Meet: Jennifer Grant

Jennifer and I have been crossing paths for a while. She's gone through almost as many transitions in life as I have, and is currently going through a major rebranding and exploring things like having an associate brand. This is big stuff and the best time to talk about what you're learning, is when the experience is fresh. She comes from a background in the business world, but at heart, is an artist. When she submitted a guest post to Photo Lovecat... we put her through the WRINGER! We roughed her up a lot and yet she still remained zen about it all - now THAT is the sign of a true warrior- which also let me know that she'd be a great fit for our feisty Photo Lovecat group. She has been through a lot and she is at a point of unlimited potential. I can't wait for her to share her expertise and a bit of her journey here on Photo Lovecat. Enough from me - let's hear from Jennifer!

Name: Jennifer Grant

Business Name: Jennifer Grant Photo, The Virtue Sessions (boudoir) and VividSpark (for emerging photographers) [.... formerly Kate Linden Studios]

Websites:
http://www.jennifergrantphoto.com
http://www.thevirtuesessions.com
http://www.vividspark.com
http://twitter.com/_jennifergrant
old photography site: http://www.katelindenstudios.com

Location: Almont, MI (aka Northern Metro Detroit)

When did you start your business? Summer 2001

What services do you offer? Wedding, Lifestyle Portrait and Boudoir Photography

What products do you offer? WHCC prints + Canvases, Finao Albums, and soon Wild Magnolia Albums (eco friendly!)

Are you home or studio based? I do my editing work from home, and I hope to soon have a office/studio space where I can meet with clients and photograph Boudoir sessions. For now, I meet with clients via skype for long distance conversations and in their neighborhood coffeehouse when they are close.

What do you enjoy about working from home? I love working from home because it means I can get more done! No drive time means no wasted time in traffic. Plus I can squeeze in household things when my computer is busy processing. Not to mention I always have a very sweet lap buddy-my fuzzy cat Sir Isaac Newton. :)

What have been the challenges of working from home? My single biggest challenge working from home is that I often forget to quit working! Besides that, it's often isolating so I have to work hard at reaching out and maintaining relationships. I often rely on social media to make sure I don't become a hermit!

Do you have any employees? I don't have any employees currently but I do take on interns every season and I expect to start growing a permanent staff very soon!

What do you outsource and to who? I tried outsourcing last year but wasn't thrilled with the results-I ended up paying $600+ to do what I could have done in a day so it wasn't worth it at all. I look forward to training someone to do all our processing and being in house-I really love the idea of having a job for someone local and supporting the local economy through my hiring.

How did you acquire your photo skills? I got started by second shooting for a local photographer (at her request) and eventually, she told me that I would "go farther and do more" so I need to open my own studio. Since then, I've been dedicated to shooting shooting shooting and always improving. I've only taken 2 workshops so I'd say my skills are from continually pursuing excellence, really dissecting my own work and applying what I learn from my mistakes (big and small). I'm continually learning every day!

How did you acquire your business skills? I actually have a bachelors of business administration with an emphasis in marketing so much of what I know comes from what I studied in college. I also read a ton and like to study big businesses for things they're doing that can be applied to small business.

What do you wish you would have known starting out? I wish I would have known that it was important to network. I always believed that I would simply be 'discovered' by the quality of my work but there is definitely an element of who you know. I know that if I'd been building relationships with people in the wedding industry, my business would have grown much faster.

What has made the biggest difference in your business? Relationships. Actually building relationships with other photographers and other industry professionals has really helped me grow my business and helped save me from pitfalls that I might not have seen fast enough. Having support as well as people who will be honest is so critical.

What do you want for the future of your business? I want to grow and support the local economy through hiring all while giving my clients an amazing experience. I also am excited to help other photographers bring their dreams into reality and I can't wait until I can do that more. Eventually, I hope to have a gorgeous studio where clients can feel special and indulged.

What do you want for your personal future? To travel more, to love more, to grow more. I need to continually work at balancing life and work.

What are you passionate about other than photography? Small business! I can't get enough of helping other entrepreneurs succeed. Oftentimes we get stuck in a place and we can't fully see the picture. I love coming in and opening their eyes to where improvements can be made and watching growth happen.

