We were lucky to catch up with Emily Davis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Emily , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.
I love this question, as I’m in a unique position, and I’ve actually gotten the opportunity to start over in my career. I started my photography business in 2014, took an extended break in 2020, and recently rebranded, and have started completely over in 2024. One of the things I’ve done differently is really building my online presence, previously all my work came from word of mouth, which is great but can only take you so far. Social media can be such a great resource for businesses, and can send so many potential clients your way. For example I had a gentleman from Wisconsin reach out to have his proposal captured while in town local to me. If I didn’t have a social media presence, he would have never found me, and would have found another photographer as he was searching on Instagram. Another thing I’ve done differently this time around is networking with other photographers. Previously I just stayed to myself, and really bought into the lie that every other photographer was my competition, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve connected with so many photographers this year, and have had lots of different opportunities throughout that network/relationship that was built. Every photographer has their own style, and every client is drawn to different styles so there’s plenty of opportunities for everyone in this industry.
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?
A little background about how I got started in photography goes back to 5th grade. My teacher was a photographer outside of teaching, and during recess he taught me the ins, and outs of how his camera worked. I instantly fell in love with the art. From that point I always had a camera on me. I was also snapping pictures of nature, self portraits, pictures of friends. I loved it. Flash forward to 2014 my husband got me my first DSLR, and I started offering free sessions to friends and family to start building a portfolio, and then moved on to booking clients. I stayed doing photography on the side until 2020 as I’m a stay at home mom that also homeschools her 3 kids. When 2020 came I decided it was a good time to take a break with everything was happening with the pandemic. I honestly didn’t think I would ever come back to photography, let alone be where I’m at today in my career as a full time photographer. Today I focus my photography on weddings, couples, events & concerts. I’m also on the photography team at my church, and really love being apart of serving my community with a gift God has given me.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started in 2014 with my photography business just being a side hustle, something I enjoyed for fun, and really had a passion for. At the time I had just my oldest, and worked a serving job as well. In 2017 I had my second daughter, and became a stay at home mom, still enjoying doing a few sessions throughout the year. I started homeschooling my oldest, and eventually my 2nd, and honestly didn’t think could ever work full time on my photography business. During 2020 I decided to take a break, but honestly I love my passion for photography, I didn’t touch my camera for 4yrs and was going to sell my gear. At the beginning of 2024 I was trying to find where to serve at church as I wasn’t called to the children’s ministry, as I homeschool my 3 daughters. My husband shared with me that they were looking for someone to serve on the photography team once a month, and they provided the camera. I figured since I knew how to work a camera, and it was only once a month… why not. Little did I know God was opening up doors for me, and was pursuing my heart to give me my joy back for photography. I loved being behind the camera again, and within the first time serving was asked if I wanted to shot our worship night, and I said yes. I was sitting in the parking lot of the Murphy Center at MTSU dusting off my camera, praying my camera worked. That night changed everything. Over the next couple of months I rebranded, and started promoting my business on all my old social media platforms, and started booking clients. I’ve had consistent work, with sessions, weddings, and events this year to where I’m full time in my photography business as well as homeschooling my children.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I’m genuinely such a social person, and love building relationships with people so I think that just naturally flows within how I keep in touch with clients. Social media is how I get a lot of my clients, with that we will follow each other and I’m able to keep with with life events and I’m able to continue to interact with them. It’s been really cool to watch couples turn into husbands, and wives, to growing families and capturing all the moments for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emilydavisphotography99.mypixieset.com/
- Instagram: @emilydavisphotog
- Facebook: Emily Davis Photography
- Other: TikTok: @emilydavisphotography
Image Credits
All image credits go to Emily Davis of Emily Davis Photography