We recently connected with Caroline Muskett Mendoza and have shared our conversation below.
Caroline Muskett, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
My top pet peeve in the photography industry but also 1 piece of advice I never give to beginner photographers
“Charging your worth”
I’ll be honest I don’t know why this is said to beginners I feel like it’s a double edged sword. I’ll explain why. If you’re starting out and decide to charge $50 to invest in equipment and portfolio building, people will bash you for charging so low and then break down why you can’t charge that because all the stuff you’ll eventually need. But wait, if you decide to charge $300 (the baseline average for a typical hour shoot in New Mexico) right out the gate without a solid portfolio, contract, or learning from the mistakes that you would have probably learned from portfolio buildings, personal interactions, etc. A majority of the time you’ll probably hear your prices are to high, or blatantly, you’re not “worth’ that amount or worse, you’ll get taken advantage of, because they want to keep these new clients happy so they go out of their way. This happens no matter what you charge. But keeping true to your goal and having a solid portfolio will only make you more confident in what you do as an artist. I’ve personally seen photographers who under charge but take the time to learn from mistakes, do better than who take the advice of “charging your worth” grow at a faster rate and stay in the business longer. My personal opinion is they are seeing people who are grateful for these low charged sessions and want to keep coming back giving them confidence to keep going and growing, compared to the photographer who charges high end rates and don’t give them the experience necessary that makes up for the cost. This is usually followed by clients telling photographers they are out of price range, they decided to go with someone else because the experience wasn’t up to par with the cost. Which in turn makes the photographer feel insecure.
I’ve seen “professionals” tell beginners “your work doesn’t reflect your price”or something along those lines. Which in turn makes a lot of beginners feel like they aren’t cut out of the industry. And without a proper portfolio, you won’t have enough past clientele to give recommendations or referrals.
Personally I started out shooting $20 minis to build a client list by the end of my first year (4 months) I had 50 solid clients out of ~100, who referred me, came back, and grew with me. To this day those clients still pay my price increase, refer me and book w/me regularly because of the relationship I built between us. There’s more to this business than just money, or being able to shoot. I’ve been doing this now for 8 years strong and have only grown, as a business/person.
Your worth cant be determined by a calculator. Yes, you need to know your COB but you can’t justify that price until you’ve had a solid year of business. At the end of the day other people don’t know your personal situation, the economy you’re based in or the budget you have for starting your business. Those all play into what you charge and why.
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.
My business started out before I really knew it was going to be my career, honestly before I knew it would turn into what it is today. I didn’t have the mindset of this is going to be my forever thing, I knew I was a good photographer, but prior to portraits, I only did film, landscape and architecture work as a hobby.
I started to take it seriously when my mom bought me my first digital high end camera, a Nikon D3200. She believed in my eye for photos and encouraged me to try it out, I decided to come up with a name that would inspire me and thats when Moon + Midnight Photo was born. The reason the name is so important is because it represents my kids, Mela Moon and Matius Midnight. I didn’t want my name to be in my business, one because not a lot of people would just know my name right off the bat and two I didn’t want to blend in with the endless names of photography businesses. My kids made me better and if i wanted something to continue I knew if i used their names they would have a Legacy and pushed me to not let them down, but at the same time it will still humble and ground me throughout the years.
I’ve made several mistakes throughout this journey, met some of the greatest and most artistic minds in my field and if i learned anything, discipline needs to be the core of your foundation. Being able to take criticism is critical, and learning from past clients and moments will only allow to grow. My discipline came from my father’s military mindset that if you set a goal, you have to follow thru, no matter the cost. I’ve missed family birthdays, friend get togethers, and so many moments i wish i could go back to, but I was building a solid business the first 3 years. I had to make sacrifices i tend to regret but now 8 years later I am able to create a schedule that fits all my needs because I made sure to lay down a strong foundation of clients and solid work.
Being a sole business owner is hard learning the balance and when to bare thru things because your end goal will be worth it is tough to explain to others. Luckily my support group of family and friends have been very understanding.
I started out being a jack of all trades, you wanted photos of your pregnant pup, I got you, had a 10 hour event, i was your girl, all the seasonal and themed minis for kiddos, i did them with no complaints. However as I started to hone in on my craft I realized my heart wasn’t in it anymore (this was my 3rd year in). I decided to take the leap to families, couples and weddings. I was afraid of this change, because prior to this I didn’t know squat about what it takes for weddings. Sure I’ve done some here or there my first 2 years but nothing like how i do it now. I realized weddings were sacred, those moments need to be captured in a different way than just simple portraits. I wanted to help my couples, have a carefree day focused on their love and that entails a lot more than just meeting with them and showing up for the allotted hours. I give my wedding clients an experience, i get to know them for who they are instead of just booking them right away. For all my couples I made sure their needs were met and really listened to what they wanted when they looked back on their photos.