Share a little about your home life: I am married to my best friend and soul mate Dan. Highschool sweethearts, he proposed to me in front of the football team after school one day with all my friends surrounding us. We've been together forever it seems (in a wonderful way). We live in a tiny town (2,500 residents) on the edge of the Metro Detroit area (literally 42 miles directly north of Detroit) with our 2 cats; Sir Isaac Newton and Chewbecca (she's a girl). Our families live just miles away but we are ready to adventure on so I sense a move is in our future!

My favorite quote is:
Just one?! It's not really a quote but a phrase: "Scientia potentia est" (Latin for "Knowledge is Power") because I believe it's true. But beyond that, I live by "you are beloved" and the idea that my existence is about being love, personified.

Tell us a funny story about one of your experiences:
A funny story...I truly have the best clients and they are all a ton of fun so recalling a single funny event is actually kind of hard. I'm sure this isn't the funniest story I have but this summer, while we were doing portraits of the bridal party, one of the groomsmen who is a rock climber, decided to try and scale the side of the stone church! It was kinda crazy seeing him just cling to the wall and make it up 8 feet or so before it was time to leave. I'm sure he would have gone farther if given the time!

Meet: Corey Balazowich

Don't let her blonde hair and high-pitch voice fool you, because the minute you underestimate Corey is the minute you'll begin to regret ever doing so. On the outside she might appear to be your stereotypical midwestern blonde fashionista with expensive shoes but on the inside she's lived through some hard life lessons and knows how to deliver a punch when someone tries to take her for granted. It's probably because she looks so unassuming and innocent that people reveal their true colors around her and she gets to see a side of people that they otherwise wouldn't show anyone.

Corey has been to A LOT of the photography workshops offered in the wedding industry over the last 2-3 years and she's also been to most of the major conventions. Because of this, she can give you the inside scoop on who to drop the big bucks on and who you should just avoid. However, we have an agreement here at Photo Lovecat: that we won't say anything negative about anyone, because we're LOVECATS!! So, if you want the inside scoop, you're going to have to talk to her directly! All of that wisdom she's acquired over the last few years needs an outlet, which is why I've invited her to be a Photo Lovecat! Please welcome her with some love by leaving a comment or asking a question to inspire her for future posts!

Name: Corey Balazowich

Business Name: Corey Ann Photography

Websites: http://www.coreyann.com

Location: North Canton, Ohio

When did you start your business? September 2007

What services do you offer? I focus on Wedding and Portrait Photography.

What products do you offer? Currently I offer Finao albums and I use Pixel 2 Canvas for my canvases.

Are you home or studio based? Home based.

What do you enjoy about working from home/studio? Editing in my pajamas by far is the biggest perk of working from home followed closely by the ability to sleep in!

What have been the challenges of working from home/studio? I know EVERYONE says this but having set hours kind of goes out the window when you work from home. It's all too easy to "quickly" reply to one email, that turns into a blog, that turns into editing and so on.

Do you have any employees? Nope, just me. However I do have an assistant - and hopefully more next year - that is a contractor for me. My husband also shoots when he's not working on the weekend.

What do you outsource and to who? Me, myself and I.

How did you acquire your photo skills? My Dad had a Canon SLR from the 60's (I think the first one?) and I learned from him. I was very much a Daddy's Girl and would mimic him all the time so I was always right behind him taking pictures. When I was 13 I had a picture I took of Wild Horses in Corolla made into a postcard and after that the photography bug was firmly seated.

How did you acquire your business skills? To be quite honest, I don't know. You learn as you go, you learn from those smarter than you and roll with it. I also use and love ShootQ which has helped tremendously.

What has made the biggest difference in your business? My Mac Pro. Seriously. I was the BIGGEST PC cheerleader. I used to do tech support. I could fix anything that broke on a pc pretty much. It was a comfy blankie to me and I didn't want to give it up. Then I bought the thrid desktop in 2 years because yet again, I killed one editing on it. That computer died in 3 days. That was the final nail in the coffin on my PC. I haven't looked back since (although my bank account may disagree with that!)

What do you want for the future of your business? More and more happy clients!!! Honestly though, someday I would love to be a wedding and travel photographer.

What do you want for your personal future? I would like to have kids sooner-rather-than-later but of course I have to plan it so that it doesn't clash with wedding season.

