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

Breana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

Being a photographer is a way for those to express their creativity, their visions and their passion and bring them to life. This industry consists of staying relevant on social media and keeping up with the latest trends, posts and topics. Of course, Instagram is the number one platform to portray your portfolio and show off your latest passion project and target your desired audience. However, these apps like Instagram and Pinterest and now TikTok, have made it extremely hard and competitive to show others who you are and what you’re creating. These apps are the biggest and latest trends and it is not easy to keep up with them in order to stay relevant to your community. Creating an Instagram post isn’t what it used to be. You used to be able to just choose a photo, create a clever caption and then post. Now you are constantly competing with which hashtags to use, which feature account to tag so maybe your photo will be noticed and wondering if your posts are even showing up on others feed. And as if social media hasn’t gotten complicated enough, let’s introduce reels to the game. While I love creating a good reel, it’s just one more trend that consumes this industry and one more trend that you have to learn how to keep up with.

Breana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi there! My name is Breana and I’m the owner of Breana Lynn Photography. I am a wedding & lifestyle photographer based out of Marietta, Georgia. While weddings are where my heart belongs, I also love photographing couples, mama’s to be and of course those precious little newborns. My passion for photography started at a very young age and it wasn’t until three years ago that I took my passion and turned it into a career. For all of your creatives out there, you know that isn’t the easiest thing to do but once I took the leap, I never looked back.

I’m the kind of girl who wears quite a few hats. I’m a photographer at heart but am also a labor and delivery nurse as well as a new mama! Being a labor and delivery nurse has been one of the greatest accomplishments and experiences of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. With my professional expertise as well as personal experience in being a mom myself, I love being able to connect to my maternity clients on that kind of level as well as my newborn mama clients! Newborn sessions hold such a special place in my heart and are one of my absolute favorite sessions to photograph. There is truly nothing sweeter and more heart warming than a newborn baby all snuggled up and capturing all of those fresh moments of life.

For me, photography isn’t just about snapping that picture perfect moment. It’s about capturing that authentic feeling and allowing time to sit still, so that each time you look at that photo, it brings you back to exactly how you felt in that moment. I always allow my clients to be themselves and just have some fun with me! If you’re the type of person who thinks they’re camera shy and awkward in front of the lens, I promise that you will not feel that way once you’re done with me. A session with me will always be full of lots of laughter and movement (I bet no one thinks they’re signing up for so much activity), because those are the things that bring out the happiness in your photos. So, if you’re looking for a photographer to direct you with some goofy prompts that’ll make you giggle, I’m your gal.

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

Social media seems to be the scariest beast of my business but of course the most relevant, so we have to keep up with the times! I remember when I first really started my photography journey, I was the most nervous about creating an Instagram page and posting on it. Looking back now, I always wonder how could that could be the thing that I was most nervous about. There are so many wonderfully talented photographers in and around the Atlanta area that trying to create your brand and allowing yourself to stand out, is extremely intimidating and hard on where to start. But that’s the thing – we all have to start somewhere and of course that is the hardest part.

I eventually created an Instagram and began posting my beginners work and of course this was in the beginning of COVID. I used this time to really try to follow photographers that inspired me and I would love to connect with. Of course, I didn’t have much content to post but I posted what I had and used geotags and hashtags to get my work circulating throughout the internet. Zero followers turned into one hundred followers (I was freaking out when this happened!) which eventually led to five hundred and then here we are at almost three THOUSAND followers!

One thing that really helped me gain my following was attending styled shoots. These were not only great for my portfolio, but also great to build a network and community of fellow photographers and vendors. Once you share your work and tag locations, vendors, feature accounts, etc. and your work is reposted to even just one of those accounts, it has the potential to be seen and shared by hundreds of other people. It really is so wild when you think about the power of social media because everything is so simple in the grand scheme of things, all it takes is one click and bam you have a new follower.

Another great way to build your audience on social media is hashtags and geotags. At first, it can seem a little confusing to know what/who to hashtag and to know what people actually click on but once you have that part figured out, people will start to come across your page and website! For some reason, photographers feel this need to keep their locations a secret and a sacred space but I do not. If I can help out a friend, I’m going to do it! So, geotags are super helpful because people who might also want to have their photos taken at that location but don’t have a photographer yet might see your photo and reach out to book you!

I wish I could tell that nervous girl three years ago that there is nothing to be nervous about because you’re going to be shooting and sharing your dream clients one day.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being a photographer is extremely rewarding in so many aspects. I’m being chosen to document some of life’s most sacred and special moments and these are photos that people are going to look back on in fifty years and I get to be part of that! Every single session that I photograph tells a story for my clients whether it be showing off their engagement, or taking photos to tell their friends & family that they’re pregnant or the day that they say I do, I am so blessed to be able to capture those stories for them to have for a lifetime. When I’m shooting a wedding, you can almost always find me smiling and crying when the vows are being exchanged and in those moments I always feel so grateful that this is my actual JOB!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.breanalynnphotography.com/
• Instagram: breanalynnphotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breanalynnphotography
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/breanalynnphotography/_created/