We recently connected with Blair Worthington and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Blair thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

When I first started my business, I loved photography so much that I was offering free sessions to anyone and everyone. It brought me so much joy (and still does!) to take pictures that it didn’t feel like work! Over time, I built up a portfolio and built a website. I will never forget running to my husband, who is my rock and total support, to show him that I got my first real inquiry. That inquiry turned into my first booking, which in turn brought me an image that changed the trajectory of my career by getting published.

Blair, 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?

As a child, my answer to the “what do you want to be when you grow up” question was always, unfailingly, an artist. That journey led me to pursue an art education degree, which gave me an intellectual toolkit to understand what makes good art, and how to communicate that well to others. I was asked to take photos of a friend’s proposal in Banff, Canada, and was instantly hooked. My career suddenly started there and took off.

I’ve lived in Virginia, Maryland, Arizona, Wyoming, and South Carolina. There are people I love all over, and some have passed on. The way my story has unfolded allowed me to naturally gravitate towards photography, to try to hold on to the sweet moments in this life and take nothing for granted. I approach my clients’ stories in this same way, grateful to be a part of some of the most vulnerable and joyful moments in their lives. Being a wedding photographer is incredibly meaningful to me.

I currently live in Charleston, South Carolina, but lived in Jackson Hole, WY from 2018-2022, so know it like the back of my hand and travel back for weddings frequently. I’m obsessed with my husband and adore our two children. My faith in Jesus fuels my life. In my free time, my favorite things to do include spending time with my little family, gardening in my backyard, trying a new recipe in the kitchen, or exploring our beautiful Carolina beaches and greenery.

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

I think it’s natural for anyone who works in an aesthetics-based business to prioritize things that are pleasing to the eye. When I was in the early stages of my career, as I was truly learning my craft, I didn’t want to take a photo if it wasn’t perfectly posed and put together. Now that I’ve masted that aspect of photography, I can make space for the unposed, the messy, and the undone moments. It takes an artful eye to compose these moments in a visually pleasing way, but they are just as important to the story of the wedding day. Without story, how is my final gallery any different than the thousands of images I see on a daily basis? Without it, what makes my work or my artistic voice unique? These are the moments that produce a well rounded gallery that preserves memory beyond aesthetics, which is the whole point of wedding photography in the first place.

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

Interestingly, I first built a social media presence because I was building a business in a growing market that didn’t have many photographers and so I stood out. That world of social media is 100% different than today, and at some point I realized in all areas of my business, not just social media, that I had a zone of genius, and if something in my business was outside that, I needed to outsource to someone who had a natural gift for that thing. I found the most incredibly social media manager who works so well with my business. As a photographer, I am so close to my own work, sometimes too much. She is able to look at things with a bird’s eye perspective and build content that complements itself–and that burden has been taken off my plate. Hallelujah!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blairworthingtonphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blairworthingtonart

Image Credits

Blair Worthington Photography