What are you passionate about other than photography? I am an avid reader and read over 100 + books a year. I literally have been reading a book of some sort since I was able to read. The rest of my passions are (in no particular order): New Kids on the Block, fancy shoes, Louboutins, chapstick, bath products, bubble lights, freshly fallen snow, animals, cats, hugs, lilacs, candles and my husband.

Share a little about your home life: The house that I live in was built in the 50's and I'm the third generation to own it. My grandparents had it built, my mom grew up here, I grew up here and now I live here. It's kind of nice to live in the same house for almost 30 years! I live here with my husband and my two cats, Kitty and Sage.

Tell us a funny story about one of your experiences: I have this strange knack for getting hurt in the weirdest ways possible. I think I could get hurt sealed in a bubble. If there was a talent competition in injuries I could totally win. Anyways, during my first trip to WPPI I did a day-long shootout with a lot of other photographers. We started off at the Neon Graveyard and then continued out to a ghost town about 40 minutes away from The Strip. Two locals were with us and said that at sunset the way the rays backlight the cacti in a field right by the abandoned mine is almost magical and we really should all try to at least nail one shot from it. They warned us to be careful when around the cacti though because they hurt and the needles are really hard to get out once they go in the skin. I was following the crowd into the cacti field and someone stepped back and my instant reaction was to step back myself. Well in backing up I swung my hand into a cactus. Hard. It wasn't pretty... and it hurt. Bad. Luckily one of the guys had a knife on him to pry my hand off the cactus (but NO ONE TOOK PICTURES!!!) and eventually I got most of the spines out. However the rest of the trip, it hurt. It kept hurting all week. When I got home it felt like I had arthritis in the hand, it was the strangest thing. I tried EVERYTHING to get the remaining spines out to no avail. Eventually I went to my doctor and finally a dermatologist and was told that the scar tissue that formed over the spines/spine holes were permanent. It took about a year for me to stop having random pains in the hand but I still have the 'spots' from where they all went in. Lesson? Beware of the cactus and no matter what you do, don't slam a body part into one. They bite.

How to Submit An Article to Photo Lovecat

We believe that everyone has unique bodies of knowledge and talents to offer the greater photography and small business community. Because we don't claim to know it all, we welcome your guest articles for submission, review, and publication on PhotoLovecat.com. If there's something you think needs to be heard and you don't want to share it on your personal blog or you'd like a larger audience, we're happy to give you a place to share your voice.

Step 1: Before submitting an article:
- Because we are a volunteer organization made of people who run creative businesses, please respect our time by doing your research and submitting only full content blog articles as you are proposing it would be published according to our guidelines below.  We will not respond to solicitations- only full article submissions.
- Use the search box in the upper left hand corner to see what has already been shared on the topic you're interested in covering. If you can link to previous articles written here in the context of your own article, that would make you a super lovecat.
- Determine if what you want to share is appropriate for our audience. We generally write for photographers in their first 3 years of business and we like to provide smart, savvy, easy to implement business advice and tips.
- Please note we do not publish tech or gear related articles (unless they're a personal review of gear or software).  We focus on marketing, social media, finance, management, education, and organization.
- We only publish original content in its full article format.
- If you feel like you still have something valuable and worthwhile to offer, move on to Step 2!

Step 2: What you need to submit an article to Photo Lovecat:
- Title
- 75x75pixel Photo of yourself
- Website link
- Short blurb about your background experience (2 sentences or less).
- Article text in email or html format (include any links to photos or videos to be embedded)

Step 3: Here's what we'll do:
- Review your article for acceptance or denial
- Suggest any editorial changes
- Publish to Photo Lovecat
Notice: Some articles may be denied publication for:
- Blatant advertisement of a particular service or product
- Opinions/Information are slanderous or damaging
- Copyright and intellectual property infringement

Step 4: When you're ready to submit your article:
Please send your submission to photolovecat at gmail.com

Thanks for being a Photo Lovecat!

After Hours Live Chat with Anne - Wednesday 9 pm EST

Thanks to all who tuned in for the Live Chat! Some great questions were asked, and I hope the information shared was valuable for you! Extra thanks to the wedding planners who participated in the discussion and shared their thoughts in the sidebar comments with the photographers! You ladies ROCK!!

If you're interested in being featured in a live chat and having it featured on photolovecat.com - just drop us a line and we'll try to set up a time for you!


