We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Courtney Kenefick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Courtney , thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My background is in education, I have masters in Early Childhood Education and prior to starting my family I was a literacy coach for kids pre-k-2nd grade. I loved working with kids, but always felt as I was missing something. A friend who was already an established photographer, had asked me after my second son was born if I was interested in assisting her with her photography business, both in the office as well as go on shoots with her, interact with the kids, get them posed or help make them laugh, etc. I really loved it. About 6 months in she asked if I would like to learn how to photograph and it was an easy answer of YES! I took a few workshops from some well known photographers as well as watched hundreds of tutorials on youtube for photoshop. I began second shooting on her sessions, while she would photograph I would take a few minutes with the kids, and vise versa. I had a gift for it, an eye, I could see the final image in my head as I was clicking away. The hardest part for me though was learning the actual camera, getting into manual and learning how to move quickly ( kids are fast) and still get “the shot” looking back, I wish I had taken a course, maybe a structured class, vs taking the long way of self learning.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my photography business when I relocated from Miami to Austin in 2014. I had been working with a very talented and established photographer ( friend) in Miami and when I moved and decided to put both feet in and launch Gypsy Sky Photo House. When I first started my focus was on families and children working mostly on creating portraits. Over the last 10 years it has evolved to everything from headshots, marketing, brand photography as well as high school seniors. As I took a step back to re-evaluate my business last year, I was feeling like I was being pulled into too many directions creatively and decided to only focus on working with High School Seniors. This has been such a journey as it was not the main source of my business previously and almost like starting fresh. My client lists are mostly made up of young families, so growing this part of my business has been a challenge and exciting at the same time. High School Seniors are SO FUN to work with. They are at such a pivotal point in their life and have so much to look forward to. It is really fun and such an honor to capture them at this time. I love their vision for their session and picking out locations that represent who they are are at this time in their life. I love that they will have these photos forever and will maybe one day look back at them with their future family.

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

Hands down the most rewarding aspect of being a photographer is first when my clients love their images , high school seniors are constantly being photographed these days with phones and friends, etc. so when they love their image that we created together it is the best. I also love when clients share their photos with family and friends and on social media and when clients pass my name long via a moms blog, or in a group chat that they should consider hiring my for their child senior portrait, it is amazing.

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

The best source for me has been through my community and also word of mouth. I also happen to have 3 children who I meet a lot of families through which has been great way to establish new clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: gypsyskyphotohouse.mypixieset.com
• Instagram: gypsyskyphotohouseseniorsessions
• Facebook: Gypsy Sky Photo House-Senior Sessions

Image Credits
Personal Photo(headshot) Katia Forero Photography Senior Photography- Courtney Kenefick Gypsy Sky Photo House