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

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I started taking photos for fun using a film camera in 2011. A year or so later I bought a digital camera and began photographing my friends and roommates. I had quite a few friends who were wedding photographers and I was determined to follow in their paths. So, when a roommate of mine got engaged I asked if I could do their engagement photos. After that they asked me to photograph their wedding. I’d probably been taking photos for 6 months at that point, but they were the first person to offer to pay me. After that I just kept at it. Years went by and I’d photograph everything I could. I’d reach out to restaurants, businesses and anything/anyone that seemed interested and ask if I could take their photo. I did this day in and day out for years.

It wasn’t until the last 4 years that I’ve been able to make enough income to sustain myself. The first year of having an official llc I made 10k and that was even 5 years after first picking up a camera… So, its taken a long time to get to a sustainable place.

I think I could have focused on one genre specificially instead of shooting everything imaginable to speed up the procoess of becoming full time, but at the same time I don’t think I’d be where I am today if I had done that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m David Lawrence. I’m a portrait photographer who focuses on celebrating people and their stories. My goal is to make images that feel and look like one’s true self!!

If you learn anything from my work, its that you as yourself are really valuable, beautiful, and worthwhile. You don’t need to be a certain size or at a certain place in life to be valuable and loved. You are today, just as you are. Thats my whole goal in creating portrait photography.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I think they are a really great way for creatives of any type to extend their work and reach to others and even possibly make extra income doing so.

I’ve spent the last year making and selling nfts and have people that have collected my work from literally all around the world. There is no way I could have done that with just what I do locally. I literally have hundreds of people in other states and countries that have taken time to collect pieces of my art, even if they are just doing so digitally.

That is absolutely invaluable and would be very hard to do with physical goods or even my name alone at the level I am at.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

As a business owner and freelancer, there isn’t one particular moment, but a regularity of moments where I wonder if everything I’ve built will end. Even recently, I have quite literally almost run out of money. Work gets busy and I find myself getting used to being able to eat out or travel or even do small things like buy a cup of coffee out a few times a week. But then there is radio silence and no work comes in for weeks. Bills come up and keep coming and the slow times continue. And suddenly your looking at zero. To be totally straightforward, this has happened a lot. And as I talk with other artists and business owners, this seems to be normal. Yes, you can get good at planning and saving, but near death moments in your business seem to be unavoidable.

I’ve started to do practical things like saving 25% of all my income for taxes and slow times, but I still often have hard times financially as a business owner. More than anything I think you have to prepare yourself both physically and emotionally. Money will come, but you quite literally just have to keep working at your craft and going forward. You have to regularly preach to yourself that it will all work out and not just work out, but that you’re going to thrive even when theres no clear picture ahead. Thats the hard part. You must keep have the physical and mental endurance to both encourage yourself and keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: iamdavidlawrence.com
• Instagram: iamdavidlawrence
• Twitter: dlawr
• Other: patreon.com/iamdavidlawrence