Hi Friends!! I just got back from Mystic 4 and next I'm looking forward to seeing many of you soon at WPPI! While I won't be presenting at WPPI, I will be hosting the Giveaway Gala along with the other lovecats and our sponsors, as well as organizing the launch of the Vegas Wedding Project! So many exciting things happening!! I can't wait!! Since I've been so busy offline outside of the blogosphere lately, I thought rather than taking the time to write another lengthy blog post, I'd just use that time to have a live discussion with anyone who's interested in knowing what I think about... well.... anything! My specialty is definitely marketing and management, but I'm happy to address any other issues that might come up as well. I might even be lucky enough to have some of the other lovecats join in on the conversation!! ;-) This is open to anyone who runs a freelance business, with the knowledge that I obviously have a greater breadth of experience in the photography world. So if you've been dying to ask me a question - I'll be here for you!


Here's a brief bio based on my Mystic 4 presentation:
Anne Ruthmann


"How an Ugly, Fat Girl became a Popular International Photographer"
She didn't get lucky photographing celebrities. She isn't skinny enough to fit into designer clothing. She doesn't have a portfolio filled with lavish, over-the-top weddings. Yet, clients are willing to book her sight-unseen, fly her across the world, and even pay 5 figures for her work. Anne has learned what clients want most and why they will go out of their way and break their budget just to have it. She'll share her secrets to branding, pricing, and client care that have contributed to her rapid success in wedding photography. To view Anne's photography, visit her blog at Anne Ruthmann Photography.

Bio:
Anne is a self-taught photographer who started photographing weddings in 2005 while living in Detroit, MI, went full time in 2006 while moving to Terre Haute, IN (a rural farm city) and just recently moved to Lowell, MA in 2008. In those few short years she has gained an international following of wedding clients, won awards in AGWPJA and WPJA, been published in several different wedding magazines and was recognized as one of PDN's Top Knots for 2008. Before realizing her passion for wedding photography, Anne spent 10 years working in finance, marketing, and management for everything from large corporations to small non-profits. She regularly shares her extensive business knowledge and experiences on various forums, in private consultations, and on the business blog PhotoLoveCat.com.

Meet: Kirstie Tweed

When I first met Kirstie at last year's WPPI Convention, I just thought she was the sweetest person ever! I wanted to invite Kirstie to share here because I noticed that she was giving great, objective, and balanced advice on a professional photography forum but it was often going unnoticed or sliding by so quickly that it wouldn't be long before the same questions were being asked again. So, I hope that this will give Kirstie a chance to archive her thoughts and insights in a more permanent place where she can help even more people! Please take a moment to say hello to Kirstie and ask her any questions you'd be interested in having her write responses for!



Name: Kirstie Tweed

Business Name: Orange Girl Photographs

Websites:http://www.orangegirlphotographs.com
http://orangegirlphotographs.blogspot.com

Location: Banff, Alberta, Canada

When did you start your business? I started focusing on wedding photography specifically 9 years ago. I graduated from art school in 1995 and worked as a gallery assistant in a San Francisco fine art gallery, a photographer's assistant for fashion and commerical photographers, as well as, exhibiting my fine art photography, photographing musicians for CD projects and shooting commercially in San Francisco and New York.

What services do you offer? Wedding and Portrait photography

What products do you offer? I adore Leather Craftsmen for their gorgeous heirloom albums and outstanding customer service. My new favourite is Simply Canvas prints. I saw Cypress albums at WPPI and I am in love with their beautiful details and craftsmanship. I just ordered my first samples from Couture and can see my clients are going to love them. I love giving Kimbra Studios jewelry as thank you gifts to my clients. I absolutely love Asuka book for custom guestbooks and vendor thank you gifts. I love IttyBitty's storyboard actions to create fun storyboard prints for my clients.

Are you home or studio based? I have an office space that I meet my clients in, that way they avoid being goosed by my overfriendly dog and I do all my editing work at home.

What do you enjoy about working from home/studio? I edit in my pajamas and get to have lunch with my husband and my dog.

What have been the challenges of working from home/studio? It is really easy for me to work all the time. When I can't sleep I find myself at the computer. For that reason I wish e-mails didn't have timestamps!

