Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Becca Lueck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Becca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you manage your own social media?

It’s so important to me that I’m hired by a parent because they connect with me, my personality, and my approach to family photography. Because of this, I feel it’s really important to run my Instagram and Facebook on my own. This realization came after attempting to hire someone to create reels for me and it just didn’t feel right. No one else is me so it would be tough for potential clients to connect with what I’m saying if I’m not the one saying it. It does help that I enjoy writing and know how to infuse my personality into my posts, reels, and stories, but that definitely came with practice. It wasn’t as easy as first but I think of writing like a muscle that you need to work out, and it gets stronger over time.

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.

I’m Becca Lueck, an adventure family photographer and videographer in Portland, Oregon. I got started with photography in high school when my sister and I used to sneak up to an abandoned house and have photo shoots with our friends, but I turned it into a business in 2010 after I had my first child.

I started out taking more traditional and posed family photos but soon discovered that there was another way to do things that felt so right to me once I tried it. My approach is all about making photography fun, laid-back, and natural. I don’t just take photos; I create an experience that allows families to feel relaxed, resulting in images that are vibrant and full of life. I also added family films a few years ago, so families can choose to add on a cinematic video of their family set to music that they can relive over and over again.

It is ingrained in my personality to feel this pull to help others so about 4 years ago I opened up a shop for photographers. My shop has my Lightroom presets, lots of guides, templates, and courses. I help family photographers create a fun environment for their own sessions, I teach the business side of photography, I have a course on family films… and much more. My library of resources has grown and being able to help others is so rewarding, plus it has opened up another revenue stream that has allowed me to travel more which is something I was never able to do in the past.

What sets my personality and photography apart is my ability to make people feel comfortable and calm at their session. Laid-back is my middle name, and I’ve even been told that I am like an anti-anxiety pill. I guess that explains why all my best friends have anxiety, we are a great balance. So during my sessions, my chill and playful personality helps stressed-out moms, non-excited dads, and energetic children to relax and feel free to be themselves without judgement. I basically just want the parents to let the kids be themselves, even if that means running in circles and talking about farts. Because when are kids going to genuinely smile; when being told to, or when they’re allowed to be a little naughty? You know the answer! The goal is for the photos to look authentic and effortless rather than stiff and posed.

I’m also known for capturing the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape in my images. Yes, I will take a ton of photos that showcase your family’s personality. But I will also be sure to create some gorgeous art that shows off the unique place that I’m lucky to call home. A family running from the waves at the Oregon Coast or looking for ladybugs among the wildflowers in the Columbia River Gorge; these are things they want to remember and hang on their walls.

I hope to not only create photos that look like they were plucked from a movie scene but also to bring a little more joy into the way people view the world around them—whether through treasured prints on their walls or by empowering fellow photographers to capture their own magic.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started my photography business 14 years ago, the term “lifestyle photography” had not yet entered the mainstream. Back them, photography was more traditional, where families would smile at the camera for pretty much the entire session. I still loved what I was doing but I didn’t feel as passionate or connected to it. I had heard about documentary photography, capturing families in a purely observational manner without interference but that didn’t sound like me, either. But then I came across a photographer who was doing this new style of photography called lifestyle. This was a blend of traditional and documentary, capturing families as they are but with some help from the photographer. I was so excited by this that I immediately tried it out, but on a small scale. I started calling my sessions a hybrid of posed and lifestyle. I started really loving what I was doing but I noticed that the sessions where people played more and looked at me less were the ones that really held my heart. It took a while to have the courage to switch completely to lifestyle, but when I did… my business took off.

Was it because I was truly passionate about it? Was it because people were resonating with the idea? Or was it just because I was constantly learning, taking classes, and getting better at my craft? I think it was a mix of all of it.

Was it hard to stop telling kids to smile at the camera? At first, yes. But now I try to never say it. Sometimes I can tell that a parent is stressing over having a photo of their child looking at me, in which case I will usually tell a funny joke or do something silly to make the child laugh rather than tell them to “say cheese!” I’m always looking for a genuine smile, rather than a cheese smile.

Kids enjoy photos sessions so much more when they aren’t told to smile at the camera, but in stead are allowed to play (and so do I)!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I’ve always been a bit of a computer nerd. When the internet came out, I was teaching myself HTML and creating my own websites. I actually thought I was going to be a website designer and got a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communication, which includes Graphic Design, Illustration, and Photography. So when it came time to market my photography business, I was ready to create an amazing website for myself. I learned everything I could find about Search Engine Optimization and spent a summer writing 3 blog posts a week. Eventually, I started showing up on the first page of Google for lots of my target keywords. This has been the single best use of my time and money (and it actually didn’t cost a lot of money). I also spend a lot of time on my Instagram and have built up a large following there, but still probably 80% of my new clients come from Google.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beccajeanphotography.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/beccajeanphotography
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@beccajeanphotography

Image Credits
Becca Jean Photography