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

Hi Alana, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

The best thing I’ve ever done for a customer is added smiles to their session. They have a different experience with me being the photographer that enjoys children as much as I do. I enjoy to see the innocent smiles from the children. That moment alone warms my heart and expresses how passionate I am about capturing their smiles. Creating that memory for the child and mom that will last a lifetime.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ala’na (Uh-Lah-Nah) Miller, owner of Spiritually Gifted Photography (SG Photography)! I was introduced to photography while taking extracurricular courses my sophomore year at Dorman High School with Ray Tedder. I was a sports reporter for the school news and was able to attend mostly all football games to capture candids during the season. Then began taking photography classes at RD Anderson as well, learning how to develop my own film photographs, as well as, learning Photoshop and capturing images with a DSLR camera. My junior year in high school (2003-04) I took interest in cosmetology as well as following my mentor in photography, my studio manager, who became my sister, close friend, Maria RosaRosa. I was a photographer at Sears Portrait Studio my junior year in high school, my first real job. Maria showed me the ropes and shared her passion with me. Then shortly after I graduated high school, I worked for Walmart Portrait Studio where I became studio manager (I do believe I was the youngest). I worked a few other jobs while still holding on to my personal digital camera. I did a few small weddings and other small gigs. I went to several portrait studios to apply, where I was told I was overqualified to work there.
The name, Spiritually Gifted Photography was birthed while sitting at my desk at American Credit Acceptance on the 12-9 pm shift back in 2013. I prayed and asked God where I was being led to go with my business and daily, I’m being shown my “spiritual gift” of guiding others with my passion for photography.
In December 2020, a friend who is a massage therapist opened up a door for me to grow my business in her space in my own suite. Where I was able to call “my studio” for about a year. I am currently renting/photographing in other studio spaces to continue to develop and grow my business. I am also assisting/training other aspiring photographers to get to a level of comfort behind the camera to grow a business for themselves.
My goal is to provide a photography experience to clients near and far, to bring back this side of life we tend to forget about. Pictures are memories that last a lifetime. I’d love for each of my clients to look at one of their photos and remember the conversations, the smells, and the time spent during the session.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to capture the genuine smiles from the clients, whether it’s a session for the kids or if the client is an individual that just wanted new photos of them. I mean, we all enjoy photos, whether it’s the getting dressed up or just receiving the final photos of just being in the moment.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience by offering free sessions to particular clients of the age groups I attract the most. (It’s usually elementary school aged kids up to seniors in high school). The smaller children are so much fun to be with and entertain. The joy of capturing a genuine smile is my highlight of the session. If I could offer any advice, it would be to “NEVER ever stop posting!” When you quit posting, others think you’ve put the camera down. In my case the toughest part of it all is coming up with the perfect caption for each photo. My imagination for the caption is so far out that others would either get it or don’t.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sgmediaprints.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sgmediaprints
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sgmediaprintsllc
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lanamill
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/imalanac

Image Credits
Headshot Photo of me by Joshua Gaffney Photography Branding Photo and photo of family photo by Smitha Lee (Styled and MUA – Portia Janee) Kynzley N.- Havana and Student Photo SJ M. – Holiday Photo Makyah B. – (Confetti) – 16th Birthday Session Ryen S. – (Close Up) – 16th Birthday Session Bryson Z. – (Yellow Backdrop, Blue Shirt) – 1st Birthday Session