Do you have any employees? My husband assists me at every photo shoot. He is not a photographer and doesn't shoot, he's actually an incredibly talented potter. He helps me by carrying my gear so I can move more freely, helping me set up my lighting, holding off camera flash, and he is an amazing set of extra eyes who watches out for action with me. He is a absolute dream to work with, he knows me so well I don't have to say much and he's right there for me with whatever I need. It makes weddings even more fun for me because I can share them with the person I love. I feel incredibly lucky to have his amazing love and support. It's another reason I love my job.

What do you outsource and to who? I tried outsourcing my editing this summer and I was disappointed in the results, no one knows my work the way I do. I found it to be more stress inducing then helpful in the end. I use Pictage to do my print fulfillment.

How did you acquire your photo skills? My Dad and step mom bought me my first SLR when I was 12 and I knew immediately that that was what I wanted to do in life. I took photography in high school. I attended art school and graduated from the 4 year photographic arts program. Perhaps what I found most useful though was the time that I spent assisting fashion and commercial photographers right out of art school. That is really where I learned my technical skills. Working in a fine art photography gallery gave me a lot of insight into ways of seeing, it was a really valuable experience.

How did you acquire your business skills? I was very fortunate to assist very talented photographers who became my mentors and friends, they gave me a lot of business advice. I learned a lot from my time at the fine art photography gallery,
I had some incredible bosses who inspired and supported me.

What has made the biggest difference in your business? Having an incredible supportive husband and family. On the technical side my new studio software ShootQ. I don't know how I did it before ShootQ.

What do you want for the future of your business? To continue to find inspiration in the people that I photograph. I had one of my dreams come true recently when I photographed a couple's engagement pictures, their wedding, their pregnancy and most recently their newborn baby. I found that really rewarding and I would like to do that more often.

What do you want for your personal future? I would like to spend more time with my husband outside of work and see my family and friends more. I went on my first vacation with my husband since our honeymoon 7 years ago and I think we should do that every year! I'd also like to hire a photographer to take pictures of my husband and I together, we don't have any pictures together since our wedding. Whenever I'm putting together a collection of canvas prints for a client's home I think it would be nice to have something like that for our home.

What are you passionate about other than photography? I live in a beautiful place and my husband and I love to hike, canoe, cross country ski, snowshoe, ice skate, go curling and go for walks where we live together. I'm not in great shape and I'm not skilled at any of my outdoor loves but it still makes me really happy. I also love knitting baby hats, I'm just a beginner knitter but there is something so satisfying about making something with my hands.

Share a little about your home life: I live with my sweet husband and our dog Edith in a small one bedroom condo in a cooperative green building (the building is made from green materials, our toilet water is collected from rain, the property uses native grasses that don't require watering other then the natural rainfall) in beautiful Banff Canada which is a national park in the Canadian Rockies. It's like living in Yosemite. Deer peer in our living room window, we can hear the sound of bugling elk and we have seen grizzly bears while out walking our dog. We find it truly magical here.

Tell us a funny story about one of your experiences:
I was at my favourite lodge with my husband eating lunch when I noticed a sweet couple having lunch near to us. Something in the way they were interacting with each other warmed my heart. I told my husband that I guessed they were at the lodge making wedding plans, she had a beautiful engagement ring on. I told my husband that I wished I could photograph their wedding because they looked so in love and sweet together. We saw them out cross country skiing on the lake later that afternoon and they smiled as they passed us. I thought it would be incredibly tacky to hand them my business card so I said nothing. A week later I got a phone call to meet with a couple about photographing their wedding. It ended up being that same couple! They hired me and I admitted my story to them, they shared my story at the wedding reception and we've become friends since then. I tell everyone that I picked them first.

Meet: Christine Tremoulet

For quite a while, I've considered Christine to be the "queen of social media!" When it comes to the photography world, I honestly can't think of anyone who understands social media and USES it on a regular basis, more than Christine. I asked her if she would be willing to share her expertise on Photo Lovecat and I'm excited to say that she'll be joining us as one of our regular editors! In this Web 2.0 going on 3.0 world, it can be hard to keep up with the pace of technology, so I think it will be great to have someone who is on the cutting edge helping us make sense of it all. Please be a lovecat and leave some warm fuzzy comments for Christine so she'll feel welcome here! Also feel free to ask her questions to spark ideas for future Photo Lovecat posts!! We're all about sharing the love around here.


