We recently connected with Holly Hood and have shared our conversation below.

Holly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

My friends and family were the first people to help support my photography business. When I was first starting out I needed to be able to practice doing photoshoots with a wide variety of people, such as: families, couples, seniors and corporate. I didn’t feel that I was at a place that I could charge anyone for my services so I reached out to my family and friends and asked if anyone would want some free pictures. I explained to all of them that I’m just starting out and still learning so I will do my best. After about a year of doing this, I felt it was time to start charging for my services, I wasn’t charging as much as someone who has been doing this for 10+ years but I was charging enough to cover some expenses that come from this industry. When my family and friends would reach out to me to do more photo’s I would let them know that I’m charging now for my services. When I told them what my rate was they were happy to pay it. I’m not going to lie and say that it doesn’t feel weird having my friends and family pay for my services, because it does. I grew up when someone ask for help with something you just do it. If your neighbor ask to borrow a cup of sugar you give it to them, so when people reached out to do their pictures I had a hard time charging them. They know that I’m making this my career and in order for my career to be successful it does have to be profitable.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have only been doing photography full-time for 3 years, I started doing it about 5 years ago, but I spent the first couple of years learning how to use my camera, how to edit, pose, etc. I tried to learn as much as possible before going into this full time. My actual background with employment and my degree is in the social service field. My degree is in Family Science with a concentration in Psychology. I worked 20 years in the social services field and have worked with individuals with developmental disabilities as well as individuals with mental illness and substance abuse diagnosis. I felt that I had learned everything that this particular field had to offer me, and I wanted to learn something new, I wanted a new challenge. I have always been interested in photography, but I never had the means to pursue it. This is an expensive field to be in so before diving in, I wanted to make sure that I was going to stick with it and just purchased an affordable camera and learned how to use it. I still do work part-time in the social services field, it’s a passion I have in my heart, and I couldn’t give it up. I work one-on-one with an adult with a developmental disability. He definitely keeps me on my toes and makes me laugh, a lot,

As a photographer I have photographed just about everything: families, couples, individuals, headshots, seniors and models. I have done more corporate, seniors and models this last year and I truly enjoy it. I have also been able to be a photographer at a couple fashion shows which is what I’m most proud of. I was a photographer at a New York Fashion Week show as well as Kansas City Fashion Week. I have been a photographer for KCFW 3 times and was recently asked to join 3 other amazing photographers to help shoot their preseason promo pictures. I was definitely nervous because I had never done anything like this before. I felt like I did a good job, but I know what I would do differently if I were to do it again. Every photoshoot is a learning opportunity and I try to do better each time. I’m never going to know everything about photography or be the best photographer out there, but I’m going to give it 110% and learn and grow each time and I think that’s the best thing a person can do.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was doing online classes and watching different video’s people would talk about certain photography rules. These are things such as the rule of thirds, don’t crop off certain body parts, don’t make images blurry. I would really try to stick with these rules and then when I would look online or in magazines, I would notice other’s not following these rules. I have to remind myself that photography is an art, and the final image is what I envisioned and that’s what I need to photograph. Yes, it’s important to follow the rules but sometimes it’s okay to break them, especially for an amazing final image.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I don’t have a business partner, but I do have a really close friend who is a photographer. When I was first starting out, I attended a photography conference, and she was also attending as a photographer. We ended up doing some joint photoshoots together and our friendship started. I’m visual learner so it is helpful for me to watch someone do something and be able to ask questions. I was able to watch her during photoshoots and ask why she’s posing them a certain way or what settings she had on her camera. She lives a couple states away from me, so we try to meetup every few months to practice things. We recently got together because we both wanted to incorporate colored gels “lights” into our images and we both were struggling getting the ending result we had wanted. Once we got together and started going over everything and we were able to figure out what we were doing wrong individually, and we were finally able to get the result we were hoping for. The saying is true “two heads are better than one.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hollyhoodphotography.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hollyhoodphotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/hollyhoodphotography