We recently connected with Breanna Bloomquist and have shared our conversation below.

Breanna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

As I was dabbling into the world of photography, I worked a full-time job, 5 days a week, and I was attending college full-time. I tried to get clients on the side whenever I could. I shot for almost free for the first two years as I was self-taught and started my career with a point-and-shoot Olympus camera. As I bought new gear and educated myself in Photoshop, I began to gain more confidence as a photographer. One day I got an email from the college I was attending with a notice that they had gotten rid of my major (which was journalism and mass communications with an emphasis in marketing). I withdrew from school to figure out what I wanted my new degree to be. This freed up time to do more shoots. I worked my full-time job up until I had my first child (4 years into my photography journey), and that’s when I decided to dive into photography full-time. I would say it was a slow process and I was a new mom, and trying to balance everything. I wish I had taken the leap sooner. It really started to take off and grow once I moved my studio out of my house and into a studio when my daughter was just a couple months old.

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 have always loved photography. When I was little, I associated professional photography with the people who take school photos, because I always got mine done at a professional studio, so that’s what I wanted to do. That thought left my mind as I went to college. I wanted to become a judge. I took political science courses and soon realized it was too competitive for me, so I switched my major to art! Which seems so silly to say. I began taking ceramics classes which I absolutely loved and took a variety of different art courses.

I was newly married and moved from Washington to New Mexico and planned to be a stay-at-home mom, but I wasn’t raised on the idea of not providing an income, so photography came to my mind again. As soon as I moved to New Mexico, I paid for training and courses in Photoshop before I purchased a camera. I wanted to know the post-process before I took any photos. I became a master in Photoshop and then got a camera for Christmas that year. I shot everything under the sun for years, and then I saw somewhere that photographers should really have a niche. From there, I began to research what type of photographer my local area really needed. I didn’t see a lot of maternity and newborn photographers, so I thought that if I could master it, I could own the market.

I shot my last wedding on 12/12/12 and in 2013, I decided to just photograph maternity and newborns. Doing that really helped my business. I was able to gain the trust of my clients and be known as THE maternity and newborn photographer that everyone could use and refer their friends to. I never paid for marketing. Word of mouth spread fast and I became very busy.

I continued to be in my own studio since that has worked out so well from day one. I have been able to build a collection of props for newborns and maternity gowns for my clients. When you walk into my studio, it looks like a home goods store. Providing all the props, wraps, headbands, and bonnets for my clients really puts them at ease. They don’t need to bring anything to the session except for milk. When they walk into the studio, I take the baby out of the car seat and begin posing the newborn. The parents usually bring coffee, and sit back and relax while they watch me do my work.

If they have booked a maternity session or a newborn session with me, I always send them a questionnaire and a prep guide. If they book a maternity session and they want to borrow a dress from the collection, we have a styling consultation where they will come to the studio and try on gowns. We will talk about their location and which dress color would work best and what type of style they are going for. If they book a newborn session with me, I also send them a questionnaire and a prep guide. In the questionnaire, they select their preferred colors, and I have everything set up before they come. The prep guide helps the session run smoothly and makes sure the baby is ready to go when they walk through my studio doors.

Customer service is huge, so I make sure all of my clients are very well taken care of and informed during every step of the process.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew about Lightroom and Lightroom presets. Lightroom allows me to batch edit and the presets I have customized makes the post-processing super quick and easy. I was pulling every photo into Photoshop and running at least 10 actions on each photo.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

A few years ago I took a lot of time and sat down to study SEO. I changed my website and keywords to follow the Google algorithm, and that really helped my business. Since doing that, I have been getting new clients constantly, and consistently.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bloomingimages.net
• Instagram: @bloomingimagesnm and @bloomingimagesnash
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BloomingImages