Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Duffi Crowson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Duffi, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Having my own business is the absolute best decision I ever could have made, and I know so because I had “regular jobs” before I had my own business.

Since graduating college in 2004, I worked in corporate marketing – everything from print marketing for financial institutions, digital media for stand up comedians, experiential marketing, and I was doing retail marketing for Fortune 500 companies when I launched Chaotic Perfection Photography in 2016. As women, we are told our whole lives that “we can do it all”, and that’s what I was doing – trying to be a mom to two little boys, have a corporate career that “paid the bills” and have my creative outlet hobby turned business. My corporate job was very demanding – employees to manage, long hours, weekend work. It was too many plates in the air, and I was failing, and flailing.

When I lost my job at the end of 2018, I was at a crossroads and had a decision to make – do I get another corporate job or do I try to do photography full time, which is something I said I’d never do. I didn’t want the pressure to take jobs I didn’t like, that weren’t fulfilling me as an artist. I gave myself six months to job search and interview, but also only live on my husband’s income to see if we could make it work. I didn’t want to count on what my photography business brought in as “income” for our household budget. That would take the pressure off and allow me to turn down jobs when I wanted.

Turns out my corporate income was paying for all the things to keep our house running that we didn’t need if I was home…. daycare, grocery and meal delivery, my daily Starbucks habit on the way to work, money spent on hair, makeup, corporate wardrobe. It was easier to drop my “corporate income” than I ever thought possible. At the time my photography income was about half of my corporate salary and it took about 3 years to build up my business that it fully replaced my corporate pay.

More importantly, having my own business allows me to be home with my kids – to be there every day to pick them up from school, chaperone field trips, take them to extra curricular activities, and through the mess that was “online distance learning” during Covid. Typically, I take off about 4-5 months a year. After a busy fall season, I take off most of December through February and then most of summer to be home with them. I still consider myself a “full time” photographer, but the definition of “full time” is whatever I define it to be. It doesn’t have to mean 40 hours a week. It means however much time I want or need to devote to working.

I’ve been really blessed to have a husband who is supportive of my business, and who is successful in his own right with his corporate career that continues to grow and florish.

Being able to turn my hobby into a business that is also creative has been so fulfilling and challenging in the best way and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself and for my family.

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’m Duffi, yes that’s my real name and no, it isn’t short for anything — and its pronounced like Buffy, with a D (because that always seems to be the next question).

I’ve always loved telling stories. I dreamed of becoming a journalist, telling stories to the world. In high school, I took photography because I needed an “easy” elective, especially for 1st period, which followed grueling 6am swim practices. Rumor was the teacher didn’t take attendance, and it was easy to sneak out of the class, via the darkroom. Yes…. dark room. I used my dad’s old Nikon that he bought in the 70’s, shot and developed black and white film, and made my own prints.

My path didn’t lead to a career in journalism, but I still tell stories, but now they are my family’s story and other stories captured in pictures, which are “worth a thousand words”.

I’m a natural light family photographer based in South Orange County and creating Chaotic Perfection Photography came out of my own journey to better capture my own kids and freeze those little moments of them as they grew up. The name for my business was born out of talking to my husband about life with two little boys and how chaotic it was, but it was perfect and we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My goal with my photography sessions is to keep things light, keep everyone laughing which I’ll act ridiculous to do. Ultimately, I want dads, who typically loathe photography sessions, to walk away thinking it wasn’t that bad and mom to get the images she treasures, hangs on the wall at home, shares on social media or uses for their yearly holiday card.

I know photo sessions can be stressful for mom, especially planning what to wear so I offer a myraid of tools to help her – from a style guide of tips and tricks to a stylist who provides a catalog of wardrobe options. I also work with a local hair and makeup team that will help get mom ready before the session.

I also come armed to every session with bribery in the form of gummy bears and slew of fart jokes…. I’m a boy mom, what can I say?!? Farts are funny and perfectly acceptable to joke about during photos.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I didn’t want to be another “momtographer”, and hate using that term because it has a bad conitation but its the only accurate term I can think of. I guess I didn’t want to be another mom, that dabbled in photography and did photo sessions for fun on the side. I had heard too many horror stories from other moms who had used someone like that and weren’t happy for a variety of different reasons.

If I was going to start my own photography business, I was going to do it well and I wouldn’t start a business until I felt confident enough to do so.

Having a corporate background, I came with a business mindset, as well as having a creative mind. It actually took me a long time to think of myself as a “creative”, or as an “artist”.

I practiced on my friends and their families first and also worked with another photographer, having her review and critique my work, and accompanying her on sessions to see how she worked and what she did – that was real on the job training! (shout out to Rebecca Thacher Photography who was my original and first photography mentor).

It was only then that I felt like I was in a place to start my own business.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Some of my favorite sessions that I offer are my holiday sessions at a local Christmas Tree farm. I love the Christmas Hallmark movies, and I wanted sessions that evoked those vibes. So I sourced a vintage red truck to rent and filled it with various plaid pillows and blankets that made it warm and comfy…. and these sessions are hit. Most years, they sellout months before the actual sessions take place in October.

I get a ton of inquiries about these sessions or see people looking for them on social media but not until November or December – they don’t realize these sessions have to happen much sooner than the actual holiday season. The Christmas Tree farm won’t allow photo session in November while they prep the farm and trees for their opening near Thanksgiving, and in December the trees are cut down. So I get inquiries but its simply too late because sessions have either been sold out for months or have already been done for the year.

I capatilized on the interest in November and December by running ads for the sessions on social media during November and December. When I received inquiries, I had to explain that unfortunately sessions were already done (and why), but then I was on their radar and had them in my pipeline for next year. I encourage them to join my Facebook group so they have early access to book a session the next year, where they will also receive a small discount for booking early.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chaoticperfectionphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaoticperfection/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chaoticperfectionphotography
• Other: Booking site – https://book.usesession.com/i/STbA9uIUC

Image Credits

Profile picture of me taken by Jen Perez Photography