We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ise’ah Bentley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ise’ah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I had a job at Best Buy. I learned a lot from those guys that worked there, i also went on YouTube every night for months just learning how to take photos, and learning the tricks of the trade. It took about a year before i started feeling comfortable

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?

Covid happened… I’m originally a musician and i needed another outlet to be creative, I’ve always been in front of the camera. I direct all my videos, i edit them all, I’m really hands on with my music. So i decided to pick up the camera and learn. Right now i pretty much do it all, people tell you, you need to find a niche and stick to it but i feel like if your good at a lot you should offer a lot. I do portraiture, boudoir, weddings, graduation, food Photography, product photography, i work with a lot of PMU artists in the valley and etc. it’s all fun to me, you get to experience other peoples worlds, you get submersed in it and learn and i feel that’s the only way to grow

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Stop thinking everything is free. You don’t go to a restaurant and haggle the prices you just pay what they say, same goes for clothes and experiences. As creatives people love our work but tend to not want to pay for it but that’s not okay. We deserve to be paid what we’re worth just like any other entity.

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

I had to unlearn not to take things personally in business. I’m a very personal person and trusting to an extent and when someone reaches out for business and we have genuine conversation, i expect them to follow through or at least communicate why they can’t go through with something so we are all on the same page. A lot of people will just ghost you, so I’ve had to learn to just let it go and on to the next potential booking

Contact Info:

• Website: www.naturelvibe.com
• Instagram: @thenaturelvibe
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/naturelvibe
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCyab0W6o3VN07JrGImytlNw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/naturel-vibe-photography-scottsdale-2

Image Credits
Naturel Vibe Photography