We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Wendy Lawhorne. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Wendy below.

Wendy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To be successful, I believe that we must invest in education to master our craft. When deciding to go from a “mom with a camera” to a paid photographer, I realized the responsibility it was to ensure that I provided my clients with a quality service. I needed to learn more about photography! As we all do nowadays, I immediately began searching YouTube for free trainings, believing that I would get immediate results. I found a few instructional photographers with videos on posing, lighting, and editing. I loved their teaching methods and overall editing style. However, after watching some of the videos, I quickly became aware that editing the images is only a small part of photography and that I had so much to learn. The real art is in knowing how to operate the camera. I contacted my former college roommate, a very successful photographer in the Virginia Beach area, and asked her advice for the best route to learn the ins and outs of my camera. She suggested the book, “Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peterson, stating that it would help me get started quickly. Within a week after reading through the book and practicing, practicing, and practicing, I was absolutely hooked on learning more! I quickly completed the book and felt my confidence growing with every camera snap. Having two preteen sons at the time, they would only allow me to take their photos but so much; so I began doing free sessions, primarily for high school seniors. At this point, I began seeking out trainings for posing, which led me to Amy and Jordan Demos and Katelyn James, leading photography educators. I invested in their trainings on editing, lighting, consistency, posing, and wedding details. I began to realize my potential at this point and through my growth, I was able to buy more professional equipment and attract customers beyond my local community. One such opportunity was shooting a wedding in Floyd County, Virginia, close to 2 hours away from my home. The bride entered her photos and wedding story in the Bridebook of Virginia wedding publication and the photos were featured in the magazine and as a cover finalist. This is such a highlight in my career, and has made me feel that all of my hard work and dedication to learning more about my craft has paid off. Striving to be the best that I can be, I will continue to invest in educating myself through trainings and experiences!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Wendy. I’m a wife, mother, daughter, dog lover, jeep-driving little sister to 3 older brothers. I work full-time as a division manager in a state agency, and have a growing photography business. I decided to bite the bullet in 2017 to become a legitimate photography LLC business owner. More recently, I added a Photo Booth service with several leads in the making. My 3 years goal is to retire with 30 years from my state job, and become a full-time photographer and Photo Booth business.

Having fallen in love with scrapbooking in 2005, I began taking more and more purposeful photos of my two sons by setting up opportunities for themed photo scenarios. At the time, it was truly only to capture my sons’ childhood memories. As they grew older, and less interested in having their every moment captured, the itch to take photos did not subside. I began wanting to photograph others and recruited friends and family members by offering free sessions. Over the years, through education and experiences, I greatly improved in achieving the look I wanted in my images and became more comfortable being behind the camera. I began to expand from portrait sessions, to maternity and couple sessions. Being asked to shoot my first wedding in 2016 was a very scary realization for me….this could be the start of something exciting! I remember thinking, “Why not? Why can’t I take a chance? If not me, someone else will!” I decided to make the leap and although I screwed up at times, messed up settings on my camera, dropped a lens (or two), I grew and became better and better with every session and wedding.

My highlight of my photography career is having been a cover finalist and featured photographer in the BrideBook of Virginia.

What I am most proud of though, is the relationships that I’ve made with other photographers. I believe in community over competition. I have met some pretty amazing photographers and videographers through Facebook photography groups and through photography events. I appreciate the beautiful work of others and I love to compliment them. I also like to help others. I don’t necessarily point out things or make suggestions to other photographers, but I’ve had others ask me about how to edit, how to operate their cameras, calibrating their lens, and how to become an official business. Having had to learn what I know through hours upon hours of researching and participating in courses and trainings, if I can help save someone else time, I try to help or impart what I know to make their life easier.

I also am very proud of the relationships I’ve built with my clients. I tend to be somewhat of an anxious person when meeting a client for the first time. To combat this, I focus on asking the clients about their lives, how they met each other, their jobs, their families, school, work, etc. This tends to help the client(s) relax and feel more comfortable with me. It also helps me relax more, allowing my creative self to shine through. Many of my clients are repeat customers, with several having had me capture all of their special events, including their engagements, weddings, births of their children, and family sessions! For me, this is such an honor. It makes me realize how important the images I capture are to the ones that I’ve worked with.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

As stated before, my photography business has steadily grown since 2017. I have a growing number of wedding inquiries, which of course are the more profitable photography services that I offer. There have been countless times that I’ve had to make the decision to not book a wedding simply due to conflicts with my “day job” or being overbooked. I currently work a full-time job as a division manager in the human services field and perform all photography services in the evenings and weekends. In 2025, I plan to retire with 30 years of service at the age of 51, and will have full retirement. I have built my photography business to the level that I will be able to live comfortably from my retirement and wedding bookings. With free time to focus solely on my photography business, I plan to increase my availability and bookings. Recognizing that photographing wedding events are very physically demanding, I cannot see myself booking as many weddings beyond 10 years from now. So in consideration of that, I have recently purchased a photo booth and started a photo booth business. There are no local photo booth companies in my area; so taking the chance on starting this business was a no brainer for me! At this point in time, I have no debt as a result of the purchase due to the profit from my wedding and engagement sessions.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

So it is a combination of two things….. Years ago, I ran across a quote by Tony Gaskins, “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help build theirs.” This resonated with me. I know several local photographers that were well known and I admired their work greatly. I would often think, “Gosh, I wish my photos looked like that.” or “Wow, I want to capture special moments like that!”, and “I could totally create a mini session for this!” It took me years of thinking that way until I saw Tony’s quote. It really was that kick in the rear that I needed to start believing in myself and empowering me to be bold and take the next step.

Another motivator was the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I have a master’s degree in Human Resource Development and Leadership and read this book in 1997. His teachings have been the center of many of the leadership/supervisor trainings I’ve participated in over the years in my full-time job. These principles were absolutely applicable to me running my own business. My business intent/goal is to capture beautiful images or special moments for my customers. This has not changed since I decided to pursue entrepreneurship. I’ve learned to be proactive with budgeting for photography purchases and planning bookings for the year. I set goals for growth in sales, expanding to new clients and localities, and artistic ventures (ie. styled sessions and mini sessions). I value customer service and always put it first. I always believe that I’m going to be successful (otherwise, I will worry, worry, worry!) I am a lifelong learner and am constantly studying photography, editing, and learning more about photography techniques. I’m fully committed to turning my side hustle into my dream job!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wendylawhornephotography.mypixieset.com
• Instagram: Wendy Lawhorne Photography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendylawhornephotography

Image Credits
These are all my images. Tasha Lamar Photography and Films captured my head shot.