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

Hi April, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think success is defined differently by each person. Some people want to be millionaires and that is how they define their success. Others, it is having the time when they want it to be with their family or do things they love. I think each person is different. In my own terms of success, I am still working on it. I want to get to a point where my full focus can be on my clients and I can have the time off when I want to take it to spend time with my husband and hopefully our future family. Of course, being financially stable is always a success pillar too. I want to be able to take on clients, maybe one or two a year, that normally can’t afford my services, but I just love their story and their day calls to me to capture. I want to make a lasting impression on each person I work with that it is literally an honor of mine to get to spend their day with them. I love seeing how everyone shows love differently and how their celebrations all vary. It is beautiful.

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.

Hi, I’m April! I have been married for four years to my wonderful husband, and we have an adorable little spoiled puppers named Zoey. My business was started in 2020, I know, right during the pandemic. I have always been the person with a camera, as I was growing up and playing on Photoshop when I was younger. I never intended for a hobby of mine to become a career path but as I grew older, went to my first workshop and second shot my first wedding, I know I wanted to be a wedding photographer. I was a bride myself back in 2019, and I strive to ensure that my clients days are captured in the way they want. I put my experiences from that day, into thought when I am working with my clients. I lean way more towards candid photography than posed. I am a full believer that candid shots give you so much more memory and emotion than a typical pose on a wedding day. I have found myself and many of my couples tend to look back at the candid shots and remember those moments the most. I want to be able to tell their story, and their guests, for many years to come, through images. Weddings are a lasting memory for the couple, and I want to ensure it is captured in the way they want. 2023 has been my biggest year yet, and I just want to continue growing. I thrive off the feedback given by my couples to make my business better each time. Gift giving is my love language, and getting to photograph weddings certainly allows me to give that gift!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have read, and continue to read, countless books on how to grow my business. Currently, I am reading a book tilted “Don’t Keep Me a Secret,” by Bill Cates. It is about ways that referrals and instructions can help your business grow if done correctly. It is amazing and has truly had my mind flooding with so many ideas.

I also follow many photographers that I look up to and have attended either workshops, one on ones, or just lives that they have done. I have even enrolled in monthly memberships to take courses to learn ways to better my business on the backend, but also upgrade my experience for my clients. I love the community of photographers that are willing to help. I have learned a great deal from Madison Braun, Cassidy Lynne, and Lindsey and Evie from The Heart University just to name a few.

I think it is important to continue to read and educate yourself to push your business to new limits so that you can always better yourself. Each client is going to need different things, even if it is just one little thing special to them. So, I continue to read, listen to podcasts, and converse with other photographers to learn and push myself and my business.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My business starting was literally all out of pocket. My husband gifted me a Canon T7 for Christmas in 2019. I used it to attend workshops, second shoot, and do many free photo shoots to build my portfolio. I worked a full time job and used money to set my LLC up, to pay for the workshops, the gas to travel hours for weddings/shoots to get the experience. I was terrified about pricing when I first started and did everything incredibly low just to build. I paid a lot out of pocket for studio rentals and gear rentals. I even put my very first camera that I bought for my company, which is a Canon R6 mirrorless, on a credit card to ensure that I had the camera I knew I wanted to build my company with when I started to get way more serious. It took a lot of hustle and grind to do both a full time job and photography. Heck, I still have a part-time job now and my photography, and it is a lot, but I have come a long way and have invested in my company with personal money that has now led me to having a business account that I can pay for things out of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aprilgraberphoto.com/
• Instagram: /aprilgraberphotography
• Facebook: /aprilgraberphotography

Image Credits
Photo of me: @Teaimariephotography all others done by @Aprilgraberphotography