(Photo by Elaine)

Name: Christine Tremoulet

Business Name: Christine Tremoulet & Boudoir Mon Cheri

Websites: http://christinetremoulet.com
http://boudoirmoncheri.com
http://whollymatrimony.com
http://freshphotography.org
http://bigpinkcookie.com
http://twitter.com/christinebpc
(I think she needs a few more websites don't you? ;-))

Location: Houston, TX

When did you start your business? Spring 2007

What services do you offer? Wedding and Boudoir Photography

What products do you offer? I'm a huge fan of all of Miller's Products - and their customer service can't be beat! I'm testing Cypress Albums and other products this winter and plan to add them also in 2009.

Are you home or studio based? I do most of my editing work from home, and I have a office/studio space where I meet with clients and photograph Boudoir sessions.

What do you enjoy about working from home/studio? I like doing my editing at home because it is more eco-friendly - Houston is a huge city, and I like to keep my driving to a minimum. I adore my studio space for client meetings and Boudoir sessions because it has a nice, intimate feel and beautiful natural light.

What have been the challenges of working from home/studio? It is easy to get distracted while working at home - especially since my husband, Mike, also works from home most days. I also forget to stop working sometimes. Life needs more balance than that! The challenges of working at the studio is the commute time.

Do you have any employees? I have a permanent second-shooter for weddings, Elaine, and I just hired my first office employee at the beginning of November. It is a learning experience for me figuring out how to train her and to let go of control.

What do you outsource and to who? I've talked about outsourcing for months now, and yet the control-freak side of me can't let it go. Someday...

How did you acquire your photo skills? I still remember my mom commenting back in the early '80s that I should take the family vacation photos because mine always came out better. I bought my first 35mm P&S in 1982, and my first SLR in 1986 for a high school photography class. Since then, I've photographed a LOT of things! I see the world in photographs, even if I don't have a camera in my hands.

How did you acquire your business skills? I started my first business in 1999 (making soap) and owned a blog hosting company for years. I've always tried to treat clients like I would want to be treated. Things like bookkeeping, taxes, etc? Lots of reading books, blogs, forums, and any other information I can get my hands on!

What do you wish you would have known starting out? It isn't as scary as you think it will be -- I wish I had not waited so long to start out! The most successful people in the world actually fail 70% of the time -- failure doesn't have to be something to fear. It can lead you to some really great places.

What has made the biggest difference in your business? Networking with other photographers. We're all in this together, and I'm so grateful for all the people who have helped me with advice, support and encouragement. Having a supportive family has also made a huge impact.

What do you want for the future of your business? To continue to grow and have FUN doing it! But to have more balance in my life - to let go of some control and not have to do everything myself.

What do you want for your personal future? To have more serenity, and more time with my family & friends.

What are you passionate about other than photography? Knitting! Oh, how I love to knit. There is something so calming about the feel of wool and making pretty things. I'm also pretty passionate about social media and all things internet. Especially blogging -- I've been doing it now since 2000, so it is second nature to me.

Share a little about your home life: I'm married to the most awesome man in the world, Mike. While we didn't meet online, we did meet thanks to blogs back in 2002, and we got married in 2004. My fantastic and amazing son, Jason, is now 16 and a junior in high school. We have a cat, Mona, who likes to sleep a lot, but will wake up at any time for some good head scratches. We live way out in the fringes of northwest Houston, but dream of moving into the heart of the city once Jason graduates from high school.

My favorite quote, that I totally live by (for better or worse) is:
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Tell us a funny story about one of your experiences:
Oh, goodness. I have the best clients, so most of my stories are more warm & fuzzy than they are funny. Recently, I was shooting an engagement session at the Houston Zoo. I was doing what I like to call "photographer yoga" which involves getting into weird positions as you try to get that perfect shot with gorgeous sun flare. I was crouched down, balancing on my toes, as I felt it happen. I started to tip slowly backwards. It was like it was in slow motion, a scene out of the Matrix as my arms started to twirl in the air. All I could think was, "Protect the camera!"

I ended up on my back on the ground, laughing. I was ok, the camera was fine, and once I reassured my clients that it was all good, we had a great laugh over it. I giggle every time I look at the photo, and at their wedding we laughed about my Matrix photography skills!

