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

Diana, 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?

We have been able to make our full time career with photography, but it was a journey to get there. My partner and husband Cory have been photographing together since 2012. But being able to work full time has been years in the making. The first 4 years was a lot of learning and shooting as much as we could so we could finesse our style to make it impactful and recognizable. We were figuring so much out on the job. We met in art school so we had been taught that in our industry we are problem solvers as much as we are artists. I still love some of our old work in that era, but its amazing to look back sometimes and see how we’ve developed as artists in the last decade. Day 1 was a completely different time than it is now. We did what we could to book jobs. We booked jobs as assistants on commercial shoots, and Cory was getting jobs as a digital tech on commercial shoots. We learn so much on these bigger productions. It is fascinating to observe how others established in the industry are creating beautiful work. Things like lighting, communication with clients, work flow, gear, there are so many things we are so excited to learn about. We still do jobs like this and its fantastic to be able to work with other photographers and videographers on productions. It has allowed us to start booking our own commercial jobs which was another huge milestone. we were getting jobs but not quite as much as we would like. Still, each shoot we had continue to fine tune our craft. We built up our photo gear kit as we earned money from gigs. We began getting repeat clients and getting more and more referrals but we both had part time jobs on the side. We got married 2016 and thats when things really bloomed. We started Dee & Cory Productions that year. That was huge. I stopped working my part time job but Cory still had his for a few more years. We always worked hard but once we had the official company we worked non stop. There were a lot of hard lessons learned in this period. We worked so much, and it was so much a whirlwind adventure. We had been working as a team for 4 years at that point and was getting better at communicating with each other with a collaborative artistic voice and making sure we are both heard. It was all work all the time, and after a while it did become quite challenging. A huge lesson as entrepreneur was work/life balance. If we addressed this sooner I believe we could have sped up the process of our growth. We were doing well in the industry, but working too much had backfired. I began having some health problems and issues with my knee and ended up needing surgery. We both feel so passionate about our work, but after a while that it took a toll on my body and mind. Looking back now, we wish that we had taken more personal time. Making a defined schedule would have been very helpful. When you don’t have a boss, work from home and love your career, it’s too easy to stay on the computer way too late editing, or push your physical body to the limit to get that shot. If we had made a framework on scheduling work time and personal time I believe we could have had the same results but much less stress. But now that we have both been working on this we are thrilled to see how much we can achieve together. We are coming up on our 10th year as a couple and as partners in photography. It’s been quite the adventure so far. In the last couple years we were able to go full time finally, and we are so grateful for it. There are some challenges in this industry but we could not imagine doing anything else.

Diana, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are Diana and Cory Steffen and we have a company called Dee & Cory Productions. We are married, and have been a creative team for 10 years. We are photographers and videographers. We have been taking photos since we were teenagers but really got serious in our 20s. We met in art school and became best friends and later got married. We specialize in different types of photography including portrait, commercial, architecture, video and weddings. We are set apart from other photographers because of 2 things, design and personalized customer care. Some people will book a shoot, knowing that they need that photo but have no idea what to do from there. We will talk with clients about what their needs are and will chat with them about a look. For example a beautiful gothic bride is going to have a very different light, location and style as say a commercial architecture shoot. Building that atmosphere makes the photos customized to the people in them makes that photo special. We love to use our technical lighting skills and edgy edits to get a great look for our clients to enjoy.
We can help guide them in wardrobe, the style of the photography, trying our best to make sure the client is feeling comfortable and confident in front of the camera and making sure that the photo reflects who that person is. We take a lot of pride in that individualized care. Each client is so important to us, they are making our dream job possible.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Cory in 2010. We were in art school and met in a resume class. We were the best of friends. He was getting his degree in photography and I was in the videography program. We started having movie nights with strange films and talked endlessly about photography. A couple years later we began dating and start working on creative projects together, got married, and our business grew from there.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a certain nasty virus in 2020 that forced us to take a big pivot. Much of our new clientele was referral based, especially in the wedding industry. We had years of wedding couples telling their friends and family, and was getting a nice steady flow of new wedding referral clients. March 2020 passed and we had couples postponing, canceling or going for an elopement instead of a big wedding. We were somewhat used to the ebbs and flows of the market and had some money saved but it was still very stressful to try to navigate. We reached out to other ventures, with smaller portraits and also trying to increase our commercial photography, videography and editing sales. We found other businesses moving the same direction and was able to do what we could to adapt. A large lesson learned about not leaning on one venture too much, you never know what could happen in the market. It taught us a lot about being more versatile.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deeandcory.com
• Instagram: @deeandcoryproductions
• Facebook: Facebook.com/deeandcory
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dianasteffen
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dee-and-cory-productions-sandy-3
• Other: @deeandcoryweddings (wedding instagram)

Image Credits
Dee & Cory Productions