We recently connected with Jessica Mikoloyck and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
Photography is the one of the most vast industries out there. The Client need ranges anywhere from documenting family milestones to providing imagery for large corporate ads. For some Photographers, they specialize in one or two of those things, for other Photographers, they start their day in a families living room photographing their Newborn and close up their day with Corporate head shots.
I am very weird when it comes to…planning.
Specifically…without sugar-coating any of this…the day I die.
Yep.
I said it.
Out loud!
“What happens to my business the day I die.”
Like…I have a plan! I want others to also have a plan! But you know what the most taboo thing is within the Photography industry is?!
It isn’t Boudoir Photography, it isn’t Stranger sessions, or even…shooting content for someone else’s Only Fans.
It is literally talking about what happens to our business (and all that undelivered imagery) when we die.
My legacy?!
My personal idea…wish, actually, of my own funeral is for families to literally grab their favorite frames images off of their walls and lining the church with the images that we have made together over the years.
My business wish?!
Is to find a space where we can PLAN as artists how to complete our hired sessions when the day comes that we aren’t here to be able to do so.
Don’t think this conversation is worth having?
Ask the Bride who’s Wedding you just photographed two weeks ago.
You know what happens next?
She will message my husband, and it will sound exactly like this, “I am so sorry to hear about your Wife. I know you are so busy making arrangements for her service, but can you let me know a good time will be to discuss getting my Wedding images that she hadn’t yet delivered to me?”
Let’s have THAT conversation! BEFORE we leave that mess behind for our own families to have to sort out!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My business began completely on accident.
It was an awesome Fall evening, I had a little point-and-shoot camera and my friends had just recently become engaged. Outdoor photography was starting to become a thing, so after my 8-5 job, we accidentally landed in that magical golden hour and chased that sun all over town for the next two hours.
When I went to share the first image from that session, I had to be like the cool kids and have my new favorite (highly oversaturated, oddly cropped, but so hella proud of that) photo watermarked…
Hmmm…
“Jessica Mikoloyck Photography”…
That has nearly as many letters that are in the alphabet and does not sound awesome out loud…
“SunnyFreckles…..Photography!”
That’s IT!
(That, “Sunnyfreckles”, was my first email address when the internet was born! I am sure it was [email protected] or whatever it was way back when.)
I slapped on SunnyFreckles Photography in some awful typewriter font sideways on the bottom of the image, shared it to Facebook (back when Facebook was cool) and I was taking appointments ten minutes later.
THAT WAS INSANE!
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
My favorite thing about my personal Photography journey is the adventure.
Literally…I have always been an indoor, A/C loving, blanket cuddling kind of human.
SunnyFreckles has taken me on a million adventures with my clients over the years.
I have so many memories…rattlesnakes that were hiding under a car that died in an old Nebraska field in the 1950’s and hadn’t moved since to running from a tornado (my gear attached to my back in what later we found was kind of a waterproof backpack!) in Oklahoma.
I think we all chase this dream that we see other Photographer’s doing on social media…calls to travel the world, jobs that pay us thousands of dollars to create imagery that will be seen in Times Square, but in reality, very few actually get that big break…and sustain it for a long period of time.
I was one of them, chasing that dream!
Once I realized that wasn’t going to happen for me, and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice or sell my soul to the lowest bidder for that so called big break…I started to really enjoy what I got to go out an shoot every evening here within my community!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
My greatest struggle that I see now in this environment of, “Likes+Views=Greatness!” is how absolutely toxic that is.
All avenues of social media have fostered…and subsequently programmed algorithm’s around the drama!
What brings in more traffic?
Drama.
Who has to create those kinds of posts to get seen, then meet the qualifications to become even more seen?
YOU.
Creators first become seen because they post their true, authentic selves! THEN…when they have this great big audience their goals change, and the pressure to create new content (remember why?! To remain part of that algorithm and remain seen!) becomes so far beyond their true, authentic self and then one day?!
One day…they have lost who they are, their content that they post is no longer about their own joy and love and passion of the world, but rather…what they THINK their audience wants, when all their OG audience desires more than anything?!
Is to see more of what brought them to a creator to begin with…their true, authentic selves!
SO MY ADVICE to anyone reading this…new or old in this game of being an artist, I beg of you, SHARE YOUR JOY!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sunnyfrecklesphotography.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunnyFrecklesPhotography
Image Credits
All Photography provided courtesy of the Interviewer, Jessica Mikoloyck.