Meet: Jillian Kay

I recently mentioned Jillian's new book, Dear Silly Lady, based on loads of valuable advice she's shared with other photographers about how to handle sticky client situations, and asked her if she would join me in sharing her wonderful wisdom on the photolovecat blog! To help kick off her contributions, I thought it would be fun to learn a little more about the woman behind the advice...




Name: Jillian Kay Cocklin

Business Name: Jillian Kay Photography

Websites: jilliankay.com, dearsillylady.com

Location: San Jose, CA

When did you start your business? August 2006

What services do you offer? Portrait & Wedding Photography

What products do you offer? I'm using a fabulous album designer (my sister), and I currently use KISS & Albums Unlimited for albums. I'm going to be outsourcing my editing soon, and I've chosen to work with Colorati

Are you home or studio based? At home right now, but I move into a small office on February 1st!

What do you enjoy about working from home/studio? I'm hoping that the office will give me a better work environment and a cozy place to meet with clients.

What have been the challenges of working from home/studio? Home is a little too distracting for me, and a little nerve-wrecking ever since my roommates disabled the smoke alarms.

Do you have any employees? Nope

What do you outsource and to who? My sister, Katie, designs my albums and Colorati will soon be editing my photos.

How did you acquire your photo skills? Sheer will of force. Also, a lot of forum reading. :)

How did you acquire your business skills? My parents instilled a lot of my people skills, I took a lot of leadership and management training at my company (as a software engineer), and I've gained a lot of information by listening to books on cd, and of course I ready forums and blogs fervently!

What do you wish you would have known starting out? Start off worrying more about getting a technically well lit and color balanced photo...don't start off worring about which photoshop action/filter defines your style. Your style will start to emerge in-camera & in your imagination...not by pushing buttons in photoshop.

What has made the biggest difference in your business? I'm still in the emerging state...so I think I'll be able to answer this question better in a year. Overwhelmingly, though, people have made the difference. Engaging with other photographers and learning how and why they do what they do, helping others in any small way I can, and seeing by the examples of my peers that this industry can be very rewarding. People have strengthened me and caused me to push further than I would ever have dreamed.

What do you want for the future of your business? I'd love to see myself as a small studio, with a boutique wedding style catering to slightly off the path brides. I want my future to be successful enough to cut the engineering umbilical cord and give me the freedom to spend all of my energy in activites that inspire more energy!

What do you want for your personal future? I want to be more financially fit, more physically fit, and sleep more. :-) I also want to network more with photographers in my area, and build more local friendships in the industry.

What are you passionate about other than photography? I love shoes! I have a huge addiction to blog watching. I also find it difficult to tear away from tv shows about real-estate and interior design! I have recently started a collection of door knobs and drawer pulls.

Share a little about your home life: I'm single and currently live with 3 roommates in the suburbs. Our home is being demolished to put up condos, so I'll be moving soon (mostly likely back to downtown San Jose, yay!). I have three wonderful goldfish, who are the most animated and interactive fish I have ever met. I work a lot, but in my spare time I love to go out with friends.

My favorite quote, that I totally live by (for better or worse) is:
'Why Not?' is a slogan for an interesting life. - Mason Cooley

The current theme song of my life...I guess would have to be Times Like These by Foo Fighters, especially this verse:
I am a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky
to hang the stars upon tonight
I am a little divided
do I stay or run away
and leave it all behind?

Tell us a funny story about one of your experiences: I'm naturally brunette, but when I have a "blond-moment" it's usually of the "platinum" variety. Once I was a little flustered with a client, as I always get when I try to make a sale....it makes me nervous. They said they'd love to make a payment right then, and she started looking for her checkbook. He couldn't find his checkbook either, and they were terribly embarrassed. I, of course, wanting to be helpful offered to let them use my checkbook, and got it out of my purse. They stared blankly at me for a moment, and waited for me to realize why that wouldn't work. Then we had a great laugh, and just took care of the payment another day! Good thing I have clients with a great sense of humor. :)

That ranks right up there with the day I wanted to patent whole-wheat popcorn. ;) I'm a ditz.
Cheers,
Jillian

If you have a question that you'd like Jillian to address on the blog, please leave a comment to help give her ideas about what to post!

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Photo Lovecat is a free public business advice resource for photographers, artists, and freelance creatives to help educate and elevate small business practices by making business building information both easy to understand and freely available. We are full-time creative professionals making a living doing what we love and sharing what we learn along the way.

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