We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Megan McKinzey Lunsford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Megan McKinzey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, let’s jump into one of the most exciting parts of starting a new venture – how did you get your first client who was not a friend or family?
My first ever client was actually my now-best-friend Hanna. Hanna and I go way back. We went to high school together in Farmington, New Mexico and somehow both ended up in the tiny mountain town of Woodland Park, Colorado. I had transferred to Woodland Park right before my junior year of high school. Hanna had already graduated in New Mexico as she was a few years older than myself. Anyways, the summer before I started my junior year, I had gotten much more interested in photography. My dad had given me an old 50mm film camera, and I was taking tons of photos of the mountains and greenery (being a desert rat from New Mexico, this was an entirely new environment for me) was doing really cringey selective color edits. It was, like, 2011 and was totally in style, ok? At the time, Hanna was more my brother’s friend and I was definitely intimidated by how cool she was. I still laugh about it now. I remember, one day she had reached out to me asking if I was doing photo sessions of people, since I had been posting so many photos. She had never gotten her senior photos taken and I think her grandma had been bugging her for the past year about it. She offered me, like $100 to do them for her, and I did not hesitate to say yes! I remember being SO nervous. I had been taking photos of landscapes but I had never taken portraits before. At the time, she was living in Manitou Springs. We met up one chilly winter afternoon and took some photos near the river. The air was crisp and there were bubbling streams of water underneath the frozen river. It was absolutely beautiful. It’s so funny looking back at those photos now. I had no idea how to pose people, my camera was on auto settings, and my editing was so inconsistent! I think I was using some photo editing app and applied filters instead of having an editing workflow in Photoshop like I have now. I love that Hanna was my first real client and my first real portrait session. I’ve taken so many photos of her over the years. She helped me with photo projects for school, I took her modeling photos, her maternity photos, I even took photos of the birth of her first and only son. I can comfortably say that I would not be where I am as an artist without Hanna. It’s so incredible that our lives and these milestones and our friendship has been documented so thoroughly, and it’s all thanks to my drive to make art and both her initial encouragement in the beginning and her undying support that still pushes me to make art today!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Megan McKinzey Lunsford and I am a photographer and multimedia artist! My primary discipline is portrait photography, but I dabble in all sorts of art forms! My love for art started at a young age, and I was the kid who was always playing with chalk on the sidewalk, molding clay on the kitchen counter, and asking for art sets from Santa. My mom was (and still is) a crafty woman and I’d like to thank her for my creative drive. In the past year or so, I’ve been experimenting with candy making, glitch art, alternative photographic processes and most recently, ceramics! I specialize in senior portraits, boudoir, engagement sessions, cosplay photos, contemporary art collaborations, and the like! I dabble in all sorts of portrait photography, but those are my favorite types of sessions. I’ll photograph almost anything except for weddings and newborns.
I am a bright individual with the blue hair to match my vivid personality and love to get genuine smiles and laughter from my clients. I am LGBTQA+ friendly, a lover of all cats in the world, a coffee connoisseur, and an avid video game player. I cater to a wide range of clients and I am always up for new challenges and projects! My main goal is to provide clients with bright and beautiful images that showcase them for who they uniquely are.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
The first digital camera I ever received (a Canon Rebel T3 with a kit lens, if I recall correctly) was a gift from my dad. He was, and definitely still is, one of my biggest fans and truest supporters. I had spent the majority of my junior and senior year of high school saving up money I’d get from photo sessions. I was truly lucky to have such a supportive and tight-knit community in Woodland Park. Lots of classmates, their parents, their friends, etc. would hire me for all sorts of events, whether it be senior portraits, family photos, events, and tons more! I applied for several scholarships my senior year of high school and was eventually chosen as a recipient for the Young Entrepreneur Foundation scholarship from the National Federation of Independent Business. This scholarship allowed me to purchase my first full-frame camera that I still use to this very day! From there, I started attending college at University of Colorado to get my bachelor’s of fine arts with an emphasis in photography. I was working at the University’s newspaper: The Scribe. I was so lucky to have classmates, coworkers, colleagues, and others continue to hire me for photographic services to get me where I am today. Fast forward to now, and I’m continuing to hone my craft and experiment with new equipment. In the past several years, I’ve gotten more into speed lights and external flash set ups to help me achieve my distinctively bright images!
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
Oh man, this is a really rough one. I still talk to my partner and my best friend (who is also a photographer) about this day often! It’s one of those memories that keeps you up at night, truly! It must have been my senior year of high school. My aforementioned best friend and fellow photographer was visiting Colorado from New Mexico. It must have been Spring Break or something, because we were being lazy girls one day. I remember laying in my game room, loafing around, and must have fallen asleep for who-knows-how-many hours. I was groggy and woke up to SEVERAL missed calls, angry text messages and livid voicemails from a client. I had slept through her daughter’s Quinceañera that I was supposed to photograph at the park that afternoon. I can NOT tell you how horrified I was! The client was understandably upset. I ended up sending her a letter in the mail giving her my most sincere apologies. Luckily (I guess) I hadn’t collected payment for the event and didn’t have a contract. And, on the brighter side of things, the other daughter of the client ended up taking some photos of her sister and ended up picking up photography as a side gig! She still takes photos to this day! But, this was one of those mistakes where I was certain that, in such a small town, I would never hear the end of it and would never do business again! I definitely still think about it and feel HORRIBLE about it to this very day. Almost 10 years later, I haven’t forgotten or slept through another event like that again and absolutely never will!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.meganmckinzey.com
- Instagram: @meganmckinzey
Image Credits
Photo of me: Bree Madrid Photography All other photos: by me