We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Barnum recently and have shared our conversation below.
DANIELLE, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?
It feels SO good to say yes, I absolutely make a living doing this! I’m 39 and I’ve been a photographer full time for over 12 years now. This is one of those moments where the 22-year-old clueless, anxious and starving-artist-mindset version of myself would have her jaw on the floor to see where we are now. I get to work with SO many amazing and inspiring people and learn about their lives and businesses, I can now travel when and where I want (and get paid for it), I can live in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, and most importantly, both my work and personal life are deeply infused with a sense of play and curiosity.
But when I started this journey? Oh lordy. Total mess.
Day one, I was fumbling with the precious starter camera my parents gifted me because I had just moved to Seattle after college, and I barely understood a single setting on it. I had photographed friends since high school and knew I wanted to connect with and make people feel as beautiful and magical as I see them, but everything tech and business related terrified me. I had virtually no money. I was an aspiring actor (again, no money). I didn’t know anyone who ran their own business. The vastness of social media courses to learn step-by-step about any niche hadn’t surged yet. So naturally, my brain came up with endlessly limiting reasons why I could only do photography as a hobby. I was so convinced, I even bristled when a childhood friend encouraged me to consider pursuing it as a career.
“WHY? NO. I’d need an MBA to start a business, not a degree in Theatre and Communications.” Full stop. (This belief is now hilarious to me, because it turns out a theatre and communication background means I can talk easily to virtually any clients, and do so with enough gusto and showmanship that people actually listen.)
The overwhelm and unknowns of making a living felt like standing on a cliffside, and the bridge to get from my Starving-Artist Island to the mainland of Successful Business Artists couldn’t possibly be built by me. And that was true for as long as I decided that was my story.
But the photography muse was patient, and it kept following me.
Making It Happen
The magic and forward momentum started with getting real mentorship and a growth mindset shift, and I **accidentally fell into the opportunity when showing up for something else. (**I don’t think it was accidental).
I had booked a gig as a model bride (through Craigslist, of all places) for a wedding photography/business workshop in Seattle, led by powerhouse team Jim and Katarina Garner. It ended up being a very big deal. I remember standing there in this big white gown, watching all these brilliant artists work their magic and hearing the techniques to connect with the person in front of your camera, how to find the light and how to get the most genuine and impactful shots…and it utterly blew my mind realizing what photos could say. It was one of the most inspiring things I had ever seen. And I instantly felt something click into place inside me. “Oooh. I’m on the wrong side of the camera. I want to be where they are.”
That feeling became to huge so fast that I mustered up enough courage to tell them how moved I was by their work, that I loved photographing too and had an okayish camera, and by some divine spark of fate, they told me to bring it the next day. They let me photograph other models when I was on a break, and I listened in on the post-processing lectures. In full glam and the same big white gown, but now with a camera in hand suddenly as a hungry student, finally able to take in possibilities. I was captivated. I was inspired. Maybe I could do something like this.
That experience sparked everything. I started carrying camera gear for 10-12 hour weddings and other shoots they had. I asked a million questions. I learned about conferences and workshops I could attend to learn about the business side. I met and networked with other photographers. I got a website made. I started learning about marketing. All of this slowly offered me a mindset shift from “I can’t make this a career, I don’t know how to do any of this” into “HOW can I learn how to do this as a career, one thing at a time?”
And for what to photograph, I looked at who I had around me.
While I still did various acting work for a decade, I started photographing headshots for the other performers I knew. Then those performers started getting married, and I photographed their weddings. Then they started having babies, and I photographed their new families. Then they had career shifts, and I started photographing their businesses. Then those businesses started to refer other companies to me, and here we are. It’s taken persistence and time, and now has become this beautifully interconnected web of people and stories I get to document, and my work continues to morph and grow within it. It’s amazing.
I believe that connecting with people in your field who inspire you, and asking to shadow and assist is absolutely priceless in what you will learn. I am perpetually grateful to Jim and Katarina and other mentors along the way that taught me how to blaze my trail.
Even better is that intentional care and confidence-building is what I now get to pay forward in my own work. Feeling capable and empowered and really seen are what make the difference in anything you’re aspiring to do, and it’s what I aim to give every single person I photograph. It feels purposeful and fulfilling.
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 say I’m a professional Photographer of People based in Seattle, WA. I work with everyone from nationally recognized brands, magazines, small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as documenting milestones in people’s personal lives, and my superpower is being able to capture the essence of who is in front of me. It’s my version of catching lightning in a bottle–and that light is different with every single person I photograph. Another unique thing about my work is that I didn’t niche down. So many photographers specialize in just one thing (branding/families/weddings/lifestyle), which can be incredibly practical, but I thrive on meeting and connecting with a variety of people. It keeps it feeling fresh and creative and alive, and most importantly, it keeps it FUN. I’m hired most frequently because I’m known as a fun, high energy personality that genuinely wants you to see how magical you are when you’re being photographed. I excel at reading the energy of the room and shaping the environment to what we need for the shoot (thanks theater and communications degrees!). I also understand that having photos taken can feel incredibly vulnerable for a lot of people–I joke that “my job is 80% therapy and 20% good lighting” because I know we’ll get the best photos when you feel comfortable and seen. I care about your whole experience as much as I do the end result of the photo gallery, and seeing everyone’s spark in a photo is one of the best kinds of magic I can work.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had a looong list of self-limiting beliefs that took years to peel back: That it would be too hard to figure out how to have my own business. That I wasn’t smart enough. That I couldn’t learn to be a valid entrepreneur because I didn’t go to school for it. That I was too sensitive to succeed. That no one would take me seriously because I’m a girl. That successful people wouldn’t want to help me learn. That I would fail and it would all be a waste of time.
It was all coming from a place of fear, disguised as logic. And it took me having to take tiny incremental steps to redirect it over and over again, learning to adopt the mindset I mentioned earlier from “I can’t make this a career, I don’t know how to do any of this” into “HOW can I learn how to do this as a career, one small thing at a time?” It was SO arduous at first, but the great thing about a growth mindset is that the more its put into practice, the more it can silence your internal alarms and be able to snowball into excitement instead of fear.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
At this point? Simply, to live a lush life. To make others feel inspired and amazing. To feel in control of my time, and to spend it intentionally: Through beautiful experiences and seeing beautiful places and being with the people I love, and by doing meaningful creative work without being trapped in a hamster wheel of overworking and burnout. I used to fall into the trap like so many entrepreneurs do in valorizing how hard I worked and how little resources and sleep and time I had…and nothing is less appealing than that anymore. Now, I just want the freedom and the time. It’s our most finite resource and it’s increasingly beautiful to have.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inspirebydanielle.com
- Instagram: daniellebarnumphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063530352189
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-barnum-3a1b3614/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/danielle-barnum-photography-seattle
- Other: https://www.google.com/search?q=danielle+barnum+photography&oq=danielel+barnum&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEC4YDRiABDINCAMQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTIKCAUQABiABBiiBDIKCAYQABiABBiiBNIBCDgwMTZqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Image Credits
Danielle Barnum
Chelsea Abril