We were lucky to catch up with Lynsie Ochoa recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lynsie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment I have made in this venture has been education courses. When I started out, I knew very little about photography, but I enjoyed it as a hobby. When the pandemic hit, I took advantage of the free classes the Nikon School offered online, and watched their videos several times over to learn the basics. I practiced on my son several times over and any of my friends and family that would allow me to, and by Christmas time that year, I felt confident enough to offer my first paid session. I quickly learned that I was woefully uneducated in editing and kind of endured a baptism by fire. Over the year that followed I enrolled into CreativeLive and learned so much from the classes offered there. I learned how to pose, style, and edit a variety of session types. January 2022 I enrolled into the Milkyway Online Newborn Retreat and in spring I enrolled into their Family Retreat. What I learned in those courses has been invaluable and amazing. It truly boosted my skill levels and my confidence in my art. I wish I had done that back in 2020. Currently, I am in the works of saving for a mentorship with Ana Brandt as I feel that the education I gain from working with her will boost my skills and business to a whole new level.

Lynsie, 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 Lynsie Ochoa, I am the photographer behind WillowTree Photo LLC in St. Francis, Minnesota. I am currently 37 years old, mother to an amazing 4 year old little boy, and spouse to a great man who also has his own small business and works so hard for our family. We are very busy with life and our businesses but still find time to have fun together as a family. My son is on the autism spectrum, and it is because of him, and for him, that I took photography more seriously than as just a hobby. I was a nurse from 2003 to 2018. When my son came into the world, I decided, for multiple reasons, not to return to the workforce in healthcare. I did try to return when he was a year old, but due to childcare issues, it did not work out.
While I was home with my son, as many do, I picked up my camera in an attempt to document his life. Babies grow so fast in that first year and I wanted to have photos to look back on in every stage. Like most moms, I studied Pinterest boards and tried to do many of the cute poses and setups I found there and quickly learned that baby photography is a lot harder than Pinterest makes it look. But that did not stop me.
After my failed attempt at returning to the workforce, and after we received my son’s diagnosis, I realized that my schedule taking him to his various appointments would never allow me to return to a regular job again; so I decided to try to find a way to make money from home to help support my family and ease the financial strain from my spouse who was carrying the entire burden. I tried a couple of avenues but they were ill suited to our situation.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, I took advantage of the classes the Nikon School offered online and learned all I could about photography. I always had a passion for photography, so why not turn that passion into a career. I studied and practiced and by the time Christmas season came that year, I was taking paid clients and building my business from a dream into a reality.
Since then I have learned so much, and I am humbled every day by the amount of people whom I have worked with and for and those who continue to return for my services. I am truly blessed.
When I started, I offered a little bit of everything (minus wedding) that came my way.
Now I have narrowed my specialties down to Maternity and Newborn photography, Cake Smash Photography, Family Photography, Senior Photography, and various themed mini sessions.
I love working with clients in styling their sessions and helping them to understand every step of the process, from booking to after their session. I want my clients to feel comfortable, and to leave happy with the service I provided them with.
I’m proud of how much I have learned over the course of 2 years, and I will never stop learning and growing. I am proud that the art I create hangs on the walls of my client’s homes. That what I am doing is documenting moments in their lives, whether it be a maternity session, or a newborn baby, that first birthday, or the kids meeting Santa at one of my Christmas mini sessions. They are short moments frozen in time.
I want clients to know that with me, I truly do care about them and see them as people, not just clients. They are people with stories and lives, and I am honored that I have been chosen by them to document it. And I want to say thank you to them for honoring me with such privilege.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Mentorships. I so badly wish I’d have known about them from the start. I am mostly self taught with the help of online classes. I’m proud that I’ve come as far as I have on my own, but there’s still so much I do not know and need guidance on. I am saving to enroll in a mentorship program right now with a celebrity photographer and I cannot wait to get there and learn all that I can and implement it into my business and my art.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think there’s still so many out there that does not understand that professional photography is an art form and far more goes into it than clicking a button or snapping a quick shot with a cell phone. Every now and then I will get a rude commentor on one of my social media posts mocking my prices. For instance: “$XXX for 15 minutes what a joke!” What they don’t realize is that on the client’s end, its 15-20 minutes if you don’t include the consultation time.
On my end, I have the time it takes for consulting with the client to build the session, the time it takes to set up for the session and tear down after, the session itself, the hours spent culling and editing the gallery after the session, delivery of the gallery proofs, consultation with the client while they choose their images, the hours spent editing the final images, and finally the delivery. Far more than 15 minutes.
Plus add in the cost for production: Props, backdrops, sets, the lighting equipment, the camera itself, the computer, internet, various softwares for editing and delivering the photos, marketing costs, website and domain fees, utilities fees, fees for permits for some outdoor locations, etc.
This is not just a hobby. Props are very expensive. If you buy props from a vendor, which I often do because their products are amazing and made specifically for photography, but for instance, my favorite vendors often charge about $120 for a basket for newborns. Another $27 for the little bow headband, $40 for the knitted bump blanket layer, well over $100 for the posing aids, $20 for the wrap, if I use my hardwood floor drop that was $450 if I use a plain solid color backdrop that was $80-$150, so on and so forth. It takes time and a lot of money to accumulate everything one needs to offer studio photography, especially newborn photography.
Lets not forget the costs of education to learn the proper and safe way to do this. YouTube has many great resources to start out, but if you really want a quality education, you need to pay for it, the same as everything else.
Our session fees are based on our cost of doing business. It’s important to try to understand that before making snide comments on a social media post about someone’s prices in their small business.
Thankfully, majority of my interactions have been positive and my clients know what they’re asking for and what they are getting in return for my services. But I think it is still important to address.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://willowtreephotos.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willowtree2020
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/willowtree-photo-st-francis
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@willowtreephotos?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc