This has always been a constant for me. While I have always been open to photographing and teaching both genders, I am consistently drawn to connecting and giving to women. The reasons are countless, but the foundation of my new plans are based on these three points.
SERVING ALL WOMEN
Every woman knows that her family is the most special, that her children are the most beautiful, her sisters the most fabulous, her girlfriends the most amazing. And I would go so far as to say that every woman should have tangible reminders of that.
Think back to your college days. All of us ladies had our walls covered with photos of our besties, of our sisters and brothers, of our special people. Framed or not, taped up on cinder block walls, the faces of our loved ones reminded us of our blessings and made our dorm rooms our “happy place”. Meanwhile the guys had posters of professional athletes, or movies, or even posters of their favorite beers. No photos, no framed memories. No way.
We women have always treasured visual reminders of the ones we love. And I love providing that for women everywhere. But my eyes have been opened to the reality that not every woman can afford the luxury of beautiful portraits of her loved ones. And that’s not ok. This is one small thing I can do with great love.
Deciding to provide more women with portraits of their loved ones, whether they can afford it or not- it kind of flies in the face of everything I learned about business. I’ve been reading and hearing for years that the secret to a successful business is to create a “boutique experience”, to keep the volume of clients low, and the prices high, because if your work is good, and the experience is customized and luxurious, you’ll find that target market that can afford it and will pay for it.
This might be the secret to some kind of “successful” business, but my ideas of success have changed.
My vision of success includes reaching more women everywhere, providing an opportunity for all women to enjoy the experience of creating beautiful memories with her loved ones, giving that joy to more women, no matter who they are.
This vision means that I will return to a “shoot and burn” style of photography, where I offer digital files rather than fancy prints, packages, and custom pieces. This will allow me to reduce my prices and photograph more women, moms, and families.
I also plan to get back to my teaching roots, to create a variety of valuable resources (some free, all affordable) to women everywhere so they can use their own cameras and create their own memories every day.
Finally, I would like to offer monthly events where I take a day to donate all of my time and resources to mothers who have never experienced the joy of owning portraits of their children because they have never had the money. More on that to come.
This will all mean much more work for me, but this is what it means to me to do small things with great love. My hope is to provide something tangible to ALL women. Now THAT’S my idea of success.