Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Janelle Awe. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Janelle, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I’ve always loved traveling and I’ve tried hard to incorporate it into my business.

The benefits of being a self employed photographer is that you can take your work with you anywhere.

A few ways I’ve been able to travel around the world with my business is to capture weddings, take workshops, and host workshops.

I’m able to expand my portfolio, get inspired and creative, have new experiences, see new places and expense it as a business trip, pay for my trip by hosting the trip, meet people from new locations, share experiences with like minded people. There are so many benefits!

I have recently made a few changes to my business to incorporate time away from my business.

In the past during summer holidays, weekends have always included weddings and photoshoots. This means missing Fridays and Saturdays of the long weekends, showing up at my kids ball tournaments late Saturday night, and often missing weekends with friends. As my kids grow and as my business changes, I’ve decided to make myself and vacations a priority. Marking dates off and sticking to it, saying I’m unavailable, taking the full week or weekend off to be with my family and friends.

I’m hoping to add more sports photography to my portfolio to create a more balanced business/family/social life. More work during the winter and spring so I can say no to more work during the summer and fall.

I love what I do but to keep it profitable and truly satisfying, I need to keep it balanced. I need to take time for myself away from the business but once again still have the opportunity to travel with my business.

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.

As kids, my friends and I always had a camera. I think most of my memories were based off of the photos that were taken. If you didn’t have the photos, did it really happen? To this day I still look at my photos.

After high school, I decided to go into fashion. Like my Mom, I enjoyed sewing and I had a love for all things clothes and shopping! I attended Lethbridge Community College and received a diploma in Fashion Design and Merchandising while working as a Lab Technician and Teachers Assistant in the Fashion Program. It was suggested that if I continued my education, I could become an instructor at the college. With no other plans, I decided it was a great idea and enrolled in university in Toronto, what is now known as Toronto Metropolitan University. Here I obtained my Fashion Design Degree and added a few photography classes.

I ended up teaching fashion at both Lethbridge Community College and Olds College. After 5 years, I wanted a change and decided to start my own business, Peter Posies Closet. I would go through clients closets with them, sort, organize, donate, and alter their items so they had a better idea of what they needed, wanted, and felt best in. I also opened two alteration shops, one in Olds and one downtown Calgary in the Grain Exchange Building. The shops were so busy but they were taking over the business and my time and I found I was exhausted.

I was given the opportunity to design kitchens in Calgary and decided that was the best way to break away from my business. I needed a change and wanted to start bringing in more income.

I then started my family and became a full time Mom with twin boys and a daughter 17 months after. With 3 babies so close together, I had my hands full.

When I had my business, I had bought a used manual digital camera, my first ever. Prior to that I had used film or my little automatic Fuji digital. After having my babies, I decided to play around with my manual digital camera. I started taking photos of others and bringing in money. It was my way of getting outside of the house, being social and creative while bringing in some spending money. I registered for a few workshops and as my passion grew, so did my business. My bedroom would double as a studio and airb&b’s would allow for travel, paid expenses and the perfect locations to host workshops.

We have since built a home in the country west of Bowden where I photograph a lot of my clients and we designed a photography studio in our house. It has become the prime location for workshops and mentorship’s but I still plan and host events and workshops in other locations to keep creativity. I love the people within my industry and have built so many strong relationships. I hope to continue this.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Being myself.

There is so much competition in the photography industry. You can start out small with next to no equipment and if you have a creative eye, you can sell what you see.

I’m at a point in my life and business where I don’t want to come home from a wedding and start editing until 3 in the morning, or race home from a shoot and have all of the images sorted, edited and shipped off to the client before morning. I used to be that person. Priorities have changed but for the new and upcoming entrepreneurs, they’re doing it.

New and upcoming photographers are so talented but they’re charging a beginners rate. Fair enough but I don’t want to be charging a beginners rate.

What sets me apart from these new and upcoming creatives that charge less but still represent amazing work? It has to be me, my personality, my experience, and my joy and passion for the job. It has to shine through.

We’re very fortunate to have social media where we can visually and verbally share our vision, our style, our personalities and therefore draw in the right clients to work with.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I believe that now is the perfect example of when I’ve had to pivot.

In 2022 I had twice as many weddings booked as in 2024.

This is for many reasons.

I’ve prioritized my family and myself and started saying I’m not available.

Competition has grown immensely and it’s really good competition, a lot of creatives with great talent.

I want a more balanced income year round.

This is why I’ve cut back on my weddings and am growing in the sports industry. I would like to shoot more weekday evenings in the winter and spring and less weekends in the summer and fall.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.whitecreekranchphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitecreekranchphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhiteCreekRanchPhotography
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhiteCreekPhoto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@whitecreekranchphotography3937

Image Credits
White Creek Ranch Photography My 4 Muse Studios