We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gabrielle Herry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gabrielle below.

Gabrielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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?

I am fortunate that my creative work is the bulk of my income, and that definitely did not happen overnight. When I first started to freelance in Colorado, I needed to build my portfolio and get a feel for the community, so I did as much work as I could find for dirt cheap! This is what a lot of freelance artists opt to do when starting out because it is an effect way to build up your skills. However, it can become very taxing and result in burnout quite quickly. While I did experience this to some degree, I was able to avoid totally burning myself out by regularly evaluating myself and my work. This evaluation and workload helped my to make 20k in my first full year of business, which was unbelievable to me. I have worked many service and retail jobs, where I was making minimum wage and working close to full time, and my pay from a full year was less than what I was making from freelancing. While I did not start freelancing for the money, it has been such a blessing to be able to make a livable income from my work as a photographer.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always had an interest and passion for photography. I vividly remember one year for Christmas, my stepdad had gotten my mom a point and shoot digital camera that basically became mine within a few months because of how often I was the one using it to document various memories. And once I got a little older, maybe ten or eleven-years-old, my dad got me a JVS camcorder for my birthday, that I instantly started making home movies on. I continued this interesting into my teen years, and even went on a solo trip to Fordham University in New York for a teen’s summer program that focused on digital media and broadcasting. I learned a lot of technical skills and terminology that has been instrumental in my learning process as a self taught wedding photographer. As an adult though, I have not always had the confidence to freelance until after living in Colorado for a few months, I gave freelancing a shot in the summer of 2020 and haven’t looked back since. Though my main focus is of course capturing memories for all of my clients, but it is also to be as helpful and insightful as I can be to make the process of photos as easy and comfortable as possible. I have always worked service jobs whether it was retail or restaurant jobs and I think that really sets me apart especially during the booking process and when shooting with people who are not necessarily comfortable being in front of the camera. I also feel that I am able to capture the essence of people and their dynamics well because that what interests me the most when photographing my clients; being able to encapsulate who they are without words.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an artist to me is when I am able to bring my vision to life better than what I had originally set out for. A lot of times as a creative person, I can be my own worst critic. It can be really defeating when a project or shot isn’t executed the way I wanted it to be done because at the end of the day, that really falls on me. And even if the shots are amazing and get received really well by my clients and/or on social media, it can still be a personal disappointment that I was not able to create what I was going for. So on the flip side of that, when I capture something that comes out so much better than I was anticipating, it’s really validating and affirming that I am the artist I strive to be!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That “the grind” never stops. It does indeed stop, and should stop regularly. We are constantly glorifying hustling and grinding at all costs to achieve whatever goals we may have, and that is the quickest and easier way to burn yourself out. Resting and taking time to reset is so crucial for reaching any goal, whether it be personal or business related. I have found that I am a much better artist, business owner, photographer, friend, and family member when I take the time to set boundaries for my work and for my rest. Being busy all of the time is not a real achievement, but really just showcases poor work life balance. It can be so easy to constantly be working when you run your own business because there aren’t set business hours and a lot of the work that needs to be done can be done in the palm of our hand on our phones. I learned very quickly within my first year of business that “girlbossing” 24/7 comes at cost of creativity and even the desire to create. Unlearning this concept of all work and no play, was a lot harder than it may seem, because if I was not always working on my business I felt like I was just wasting time and leaving money on the table. But once I started to treat rest as the necessity it is, I was able to become more balanced and even more productive when returning back to work.

Contact Info:

• Website: gabrielleherryphotography.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/gabrielleherryphotography
• Facebook: facebook.com/gherryphotography