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

Lea , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

Hi. Thanks for having me!

I’ll start by saying I  consider my professional journey into product photography to be very organic and entirely self guided. It started small and has grown today to a healthy six figure business with a steady stream of clients who value my creative work.

I think if there is any one detail that has sped up my success it would be that I make things look expensive.

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.

Of course! My name is Lea and I  am a product photographer based in Los Angeles. I never planned to be a product photographer, it just happened. I thought I would be good at brand marketing and sales so that was something I was pursuing. The brand I was working with had no budget for content and it was hard to sell online without good pictures, so I picked up a camera and the rest is history. I scored clients off of that first shoot and quickly started booking shoots consistently with small brands. About a month in I pivoted my career goals and focused entirely on product photography.

Fast forward to now and I  run an advertising photography business offering clients all scopes of brand product photography and videography (e-com, lifestyle, commercial, advertisement, editorial, model, beauty)

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

For me and I  think everyone this is Covid. The industry changed significantly during 2020. There was less work in general and shooting projects from a home studio became the norm. At that time I did not have a home studio so this was a challenge. I took an in house photography job when everything opened back up for consistency and took this time to create a home studio. Overcoming the hurdle of Covid wasn’t easy, but it made my business what it is today. Now I  have everything I  need right in my home and I  am able to create agency level content without leaving my house. This has proven to be a great investment for both myself and my clients. Cutting out costs like rentals, catering, etc streamlines shoot budgets significantly.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Many of my projects do not involve a team but when I  take on bigger assignments or direct commercials I  find the best thing you can do for morale is work as hard as everyone else. Creating a beautiful final deliverable in a group setting is a group effort.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.learusseckphotography.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/learusseckphotography