We recently connected with Darcy Ferris and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Darcy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned photography in the high school darkroom. Ironically, my mother’s photography teacher, was also mine. He was an insightful and encouraging teacher. Learning how to roll my own film, take photographs and develop the film in the chemicals felt like pure magic. Watching a white piece of print paper turn into art from a moment in one’s life is an indescribable feeling.

I don’t think there was anything that could have sped up the learning process. The process of learning photography happened as naturally as it could.

Skills that helped my photography journey over the years have changed. In junior high and high school it was a craving for a form of creativity. Photography probably started unconsciously, as my mother always had a camera tethered to her hands. As an only child, she documented my life purposefully. I have tubs of tangible photographs to prove it. In my mother’s early years, she worked as a photographer for the local newspaper. In the last three years, my biggest advantage that has helped was prioritizing my listening skills. The way someone tells me their story impacts the way I tell their story. A person not only uses their words, but also facial expressions, emphasis on certain words and how they breathe. Everyone has a story and to be able to tell a story well, I have to be willing to open my ears and truly listen in every way possible.

An obstacle that stood in my way getting back into photography was time. Time brings change, and change it did. After high school, I put photography up on a shelf. When I picked my camera back up in 2009, the digital age was upon me. In a way, it was a whole relearning process.

Darcy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My favorite part of photography is telling someone’s story. There’s no doubt that I love photographing people the most. I moved to Nashville, TN to pursue a music career and while music dreams led me here, they turned me toward my true passion. I was working in the music business and not feeling creatively fed. My mother encouraged me to pick up a camera again. I hadn’t picked up a camera in so long that the dark room and film world were gone. I had to relearn in the new digital age. I took a couple photoshop classes and before I knew it I was photographing families, then weddings. I officially started a business in 2011. Fast forward quite a few years and then 2020 happened. Every kind of social event on the planet was canceled. During covid, I re-evaluated everything in my business. I took note of what I loved photographing, what I didn’t enjoy photographing. I thought about how many hours a week I wanted to work and how I wanted to move forward. Most importantly, I asked God for direction. What was the next path I was to take?

I decided to divide my business into two areas. There’s the corporate event side and the family film and photo side. I would continue photographing events and families, but I would learn how to make films, as in videography, geared towards families. Not only did my mom always have a camera, she also bought a camcorder the year I turned eight – 1988. Yes, I’m THAT old. I’m blessed to have VHS of my mom much younger, my grandparents and people I love and loved deeply on video. Those memories are literally priceless to me. Films provide a next level gift that photographs cannot.

Family films are like nothing else that I’ve done. I’m beyond passionate creating them. I’ve filmed families who have lost a child, who have lost grandparents and parents. I have filmed families that have monthly family gatherings to re-watch their film and relive their film day. Parent’s tell me that their kids ask to see their films. Films are sowing seeds of togetherness into families who spend time together. These films are a legacy for their family, for their children, for their children’s children. Films preserve what a photograph cannot, someone’s voice or the way they laugh or a saying someone says. My goal is for families to have what I am so blessed to have, family films. What I want people to know is that their story matters and I want to tell it.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

My clients make what I do possible. It’s my clients that pay my bills by hiring me. That’s the case for almost any creatives. With that said, I find it necessary to invest into my clients. All of my clients, corporate and family are treated like family. I want to know how their family is doing by keeping in touch. When I first started doing family films, it was reaching out to past clients that give me yearly business to offer them a free film. I needed families to practice with and they were loyal to come back to me every year so I wanted to bless them. Doing rewards for loyal families is really important to me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This is a statement that is constantly coming up in photography (and probably most creative endeavors) and its ‘community over competition’. I don’t think I truly understood it until my late 30’s. Being a creative for a living is hard. When times are tough, it’s typically the first thing people cut from their budget. Why make it harder by competing against a fellow creative? You’ve heard the saying, “a rising tide lifts all boats”? It’s true. Sure, there will always be those who want to play defense. You can only control yourself, so stay in your lane and encourage those around you. Some of my closest relationships are with photographers and other creatives. We bounce ideas off one another and get together to brain storm or chat over coffee. There’s nobody who does something exactly like me and there’s nobody who does something like someone else. I also believe one needs confidence in themselves in order to believe in and behold community over competition.

Contact Info:

• Website: nashvillefamilyfilms.com – darcyferris.com
• Instagram: @nashvillefamilyfilmsandphoto @nashvilleeventphotography
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJ9hUhT6P56J1Xj5ofeTLg
• Other: I listed two websites and two instagrams above. If I need to choose only one, please go with the @nashvillefamilyfilms site. thank you!

Image Credits

all photos by Darcy Ferris