Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Felise Waxman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Felise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I make a full time living doing what I love and am creative every day. I have always excelled in the creative/artistic areas of life and struggled in the math/science areas. When I finally started focusing on my strengths things clearly started to blossom. I visualized a successful family photography business and just put it out there into the world. I did a lot of family photos for free which was very helpful. I would share these photos on social media and so would these families, and it started to grow from there.
I started off imitating other photographers and following trends but after some time I learned how to let my own creative eye see things the way I wanted to and I figured out how to let my personal strengths shine through my business rather than pushing myself to be someone that I am not. I know that was just part of my path of finding my style and flow of my business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a family photographer that likes to take a lot of pics of families hugging and laughing :) I went to college for photography and tried to do fashion photography. It didn’t inspire me and I completely gave up…. I did hair for almost 10 years after that and I started taking a few family photos of my hair clients. When I moved to St. Louis, I started Felise Photography and I was lucky my friends were all having babies and the business started growing from there! My business has been successful thanks to word of mouth and social media and my love for love.
I try to treat each family as an individual family and get to know them as much as I can. One of my favorite parts of photography is just chatting with other parents. It is such a gift to be able to get to know so many wonderful people and kids!
I like to do my usual prompts and poses but I really love seeing what happens 5 seconds after a prompt, it usually results in a new and different photo that is unique to the family or child and that energizes and inspires me.
I had Lymphoma two years ago and what I call the “gift of cancer” is being able to appreciate the little moments and details of life more than I could before I had cancer. Capturing moments through photography lets me freeze the present moment for a family. I love delivering them a gallery of happiness which hopefully inspires them to savor those little moments too.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
If you are just starting do not give up! I messed up SO much so many times. I almost quit completely about 10 times. Now that I am farther into my career I am so thankful for those mistakes because they were important learning opportunities that need to happen. Even if I had a full on crying breakdown each time… :)
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I try to make the whole photo process as smooth and pleasant as possible. There is a lot of talk about how stressful it is to have family photos taken but I hope my clients say, “not with Felise!”
My mission is to create beautiful and genuinely love filled moments in a photo that make you feel joy over and over again.
Contact Info:
- Website: Felisephotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felisephotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felisephotography/