We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Samantha Ponomarenko a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?

Positively Portraits started with just me and my camera, exactly how I would start today if I had to do it all over again! As I began to book more sessions and grow my business, I realized that behind the scenes content and creating stories about my clients’ experience of being photographed really made them feel special. That is when my sister Alexandra joined me at all of my sessions. Further into my career, Neca, a fellow photographer with an associates of Photography, also joined our team as my lighting assistant. We currently have 3 wonderful interns helping at our sessions while learning how to create photography businesses of their own; Faith Krakowski (Faith’s Photography), Krista Lamie (Hollow’s Photography) & Summer Beaudoin (Summer Rayne Photography).

Social media has played a huge role in finding my crew as well as our clients. We photograph a lot of high school seniors. Instagram reels and stories have helped us reach a market beyond just our followers, and work faster than just word of mouth referrals alone. Social media has also led a few of my interns towards joining our team and inspiring them that they as well can start a successful photography business.

As far as recruiting and training my team, the most important factor that you will see in our work is that we all love photography and creating memories rather than just a beautiful photo. Everything that we do is out in the real world, and emphasis is truly on capturing the emotions and sentiment of each particular moment. Whether we are documenting a senior that has been in the marching band all of their high school career or a family booking photos to capture their children’s milestones, we are all focused on stepping into their world.

Samantha, 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 have had a camera in my hand my entire life. During high school, as some of my friends entered their senior year I started professionally photographing them. I studied photography at Kent State University and graduated in 2021 with a BFA in Photography.

Life is short and I believe memories are important. My work is and has always been dedicated to documenting real memories and providing photographs that allow my clients to relive moments in their lives and share them with others.

I offer senior & family photograph sessions in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

I am proud to make such a meaningful difference doing something that I enjoy everyday.

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

Social media has been a huge blessing to my business. During my senior sessions, one of my interns are in charge of creating behind the scenes content to share on social media. They help create stories and posts that are not only uplifting to our seniors, but encouraging for them to share with their friends, that turn into clients as well! I think most often the “final product” of businesses are portrayed online rather than how they came into being. My crew is often shown in the content as well, giving our seniors faces to connect with and look forward to exploring with on photoshoot day.

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

Facebook groups! Starting my business at a young age, I did not know too many other entrepreneurs. I found a handful of groups composed of photographers around the world with their own businesses. They not only taught me that it was possible to be a successful portrait photographer, but connected me with so many new perspectives and ideas.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://positively-portraits.com/
• Instagram: @positively.portraits
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/positivelyportraits
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZB5Bp4H_KdW5jiW0zLAniQ

Image Credits
Images taken by Samantha Ponomarenko, Positively Portraits.