Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Swann. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kelsey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I was an elementary school teacher for many years before leaving to stay home with my boys, and then jumping into the dual roll of Homeschool Mom and Photographer/Small Business Owner. Being a teacher taught me endless patience, and also a joy of working with kids of all ages. I tell the parents of the children I’m photographing – “I’ve seen it all, nothing phases me, we will just roll with it and meet them where they’re at”. In my former role as a teacher, I also learned how important communication is, and how to make my clients an key part of the creative process, hear their ideas and see how we can weave them into the photos, the same way I strove to have that open and clear communication with my students’ parents. When I was younger I never imagined I would be a teacher, but I loved it, and it prepared me so well for motherhood and working with my photography clients.

Kelsey, 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?

I’m an internationally published portrait photographer, specializing in Families, Senior Grad photos, Equine, and Business Branding. I’ve been taking photos for as long as I can remember and drew my first inspiration from the National Geographic magazines that were strewn about my childhood home. The way their photographers were able to tell a story through their photos, the rich true-to-life colors, I wanted to learn how they did that. I initially wanted to be a photojournalist, but that career avenue wasn’t in the cards for me and I became a teacher for many years, before leaving to stay home with my sons. Itching to find a way to balance staying home with my boys alongside working, I got my first photography clients shortly after my second son was born. I had never run a small business, I had little idea what I was doing. But I had a good eye and a desire to learn as I went along. I spent hours upon hours utilizing my sons as models to perfect my camera settings until they were second nature. When my boys grew tired of posing, I used whatever was around me – soccer balls, flowers, stuffed animals. I found photographers whose style I connected with and took courses from them, and bit by bit my own style emerged and my confidence grew. Now five years after I started Kelsey Swann Photography I have a wonderful list of loyal clients who have become like family, whose kids I’ve gotten to see grow up at their yearly portrait shoots. And I never stop striving to learn new techniques both in shooting and editing (the lengthiest part of the process). I have always hand-edited my images, everything is from scratch without the use of any presets/filters. Because of this I’m able to address all the fine-tuning and small-detail aspects of editing – windblown hair, light reflections in glasses, face-swapping between images to make one perfect image, smoothing blemishes from skin, even ear-swapping on animals. It can be a painstaking process, especially for larger subjects like horses, but I go over each image with a fine-toothed comb and want my clients’ images to be ready to display at their house. It’s a great feeling when a client sends me a picture of one of the images from their session showing it framed and hanging on the wall. Freezing that moment in time and making it into a memory!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My business was really starting to take off when the Pandemic hit and my oldest son’s school was shuttered at the end of his kindergarten year, bringing his learning to the kitchen table. During this time we discovered that my son not only had a host of neurodiversities but actually learned much better at home. I had never planned on homeschooling, it never crossed my mind. But seeing how much happier he was learning at home. how much he thrived in a quiet and one-on-one environment encouraged me to pull him out and put him in a home-based charter, with me as his teacher. His school year started right at the cusp of my busiest time every year – the “Fall Rush” – when everyone books photos for holiday cards. I do 75% of my yearly business in a four month period, and it’s always an exhausting time, but now I was taking it on while homeschooling my son. It was a marathon run every day, 7 days a week for months. I would tell people “It’s working, I’m not sure how but it’s still working. It isn’t sustainable by any means but I’ll go with it as long as I can”. Fast-forwards two years later, I’ve grown my business even more and now I’m homeschooling my second son as well. I’m looking to fall and already thinking “This won’t be doable”, but I remember back to those early days when somehow, some way it all fell into place and worked out, and I’m encouraged that I can make it continue to work.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

This question comes up a lot in photography forums and my answer is always the same – client referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations are like gold to small business owners. If you put the time and effort into building that client repertoire, getting to know them and their families, working with them to make for not only a fun and memorable photoshoot, but ensuring the final images are all up to their expectations afterwards, that not only creates repeat clients but encourages them to share their photos and their positive experience with others. I had to heavily advertise myself when I was first starting out, having no clientele base was a challenge and took time to build. Now I’ve created such a web of connections with my clients that they in a sense advertise for me, and I am beyond grateful for each and every one of them who recommends me to their friends and families. And I don’t take those referrals for granted, I know that by them recommending me they are putting themselves out there, they are telling others that they believe in me and my services, and I will do everything I can to always give them continued reasons to keep referring me, and come back year after year.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kelseyswannphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kswannphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelseyswannphotography