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

Alright, Ansley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

At Van Epps photography I understand the importance of professional maternity and newborn photos. Having gone through loss infertility and IVF, I know that not everyone’s journey is the same. Each baby is special and precious and I want to provide parents with beautiful memories of those first few weeks with their baby. Also, to be able to empower mothers to show off what their amazing bodies can do.

Ansley , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started photography in 2015 when my husband and I decided to take our honeymoon in New Zealand and Australia. I wanted to make sure I had beautiful photos to remember our honeymoon. Having always loved taking pictures I purchased a Nikon DSLR crop sensor camera and took night classes so I could learn how to use it. After we returned I realized I loved photography and took all the classes I could at our local photography school and online. I started Van Epps Photography in 2016 and It was a few months later that I found out I was pregnant with our first child, and I started to focus on newborn photography. I started doing online courses and taking in-person newborn safety classes. I wanted to be able to capture our newborn and make lifetime memories through photos. Heartbreakingly, we lost our baby boy halfway through our pregnancy. It was such a difficult time, but I turned to photography to help me through the depression and pain. We had then moved to New York City, and I participated in photo walks and would go out on lovely days and take photos of everything. I was by myself a lot so I had a lot of time to myself to perfect my skills. As time went on people in my building started asking me to photograph their children and it became almost therapeutic for me to be able to provide my neighbors with newborn photos that could cherish forever. Thankfully after 3 years of trying and multiple rounds of IVF, I was able to photography my own beautiful twin baby girls, who I started this journey for.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When I first started photography I was a performer at Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando. I was working a few days a week between the 2 parks and doing my photography on my off days. I then received a full-time contract and was dancing at Universal 3 days a week and only taking 1 or 2 clients a week either after work or on my days off. Once the pandemic hit, my husband got a job in Tampa and we moved away from Orlando. I had to rebuild my business all over again. I was constantly posting on social media and hired an SEO team to help me rebuild my website. One day on my way to commuting to Universal from Tampa I was hit by a truck and it was the end of my career as a dancer. Thankfully my photography was growing and I decided to move my business from part-time to full-time. I take up to 8 clients per month and do all my editing, social media, and admin myself. My business has been growing and doing better than ever. I’m so excited about what the future holds.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Social Media and Word of Mouth have been the best way for me to grow my clientele. I’m not good at talking myself up, So for a while, I had a hard time even telling new people I was a photographer. But I have a few framed photographs hung up in my chiropractor’s office and that has helped as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: vaneppsphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vaneppsphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaneppsphotography/
• Yelp: VanEppsphotography

Image Credits
Photo of me by Ashley Draper Sanchez Photography All other photos by me- Van Epps Photography