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

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

When I first started taking photos, I thought someone simply knowing photos were occurring, that they’d be prepared for them, I’d arrive, capture the work or subjects and be on my way to another Google review.

Not once before starting a business did I consider that people needed to be coached through a process for the best experience overall.

For portraits and events, it’s all about prepping attire, props, and lighting. Making sure the family coordinates, rather than matching. Making sure the timing works for all involved. Babies need to be fed and changed to be happy. Elderly folks need warmth and comfort. Couples need to compliment each other and so on.

For real estate, it’s ensuring light bulbs aren’t burnt out, that they are bright and match… that homeowners know to remove their pads and tampons from the counter,… their toothbrush and cosmetics, their jewelry hoards, guns, and Trump posters needed to hide if we’re going to maintain focus on a room to a potential buyer.

There was a time that a realtor hired me for twilight photos of a home on a lake. Simple enough. I know what I need to do in order to capture a home with the sky afire from the sunset or sunrise; it all depends on the home as to what moment in time is necessary for the best impact.

I researched the home and found the best time to capture would be sunset, so I touched base with the time I’d be there and booked it on the calendar.

The day of appointment, I drive almost two hours to the address, I pull up to the home and am shocked. There are no exterior lights on the home or land and the home is inset to the deepest part of valley, surrounded by trees, all the way down to the lake.

Now, if you’re not a photographer for this kind of thing you still don’t see the issue. Let me help… The home would need a good open skyline, be substantially lit from landscape lighting, pathways lighting, and exterior accent lighting. This house had nothing.

The realtor was with me during the session, I assumed he would be well aware of what he was getting back. I asked the owner to turn on all exterior lights and interior lights.

The only lights outside were a set of floodlights on the corner of the home by the garage and a light by the entry doors, and a few solar lights over a path.

I sighed but persisted… I took the photos, did what I could to make the home shine with the sunset sky fully blocked by a hypothetical forest of pines.

Fast forward two days later, I sent the images and the realtor responded immediately… he was NOT at all happy with the photos.

Understandably so too. I thought this was a joke of some sort. But it wasn’t.

His expectations were of something that was not at all possible for the home he requested service on. In his mind every home would look the same during a sunset session… it all depends on the photographer. Unfortunately, too.

He didn’t know what would be needed at a home for what he’d had in mind. He wasn’t the professional where light comes into play.

It was a hard lesson learned. I’ve never heard from him again, though I still service the gated community he lists in.

But what it taught me is that discussing expectations prior to a project being accepted is a necessary. That way everyone knows what’s possible and needed and the client can trust that those expectations will be met. I can trust that I’ll then have a returning client.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve always been a nature nerd, so to speak.

As a kid, my downtime was spent riding bikes through woods in my neighborhood, playing in creeks and watching animals.

As I grew, I went from carrying snacks to carrying snacks in my photo gear sack. I’d take photos of the places I’d been and print them. Back in the day of 35mm and photo labs.

I actually started my career in photography as a printer of photos. I worked at CVS in the one hour photo lab. I worked my way up and was promoted to lab supervisor within a year at a store in High Point, NC.
We were THE go-to for the furniture market industry during the Spring and Autumn Furniture Market periods.

It’d be nothing for ten companies to come in with bags of film asking for 5 5x7s of each print, of each roll, and they needed it “by tonight!”

Fortunately after the first market experience I got into the swing of things and it was just another week in paradise when Market time came.

From time to time, we’d run specials in the store on prints or frames and to help showcase the deals, I’d print off some of my photos and hang them up behind the counter at the lab, on the counter by the registers, and back at the pharmacy.

I’d get compliments from time to time on the photos, most just though they were pretty, some thought it was pretty clever marketing, but a few mentioned compositional elements that peaked their interests. Of course, any compliment given only fueled my fire! So I kept it up.

Then my kids were born! I went from shooting flowers to shooting faces with icing on them and cries in Santa’s lap and magical moments at the beach. Family shindigs, birthdays, Christmas and the like, I’d chase the family around for shots, capture mom cooking, my sisters being goofy, my nieces and nephews and all the madness therein.

Photography was always just a side thing.

Life with CVS became life with Lowe’s Home Improvement in Wilkesboro. The big corporate jobs and opportunities were a bit better than what CVS could offer with my growing family.

Again, taking nature and my kids with me, I decorated my cubicle with my work again, gaining compliments from others who knew me or just walked by.

And over the years people would ask me if I’d take their family photos or reunions or birthday parties… at first I did it for nothing at all but as the years went on, I’d began asking I charge a little.

And that’s what I did for almost 11 years, work a job, be a mom, take photos often.

One day, my work life with Lowe’s came to an abrupt end. I’d been another one of those “laid off” stories that the company goes through every year or two and I was a mess.

I bled blue and felt a bit betrayed. “Due to improvements you’ve been a part of, your position is no longer needed.”, and then asking me to pack my desk and leave.

A few days passed and I was sitting in my living room, crying over this situation when my phone rang. It was my mom.

She was calling to try to cheer me up… I just knew it, and I needed it. So I answered, “Hey momma.”

“Hey babe! Whatcha doing??”

She sounded cheerful. Annoyingly so.
I wasn’t in the mood.

“I’m just sitting here, mom. What are you doing?” – maybe she’ll be quick.

“Weeeell….. I need your help. I need you to come shoot a house for me.”

