We recently connected with Jamie Brinkman and have shared our conversation below.

Jamie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

I am a Wedding Photographer so a lot goes into this job that many don’t realize – it’s not just taking the photos on the day of the wedding. Prior to the wedding, a lot of time goes into the booking process, timeline planning, wardrobe discussions etc, however what I believe to be so important is really treating the client and making the entire experience not only seamless but unexpectedly enjoyable. So when my clients book a wedding with me, the first thing I do after I send them their contract and a questionnaire is to send them a personalized welcome gift. I look at the answers from their questionnaire so I can make the gift very personal to them. If they have a pet they adore I make sure I throw in a gift for their pet as well. When it comes to their wedding day, I am one of the only vendors that is with them the entire day, so I make sure that they have drinks and snacks, I help them carry their things, I help them put on their shoes, and many other things that aren’t directly in my job description as a photographer. I shoot a lot of brides on the sand at the beach so many times I am helping wipe the sand off my clients feet before I help them get their heels back on. It’s all about treating the clients how you would want to be treated and ensuring they have a marvelous experience.

Jamie , 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 name is Jamie Brinkman and I am a wife to a firefighter, a mother to three adventurous boys, a professional photographer, a writer, a surfer and a perpetual entrepreneur.
My career in photography began in college. I thought I wanted to be a magazine editor and so I majored in Communications/ Journalism with a minor in photography. I interned at a fashion and nightlife magazine in San Diego and quickly discovered that I hated the monthly deadlines. So when I graduated college, I had a minor quarter life crisis, and got a job as a surf instructor at a local surf camp. After doing this for a few months, I met some reps from Billabong and got a full time job at their corporate head quarters in Irvine. After working there for about 6 months, I had an opportunity to photograph one of their “Surf with a Pro Camps” and thus began my dive into the world of photography as my career.
I met my husband that same year and brought him with me on many of these “Surf with a Pro Camp” experiences. It was shortly after my own wedding in 2007 that I fell in love with the idea capturing other couple’s love stories. I shot my first wedding in 2010 and have shot hundreds of weddings since. It is my greatest joy to capture a couple as they fall more in love and grow their families.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think that best way to build a reputation in the wedding industry is to help out fellow vendors and provide all of the vendors with quality images. It takes a lot of people to pull off a large event like a wedding day and everyone really needs to work together. By being a team player and offering your help and services to fellow vendors, not only does it help those vendors, it also ensures the couple’s day goes smoothly. Therefore, I always make sure to communicate in a timely way with vendors prior to the event, do my best to make sure I am helpful throughout the day and then provide images for the vendors to use after the event (providing we have permission from the couple of course). By providing excellent service to both the client and the vendors, referrals and recommendations become the primary way of securing new business as well.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I began my business in 2007, I was a mother of a very young baby and didn’t have a lot of time to put into this new business. I grew it slowly and steadily as I raised three young boys and took the work that I was able to in the beginning. As my children grew, so did the amount of time I had to put into it. By the time they were school age, I was able to take my photography business full time and was shooting approximately 30-40 weddings a year as well as families, portraits and other types of events. What I love about photography as a career is that you can decide how much you want to work and what niche you want to specialize in. I built my business around the time I had as a full time stay at home mom.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jamiebrinkman.com
• Instagram: @jamiebrinkmanphoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamiebrinkmanphotography

Image Credits

The photo of my family in black and white skating – Katie Morrow Photography
The photo of me shooting in my bathing suit was taken by my husband
The photo of just me in the hat and maroon dress for the bio pic was taken by Holly Sigafoos Photography