We recently connected with Harlee Villegas and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Harlee, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

This is such a fun question for me because it has a really personal (but awesome) answer.

All throughout high school, I wanted to be a photographer. I didn’t know what kind, but I knew it was something I was passionate about. I had a friend named Rachel who always told me if it was my passion I should follow it, and I wanted to. I would take friends senior pictures, pictures of my animals, landscape.. anything that caught my eye. Rachel always said she could see it “you’re meant to be a photographer, Harlee. I just know it.” – famous words I guess. Rachel passed away not long after I went to college but I never forgot what she said.

Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money so when I went to college my family encouraged me to find a more ‘profitable’ passion to set myself up for success. A fall-back plan if you will. I ended up going to college for marketing and it was okay, but I never felt like it was ‘it’ for me.

Fast forward a couple of years, I had our first child, Lane. I wanted to stay home with him and I talked with my husband about picking up photography as a side gig but I wasn’t sure. He bought me my first pro. camera and told me to go for it. That night I had a dream about my photography business and in the dream I was calling it Lane Gray Photography. I immediately knew where the name came from.. Of course Lane was for our son, but the Gray came from Rach. Gray was her favorite color and she was the first person to push me to pursue my passion. I thought it was the perfect way to honor her.

Harlee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a wedding and couples photographer. I have been in the wedding industry for over 5 years and I just adore it. I started out second shooting for another photographer and I knew from the very first wedding that this was my niche. My style is carefree, in-the-moment and fun. I love to capture all of the moments my couple might not see during their day; Mom staring at her daughter, Grandma gettin down on the dance floor, a sweet glance from the groom.. those are the moments I live for.

I go into a wedding with joy and excitement. I am my brides biggest fan, my grooms biggest hype woman and every mothers go-to on the day. It goes beyond that too, even before their big day I want my brides to know I am there for them for whatever. I have even put together a vision board for a bride to help her visualize color details and flowers. When you hire me, you are hiring your new bestie and thats something I take pride in.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I always knew I wanted photography to be my full time gig. In the beginning I had no idea how I was going to make that happen but I knew it was my main goal. I had just had my son, I knew we wanted more children and I just had no passion for the corporate world.. I truly wanted to immerse myself in the wedding industry so I got to work.

I decided from the very beginning what my goals were. I knew I wanted to go full time by the time we had a second child so I set my sights on that. From the start I told each client I came into contact with how important it was to me to build my social media, get 5 star reviews and spread the word about my business. I would ask even client if they would do any of those things for me from following my page, reviewing me if they loved their gallery or just simply tagging/telling their friends about me…. and it worked. For the first couple of years I really didn’t have to pay for advertising… they did it for me. I slowly would start to do google ads and ads on wedding websites as I wanted to grow the wedding side of my business but the best thing I learned from the first couple of years… client experience and word of mouth go a LONG way.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Its the ability to freeze-frame time. For all fo my brides, grooms and other couples I get to capture a moment in time where there is genuine happiness, smiles, laughter and real emotion. Particularly for weddings, I am honored to capture those moments. I have had several couples tell me I have captured the last images of loved ones over the years and it makes me feel so honored to do what I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lanegrayphotography.com
• Instagram: lanegrayphoto
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/lanegrayphoto