We were lucky to catch up with Caylee Rush recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Caylee, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I purchased my first camera in 2013, and I shot often. I primarily focused on landscapes and animals. Many sunsets were shot!! I was so addicted to traveling and photographing everything I came across. In 2017 my son was born, and like many new parents, my love for my arts fell to the back burner and I just wanted to stare and cuddle with my baby all the time. I have thousands of phone pics and videos, but I just couldn’t bring myself to touch my camera equipment. I started my photography business, like many people who had a random change of life, during COVID. I actually got sick at the end of 2020, had to quarantine for a month between myself and then my son. During that time, I black holed into studying photography, but shifted my focus from landscapes to people. When I was out of my office sick, I decided, I needed to either get back into this passion, or sell all of my gear.

Honestly, I didn’t think people could actually make a living as a photographer when I first started so long ago. When I got back into it, I was awful. I am not even sure what motivated me at first to continue on. I asked a high school friend if they would model for me with his new fiancé. I knew nothing about photographing people. Coming from landscapes who just sit there and look pretty, to working with people who have angles, emotion, styling. It was a whole new dynamic of photography. My son had just turned 3 when I began, and as a single momma I had to bring him along. He would come and explore in the back ground, sometimes he would sprinkle in a fit here or there, but he did amazing and really became my little assistant. It was the perfect age for me to begin this work, and now at 6 he really thrives at our sessions. He finds a stick in the background and lets his imagination run wild as he pretend sword fights his enemies and collects rocks as treasures. It is really lovely because we get lots of exploration time to different gorgeous locations around Colorado.

I don’t think starting earlier would have even been an option for me, because I truly didn’t think people hired photographers because everyone has a cell phone. That just shows you how incredibly clueless I was!

I started posting my work locally, and people on social media kept asking me to take their family photos. I was in disbelief that people were trying to pay me money to photograph them! Every time someone would transfer funds, my mind was blown. I kept saying to myself is this possible!? People are paying me money to do something I love???

I was just so obsessed with learning and growing that it naturally evolved into a business. I wouldn’t say that means I wasn’t working extremely hard on my business, but it was growing just by the nature of how much focus I was putting into my craft. The grass truly is green where you water it.

Caylee, 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?

I think the older model of thinking when you picture family portraits, is everyone sitting in a line, in some matching outfit, stiffly sitting up straight in their best pose, and the photographer yelling out cheese as he snaps the biggest, awkward fake grin out of everyone. They are so uncomfortable and became the staple in family photography. Those are great for the family Christmas card, but really, In my opinion, not much else.

What I strive for, is to break that mold. I don’t want everyone to be stiff and fake smiling at me. You already know what you look like when you stare straight ahead, you look at yourself in the mirror everyday in that position. My goal is to capture those in between moments of your life. As a momma, you have no idea what you look like when you hold your child in a warm embrace and brush their hair off their face. Kids are miserable when they are getting yelled at, threatened, or bribed into that fake smile for the camera. It is absolutely awful for everyone! The kids, the parents, the photographer!! It is no wonder people cringe at the thought of their yearly family pics! Would you rather have a photograph of your kid threatened to smile, so he gives this fake uncomfortable grin for the camera, or even worse the tears stream out of their eyes! They won’t be stick fighting forever, so would you not rather have a moment of the two brothers sword fighting and exploring some gorgeous mountain lake scene!

Something special I offer to my clients is access to my client closet. I have spent hundreds of hours curating items for my closet for people to wear during our photo session. I have things like beautiful flowing, textured gowns, and cute little overalls for the boys. These items for a photo session really elevate the whole scene into a work of art with the family narrating the scene. Every item I have brought into my client closet has so much thought put into it from how it was made, to how it will photograph in the landscapes of this area. It hurts my soul with our modern day fast fashion culture. We are killing the planet with these practices! So for me, having a client closet on hand is such a special element I can provide to my clients session. I work with small artisans who ethically source materials, are produced in small batches, and I get to support other small businesses with my work. Sometimes we have to buy clothes we will only wear once for a photo session, so having this on hand for people to use helps to minimize fast fashion waste!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I owned a few lenses and a camera body before I began my business from my previous hobbyist venture. I began upgrading my camera, and adding new lenses to my collection, funded by my full time job. As I continued to grow and began making money as a photographer, I would invest my session fees back into my business at a 100% rate, as I was and still am employed full time elsewhere. This was so helpful because I was able to put money into my business since I wasn’t needing to survive off of this money for my day to day life.

I began a client closet by trading photography sessions, for the purchase of a dress by my client. Eventually I had the equipment I needed and started to invest my funds back into building my client closet. Currently I have over 70 high end gowns in my collection. In another year or so I will leave my full time job and launch my business full time. For the year 2023 I essentially worked full time in both my career and building this business so I am welcoming the day I get my time back!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I currently only have the classic social media pages, a website, and a google business page. I don’t do any active marketing through google or socials, and I am currently taking a course on how to be more effective with my marketing strategies.

I understand how powerful social proof can be, so I focused all of my efforts on gaining positive reviews from clients. I have 79 five star reviews and it is three times the amount my competitors have. Of course I got those reviews from giving a great experience to my clients, but I also just simply asked them if they would be willing to leave me a review. It has been a very powerful tool in my business growth.

I am not the best with social media, and I am not the best with SEO on my website. I am just ok with both, but having my review page has been a very valuable growth tool, and it is completely free. It is one of the most important pieces of advice I give to people as they begin a business!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cayleerushphoto.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cayleerushphoto
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cayleerushphoto