We recently connected with Kelly Sandberg and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

Not sure if it’s the most innovative thing, but I scale my pricing depending on the type of show I am shooting to make it accessible to artists of all sizes. I charge a much lower price for small artists playing DIY shows who don’t necessarily have the budget for a photographer but still need photos. And then I scale up accordingly depending on the size of venue being played.

I like to do this to make photography more accessible to everyone. All artists need photos for promotion to help their online promo and increase their presence. Just because a band is small with limited budget shouldn’t mean they don’t get nice photos to promote themselves.

I’ve built really good relationships with artists by doing this and have gotten repeat customers who then scale up with me as they continue to grow.

Kelly, 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 grandmother was an artist and photographer and she gave me my first camera when I was around 9 years old. I was always kind of shooting throughout my childhood. In middle school I started messing around with a DSLR in my yearbook class and even took the yearbook cover photo for my 8th grade yearbook. By high school my grandmother bought me my own DSLR and I started shooting more and teaching myself how to shoot manually. I started doing my first paid shoots in high school for things like homecoming and prom dance photos, thanks to my teacher Mr. Foley teaching me how to use studio lights. That wasn’t something usually taught in the class but he saw how much interest and potential I had and spent the extra time to show me more than the curriculum called for.

When it was time to go to college, I ended up majoring in Studio Art in UC Riverside, specifically focusing in photography. I also worked at the darkroom, teaching film processing and printing to intro level students. I took a break from shooting after college, but started picking it back up a few years later.

Music has always been a huge part of my life, specifically the emo/pop-punk scene, and my dream had always been to be a touring music photographer but I didn’t have the confidence to go for it. Around 2022, I bought myself a new camera and started trying to shoot shows and have kept it going ever since. I’ve shot bigger shows, but also have made quite a presence in DIY music and have gotten most of my paid clients through that scene.

I do also shoot things like headshots, graduation, engagement, etc. type photos as well, since I can usually get more paid work that way. But my main interest is music and it always will be. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a place where music photography is my full time job, but I’m very happy that I get to do it in the capacity that I do. It really fulfills something for my inner child.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have a huge following, but all of my followers are pretty solid. I just started shooting shows and tagging all the artists I shot, which then get circulated and people find me.

Specifically, a lot of my followers came from artists in the DIY music scene. I shoot a lot of DIY bands at DIY venues and their fans are super engaged with me. They’ve been a great source of promotion and word of mouth marketing. I’ve definitely found new clients from people who follow other artists I’ve shot.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It keeps life fun and offers me a lot of really fun opportunities. Music and music photography have brought me a ton of really cool opportunities and experiences that I am so thankful for. I love having something I can do that resonates with other people. I love seeing my friends use photos I’ve taken as their background photos, or an artist using the photos I took for them as their Instagram icon. It makes me feel like I have a deeper purpose and that is very special to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ksandbergphoto.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kellysandberg.jpg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/porkbellyphoto

Image Credits

All photos by me, Kelly Sandberg.