

NOT that i'm yet ready to start a photography business, but one of the things i constantly think about (besides buying a new, upgraded camera) is what to name the business when i'm ready to start it - legally.  cause, you know, if i'm gonna do something for real, then it'll be - well, for real.  like, registered with the state, paying taxes, keeping records, the whole shebang.  i'm a fair-minded person and one thing i don't want to do is not be legit.  that's why i just can't charge for what i do now!

so ANYWAY, i think i'm one step closer.  not because i have a new camera.  because i think i have finally come up with a business name.  and yes, all this time i've been calling myself "sugar&spice photography" but that one was just on a whim.  it isn't IT.  let me tell you why.

first, i used that one because it was the name on this blog.  this blog was titled because i was trying to be clever with geology words, not photography words.  let me go one step back even more.  to tie in to my geology background, let me explain my email, which is theoutcrop... as in - meet me behind the outcrop, i'm a little boulder/bolder there.  if you aren't a geologist, you've either never heard that joke or wish i hadn't told you (you aren't laughing).  if you ARE, you probably snickered.  thus, my blog title is "sugar and spice and everything gneiss" -  GNEISS is a rock type.  again, you either get it or you don't. 

that being said, when i started my blog - ages ago - i didn't have any kids.  it was totally about geology.  but as i had kids, and loved them and posting photos of them, the "sugar and spice" part became really cool.  especially since i had a boy and a girl.  which in that case, i should have changed it to be spice and sugar.  literally (i mean, figuratively).  SOOOO, that's one more thing i dont' like about it.  it's in the wrong order. 

next, if you go to the NC secretary of state's webpage, there is already several companies named sugar and spice - not necessarily photographers, but that name has different versions already.  i like being original.  plus, sugar & spice photography is REALLY long. 

so, analee, why don't you just use the name analee thornburg photography? 
because it is long.  and, to me, it sounds horrible and doesn't flow.  it sounds like eeh pthtth eekgrrpht.  (my way of saying "gross" as i accidentally spit in your face.)  i prefer a business name that does not include the word "photography" because i do more than just photography.  as in, i am an artist of many media. i like to make paper cards, digital cards, photo books, digital retouching and editing, painting, etc. i also think that photography  is a word of the past.  to me, it is for FILM (where the you print what you shot, now with digital photos there is so much processing the customer may not get what was shot).  and, though i learned on film (i still have my SLR), i am all digital now and also want a name that implies what i REALLY do.  not just photography.

but mainly it was the originality part that was bothering me.  i hate sounding like a copy cat.  and then the use of the word "photography."

that being said, i've come up with a solution.  will share it later.  this was just a build up post!  buh hahahahahaha!