Uhhhhhhhhh… come again?
“What?? A house?? Mom!! That’s not what I do! I have NO fricking clue what that even means or looks like…. Just no!”

She wasn’t having it – “Heather! I know you’re upset right now about your job with Lowe’s. But I need you to pull yourself together and get your camera and bring it to the house I’m about to text you. “

“MOM! I’ve NEVER done that before! I have no idea what to do! Seriously!!”
I mean… I love her but photography is a very diverse field. It’s not just bring a camera and shoot it and be done. She didn’t know that… she’s a realtor. NOT a photographer!!

“Heather! I need you to get off your @$$ and get down here and shoot this house. Get yourself up… get dressed… wash your face, grab your stuff and head down!”

So I did. Huffing and puffing the whole time. Now I wish I could say that when I got there I just fell into the seat of a real estate photography and rocked it out. But that’s not how life and light work. The images sucked so bad. Too dark, not enough aperture for good clarity… but she love the composition.

Said they just need some tweaking. And she asked me to do it again. This time I changed my approach, did a little research first, tried it at home so I could get my bearings.

The next time was better. And the time after that was a little better and so on…

Before long people other than my mom were reaching out to get something done because they really liked what they saw.

And here I am, almost 7 years later, still trying to do a little bit better than I did the day before.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had a headshot photo event at a company in Charlotte not long ago. The company requested headshots at their corporate meeting event at a hotel.

For this headshot event, I had a backdrop, lights and reflectors, a bench and my camera gear ready to go.

Upon arriving in Charlotte at the hotel, I’m taken to an area to set up, given very small parameters to work in. They were meeting in the large rooms and my space was in the hallway, just outside.

The attendant asked how much space I’d need in this hall because they’d also need to set up the buffet. I got my spot approved and began to set up the backdrop and lighting around it.

As I was setting up, another photographer came up to me, looking at my gear asking if this was the event. I said yes ma’am. And she looked at me again and said “I wasn’t aware there would be another photographer…” and walked away quickly.
I thought that was odd but was up against a clock to set up and test the lighting before the headshots began.

The attendant came back up to me and asked who I was with, and who I was here for. I let her know who my clients were and who I was and she said, “I’ve never heard of them. This space is for someone else. I’m so sorry… when I saw you pull up with your gear I just assumed you were OUR photographer.”

Stunned, I look at the other photographer walking back and asked if she minded if I just left this stuff here till I figured out where my party was. Thankfully she was understanding but so was I… I knew she had to set up too. I went ahead and moved it aside and broke it down to pack with me again.

Once I got the gear situated on the handy racks they provided, I found my way to the front desk and asked for my party’s location. They instructed me to go down and around a mirage of obstacles and me just here holding onto hope, I thanked them and walked on.

I rounded the corner after dropping my lighting lamps twice, and the reflector once, as graceful as possible (NOT), to see the meeting room I’ve been assigned.

The hallway is full already with the buffet. The meeting room, packed full in the U shaped layout so everyone in the room can see each other.

I’ve clearly lost my place for placing the backdrop in the hallway. The meeting room doesn’t have much space, plus the lighting is ALL fluorescent. The worst possible spot for photos is the only place left inside. And I’m shaking.

This client means the world to me! And to fall short at this point is horrifying.

As I’m pacing, looking for another option I see a patio, under construction, just outside. As I scope it closer, there’s a few stores in front of a pathway on a path very seldom travelled. I pull out my sun tracker app to see where the suns going to be and when.

It could work but there’s one problem. There’s no room to set up a backdrop. It’s a public pathway and even If I set up smaller to the side, the wind would likely carry it away along with my lamps and the havoc that scenario created in my mind at that split second terrified me further. I was in a pinch. And it almost crippled me.

But then I remembered, I’m a natural light photographer by golly, this backdrop was just something to suit the office space. I took another look at the area around me and was rejuvenated.

Everything was almost too perfect. The sun would light everything beautifully, the shade provides a bit of a buffer, we won’t be the focus of the office meeting space, and everyone has their own personal moment in front of the camera.

I was thankful. In a pinch, I created art. And perhaps a few return clients.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

One of the things I think kept my clients coming back and sharing my name is the work ethic. I don’t work for someone… I am the owner. I am the photographer. I am the marketer and the pc guru and the customer support specialist.

It’s my name on the line so I take care of that. I want the clients to love the work. I want their clients to love my presence while obtaining that work. I want people to feel comfortable when I’m capturing them as well as know they’ll look amazing afterward.

With real estate, it’s simple things like removing a trash can from the view, or personal items like toilet brushes, mail on the fridge, exposing a view from a window, little things make a big difference. You’ll find many memes online of real estate photographs showing some highly questionable things and what should be a great marketing moment for a homeowner ends up being the talk of some social media site.

With portraits, I have extremely high standards that I hold myself to. True skin tones on all flesh captured is one of those. Even lighting on each subject is another. Backdrops and props are not so much for me but rather focus on the people in them…. The moment shared between them. This life, right now. Raw and true and beautiful.

I think it’s consistency with those aspects no matter what my subject or focus is. I want it to look good. I want YOU to look good and like what you get back.

And my clients know it. Thankfully!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.timestreasuredstudios.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/times_treasured_studios
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimesTreasuredStudios
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cardwell
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@timestreasuredstudios