We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gary & Elaine Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Gary & Elaine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
What we want our legacy to be can be summed up in why we chose photography. The best feeling in the world is knowing we have brought joy and happiness to someone else.
Through our photography, we capture our client’s family connections. Displaying these images in the home creates an atmosphere where children understand they are important members of the family and are valued, adored and loved.
After all, YOUR FAMILY IS THE ART OF YOUR HOME, so why not showcase the connections in timeless prints?
Gary & Elaine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Gary has had a passion for capturing images of what is important to others that started at the tender age of seven. However, it was not until 2011 that he decided to pick the camera up professionally, and G and E Studios, a boutique photography studio, was born. In photography today, the importance of printed photographs has been forgotten and replaced with digital imagery. Yet, printed family photographs are one of any family’s most valuable assets.
Our mission is to capture YOUR family’s relationships and memorialize today’s memories through print. YOUR FAMILY IS THE ART of YOUR HOME.
With our mission in mind, we take care of several questions our clients have asked in the past.
One of the most common questions is what do I wear. Our clients are walked through a process to determine color, style and specifics that will make their images timeless. This simple task lessons the anxiety of preparing for the session. We work with our clients to create a Color Board with the chosen colors and images of what to wear and not wear. This process helps our GES family relax and know we have got them for the process.
The second question most clients don’t even know they have is, what will I do with these images after my session. We walk through this process to determine the end goals before we start. Will it be a single image above the fireplace or a gallery of images on the staircase? The correct size is determined and shown of actual home space through our state-of-the-art software before orders are finalized. Some homes have small wall space, so albums may be the best way to savor the images.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The biggest reward comes when a child’s face lights up when they see themselves in print and know they are somebody and they are valued! To know that a timeless piece of art was made that shows the love between family members and these happy moments are memorialized. To know we have helped to document the family’s history.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
We had to learn the most significant lesson was we could not do everything! Realizing that we did not need to do every genre in our profession simply because someone asked was not a necessity! It was actually detrimental to building the brand we so much desired.
Another significant lesson was not having the capital to outsource specific tasks was challenging as a small business. There is so much that goes into running your own business and not enough hours in the day. So it has been a struggle to decide what task we can let go of and let someone else do.
The best advice we would love to share with those just starting up is that it is ok to outsource. We are not superheroes with the capes to overcome day-to-day obstacles. If you are like us and want to keep your hands on the business side, outsource lawn care or housework. Take one little thing off your plate when you feel overwhelmed and then breathe!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gandestudios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gandestudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GandEStudios/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gandestudios/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GandEStudios
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSp93FLa_18u9kcQPMV625g
Image Credits
G and E Studios, LLC