Weddings will always have my heart and they take me to places i never imagined, I see all my wedding couples as family and treat their day as if it were my sisters, making sure everyone is taken care of to the best of my abilities. Weddings gave me the confidence to go into boudoir work. If you’ve gone to a wedding and could cheer up a sad or frustrated bride then you know you can almost do anything! Boudoir work started in the form of shoot fest, i used to shoot for magazines, and worked with many amazing models, but shoot fest became overwhelming and i wanted a more intimate and safe setting for clients. 3 years ago when i opened up my studio; Lit Studio with my best friend, second shooter and one heck of a photographer; Melissa Avitia (Mely Snaps) I knew it would be the home of my boudoir work. I assembled a team of talented local entrepreneurs, Make up artist, hair stylist and body contouring specialist, I knew it would only grow from there. Now we offer all the works for my boudoir clients and strive to make them feel like the incredible woman they are.
Im proud to be able to keep doing this as long as i have, I don’t really do interviews or submissions often, because even though the accolades would be nice to have behind my name, the quality of my work and growth is more meaningful to me and usually takes precedence over everything else. Hearing and reading what my clients say and what my family thinks of me is more powerful than me getting a badge of recognition. (However i will always happily post my badges I’ve earned haha). I just want to be recognized for my work and not so much my name in the industry, I truly love what I do.
I love so hard on my clients and want what’s best for them and i really think thats why I’ve grown, i think others can see my mission in life. I just like making people laugh, feel comfortable and feel like their time is just as much valued as my own. Making people feel great about themselves and showing them how i see them is the art.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
For myself and what i do I’ve learned that caring, communicating and being understanding to my clients have worked the best. I wouldn’t do anything to my clients I wouldn’t like done to me. For example i know we all hate late arrivals or last minute reschedules, but i try my hardest to make it known that they can text or call me anytime, as long as their honest im happy to work something out that benefits both parties. I still keep it professional, but also give my clients some grace, things dont always pan out the way we want, things happen and thats just life. You can choose to be cruel or kind, kindness goes a long way with people, contracts can be redone, 20 minutes of waiting is better than making a family feel bad for their timeline. I try to be as understanding as i can be when it comes to my clients because their time is just as valuable as mine.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My 5th year into weddings i had to stop. I was overwhelmed, unhappy and mismanaged. I stopped shooting weddings from early 2020 to mid 2021. I made the biggest mistake as a photographer thinking i knew everything about weddings. I did not. I had 3 weddings and several fall sessions on my computer, backed up to my hard drive and photos, then the worst thing any photographer could go thru happened. My computer crashed, i invested in an upgraded model 2 months prior and didn’t take the time to learn more about the cloud or adobe cloud. It wiped everything out, something went wrong internally and was told the chip they installed failed, causing a major shortage. My back up hard drive was also damaged since it was hooked up and it was also wiped and reset. I did everything all the restore programs, restoring on sd cards and tried working with adobe for a fix, but at the end of the day nothing worked and nothing was restored. I was heart broken and scared. I had to confront my wedding clients and did the only thing i could do to make it up to them. I refunded all the money, yes even the non refundable retainer, and asked if they would want to set up a full blown styled shoot, with all the works, dress, tux, cake, a set up to die for and even a stay at one of the best intimate hotels in Albuquerque. Only one couple agreed which I understood why the other two didn’t have faith in me and i doubted they wanted to go thru another heartbreak. This was hard, if your a wedding photographer you know it becomes your bread and butter and i took a big hit financially. My confidence was gone all in one night.
However at the time I didn’t see it as a blessing but now looking back i can see it was. I had to relearn what i thought i already knew and now i back up on several things and never leave my portable hard drives attached.
The whole year i took off I focused on creative portraits and boudoir. I turned my attention to my family and friends and they helped me build the confidence to take weddings on again. The first year announcing i was doing weddings again, i came back better than ever, over sea and out of state weddings were flooding my inbox. I couldn’t believe it, i needed to see the bigger picture.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.moonandmidnightphoto.com/
- Instagram: @moonandmidnightphoto and @moonandmidnightboudoir
- Facebook: @moonandmidnightphoto
- Twitter: @mmphoto_boudoir