We were lucky to catch up with Ashleigh Parker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ashleigh , thanks for joining us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?
As I received more inquiries from potential clients, it was hard for me to say “no” or turn anyone down! I want to work with everyone who values my work! But, a hard lesson to learn was that I did in fact have to learn to say “no” to some people and create a boundary. And actually stick with it!!! (This was so hard for me!)
I can go to shoots all day, every day of the week if I wanted to. However, that doesn’t leave me much time for anything else behind the scenes like editing and admin duties. I want to make sure I serve ALL my clients to the fullest and deliver galleries to them that will blow them away – so creating designated times of the week to answer messages and emails, create custom timelines for wedding days, outfit inspiration boards for families, and taking my time to edit / retouch every gallery until its *perfect* before sending it within the promised timeframe was crucial. No one wants a final gallery that someone just rushed to get done and edit. That’s when things fall through the cracks – creating that time for me to meticulously remove background clutter (trash cans, lamp posts, joggers, etc) in the backgrounds of photos and such really makes a huge difference in the overall look of a gallery and gives such a polished and “final” feel! Which every single client deserves to have!
Ashleigh , 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 am wedding and portrait photographer with over 6 years of experience in the industry. Growing up, I wanted to be a photographer, and with * a lot * of encouragement from my parents, I went to college to study Design instead. I never lost that dream of being a photographer though, and my husband had gifted me a cheap DSLR camera in my early 20’s. I would post on local Facebook groups advertising for free shoots to practice using my camera, never truly planning to make this hobby into a business, but having fun and growing as a creative. After my husband and I got married, I KNEW I wanted to get into wedding photography! To help that dream become a reality, I continued to book cheap shoots to sharpen my skills, and when I felt ready, I started taking on small, intimate ceremonies by advertising myself on Thumbtack, creating a wedding portfolio. From there, I was able to start booking more “traditional” weddings that were larger guest counts and venues longer working hours, and able to start booking my ideal clients. I was never able to find an established wedding photographer willing to bring me on as a second shooter or apprentice – so I had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way (and watch endless YouTube videos!!!)
Now I am able to give an expert opinion on wedding day logistics, I can create a photo friendly timeline that utilizes our time during my contracted hours to the fullest, and help orchestrate an entire wedding day from start to finish. Others in the industry may disagree with me, but to get those gorgeous portraits of a married couple, we do NOT need an hour or more. It’s so important to me to make sure that each couple has time to spend with their wedding party, family, and friends! So I have really honed in on a seamless work flow to make sure we have that breathtaking gallery with all the candid, emotional, detail shots – but you also have an incredible time CELEBRATING your new marriage with your loved ones.
6+ years later, I am happy to say that I provide various types of photography. My favorite part of the business is growing with my clients. I have several clients that have booked me for all the major milestones: engagement, wedding, maternity, newborn, and beyond. It’s such an incredible gift to feel like I am part of their family story!
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
I am honestly so surprised I chose to share this story haha I swore I would take this one to my GRAVE. But here goes nothing.
Several years ago (pre-covid) I had an extremely close call – shooting weddings is a ONCE in a lifetime thing. Some people dream of their wedding day their entire lives. Some people spend $20k or more on their wedding day. Some family live in a different state or country and travel days to come to this wedding and may be the last extended family get together for years to come. In a nutshell: there are NO re-do’s when it comes to weddings. The stakes are HIGH.
During one of my first busy seasons, I was struggling to find a good work flow and figure out a good system for myself to help maintain my workload. During busy season, sometimes things do fall through the cracks. With that said: I was circling back to put finishing touches on a wedding gallery and get ready to send off the final photos, and when I tried finding the photos on my computer, they were simply not there. Panic mode set in. I searched, and searched, and searched every single folder. They were gone. I looked through every hard drive / SSD, I looked at every SD / XQD card. Eventually, as a last ditch effort, I had to purchase and download a recovery software to my laptop and run all of the many memory cards I had, hoping that the photos would somehow be found on those even after they were deleted. After an agonizing 15 minute scan on the lucky SD card, the photos were FOUND. Instant sigh of relief. I was able to recover 99% of the photos from that wedding, edit the RAW images, and send off the final gallery within the contracted timeframe.
The take aways from this: I had a second shooter with me that day. If all else had failed, I at least had the photos that he had taken throughout the day/night with me. My process now includes 2 sources of backups. Initially, I had just been backing the photos up onto one hard drive, but moving forward, I have now been backing up onto two hard drives as well as not deleting or formatting ANY cards used on a wedding day until that final gallery is delivered.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
For me, a process that I found really helps get recommendations and inquiries into my inbox is sharing my photos and behind the scenes videos with other wedding day vendors.
Prior to the wedding day, I send a questionnaire to my clients. The last page of the questionnaire has a spot to list the name, contact, and social media handle for every wedding vendor they hired. Hair, Makeup, Bartender, Florist, Wedding dress shop, DJ, Rentals, Stationary, etc. and I make sure im following them on social media. During the wedding day, if I take any behind the scene photos or videos on instagram, I am sure to take ALL the vendors that are making the day happen. which many times leads them to share it to their own social media.
After the wedding day, when I send my clients their final gallery, I create a link to the gallery and email / message that to every other single vendor, giving them permission to utilize the web-size photos for their own social medias and websites with photo credit given to me. This has helped create relationships with vendors even after the day has come and gone. Other vendors sometimes dont get photos of them in action and working. DJ’s, Florists, and more, are such a vital part of the day, and they too should be able to show case their work! So making a point to share photos from the day has helped nurture recommendations from them. Which I am forever grateful for!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashleighparkerphotoco.com
- Instagram: ashleigh_parker_
- Facebook: ashleigh Parker photo co – Hamilton, Oh wedding & portrait photographer
Image Credits
Behind the Scenes photos of me: Leah Davies Photography Megan Pontius Photography