Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joanna Andres. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Joanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents both came to the United States from Italy. They only had an education up to the 8th grade and did not know the English language. They came here to live the American Dream. They had a lot of struggles but learned to work hard. When I was 12 years old my parents purchased their first pizzeria in their small town of Monroe, Michigan. I remember getting picked up from middle school and going straight to my family’s restaurant to work every day except for Mondays as that was the only day they were closed. I would bring homework and wanted to get it done, but my family needed my help with answering phones, taking orders, making pizza’s, subs, salads and pastas, checking out customers, waitressing and whatever it was that they needed, and that came first. I would work long hours after being in school all day. By late evening when things slowed down was when I was able to do my homework. I learned so much about working hard and running a business from the age of 12. I learned how to work with customers, getting to know customers and building a relationship and friendships with them. I learned about profits and losses and how many pizza’s we needed to make to break even, I learned all the ins and outs of the business such as marketing, accounting, sales, etc. I was able to see the rewards of working hard and keeping customers happy and returning. I knew that someday I wanted to run my own business, too.
Joanna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I specialize in Newborn, Baby, Milestone, and Maternity Photography. My studio is located in Upper Arlington, Ohio. I have an 800 square foot boutique home studio and am looking to expand to a commercial studio this summer. I provide my clients with a beautiful maternity wardrobe with couture gowns, all the props, backdrops, outfits, headbands, hats, layers for the newborn session and also will style your baby’s first milestone session, too.
My goal is to provide my clients with a stress free, relaxing service to expecting moms and families. I provides a luxury experience to my clients and gives my clients a customized photo session to provide them with beautiful images of their newborn, maternity belly or milestone for their child that they will cherish for a lifetime. In addition to providing digital images, I also design beautiful keepsake albums, heirloom wood prints and acrylic prints for her clients to display and adore in their homes.
In 2008, I had my first son, Luca. I was working as a sales trainer/recruiter for a local new home/condo builder. The housing market crashed in 2008 and I decided that I would fulfil my dream of being a stay-at-home mom. Six months after having my son, I was pregnant again with my 2nd baby, a girl, Olivia. I loved capturing all of my babies milestones on camera and also hiring a photographer to capture my babies. My husband, Corey, had mentioned that I should buy a professional camera and take photos of the kids and I did. I would post my photos of my own kids on Facebook and friends would then ask her to photographer their babies. They would give me a gift card as a thank you.
As a stay at home on a teacher’s salary income, our budget was always tight. I took some courses at a local camera store on how to use my camera and it’s settings. When I first started, I decided to start doing small mini sessions for friends for a very low cost and it started to pay for activities for the kids like dance classes, and some classes that I could take the kids to so I could go to the grocery store or run errands. I started offering outdoor sessions, and one day it rained so I took one of my friends/clients into my office with lots of natural light and shot there. I then started to do newborn sessions in a small office space (about 200 square feet) in my home. I wanted to get better at newborn sessions as I really loved them. I took several online classes, workshops and a one-on-one workshop in Atlanta Georgia with a well-known newborn photographer. I learned so much about lighting, how to pose the babies safely, how to soothe the babies so they were comfortable and much more. My photography improved and it showed in my images.
As my business got busier, I decided to invest in finishing my basement and turn it into a beautiful, cozy boutique studio for my clients. I provide my clients with all the props, backdrops, outfits, hats, headbands, lovies, layers, and even beautiful couture maternity gowns that come from all over the country. My clients don’t have to bring anything to the session, just their baby or pregnant bellies! My business has grown so much, and I have such a large collection that I am currently looking for commercial space as I am outgrowing my current space.
I am really proud of my business. I’ve grown so much creatively. I and am so grateful for such amazing, loyal clients who return to me when they’re pregnant with their 2nd, 3rd or even 4th child to have me capture their newborns and/or maternity sessions as well as their child’s milestone sessions. I am also grateful as my business has a large percentage of referrals from past and present clients. I also have almost 300 5 Star Google Reviews which I’m very grateful that my clients love their experience with me and the products and services that I provide for them.
I have been selected as Best Newborn and Maternity Photographer in Columbus, OH by Expertise in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019. I have also been featured several times in Bump, Baby and Beyond Magazine as well as Lensational Magazine. It’s amazing how much I have accomplished in the past 8 years that I have been photographing newborns, babies and maternity clients.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In 2008, I had shingles about 4 or 5 times that year. I thought it was due to stress as my husband, Corey, was traveling a lot for business as he had changed careers from being a teacher to an expert witness. This was a very high stress job for him, and he worked very long hours. I was managing my kids on my own a lot, which they are both heavily involved in several sports and are very social, on top of running a very busy business. Corey was concerned that my immune system was compromised. He did some research and told me that I should ask my doctor if I had cancer. I basically laughed that he thought I would have cancer. Cancer did not run in my family at all. I actually don’t even know any family members from both sides of my family that has ever been diagnosed with cancer. In December of 2008, I went to my primary care physician and asked him if he thought I had cancer. He asked if it ran in my family, and I said no. He said he would run some “Bloodwork”. I actually to this date have no idea what bloodwork he ran but he did say that I had high cholesterol which does run in my family and to just watch my diet since I already worked out 5 times a week regularly.
In January, I decided in addition to working out 5 times a week at Orange Theory Fitness, I joined their transformation Challenge. I decided I was going to do 100 pushups/sit-ups every day in addition to my regular workouts so I could decrease my body fat percentage and win this challenge I just signed up for. I remember waking up one day and feeling pain in my right breast. I thought that I was just sore from the pushups. When I went to work out, I continued to feel pain. I didn’t think much of it and then had a newborn session and just kept feeling pain on and off throughout the entire day. I went to bed that night and couldn’t sleep because the pain was strong on my right side so much that I couldn’t sleep on that side. That morning, I felt my breast and felt a very large lump the size of a grape in my right breast. I remember asking Corey to see if he could feel it, too, which he did and he was very concerned.
On January 22, 2009, I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Stage 3 Breast Cancer. I was completely shocked as I never thought I would ever have breast cancer. It didn’t run in my family, I worked out regularly, growing up my dad always had a huge garden, and we always ate fresh vegetables, canned our own tomato sauce and we just ate very healthy that I never thought I would be diagnosed with cancer.
I decided that I was going to fight this disease and continue to work during my diagnosis. As a business owner, you don’t get any sick days and if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. There’s not PTO. But honestly working was therapy for me. I love babies so much and it never feels like “work” when I’m capturing these beautiful babies. It’s art for me and I love that I can be creative. That year, I ended up getting 6 intensive chemotherapy treatments, a lumpectomy and radiation. I didn’t tell any of my clients that I had breast cancer. I didn’t want my clients to feel bad for me, cancel their session and move on with another photographer. And secondly, I would be so sad to stop doing what I love!
I didn’t want to “look sick” or people to know that I had cancer. I used Cold Caps during chemotherapy, which freezes your hair follicles during chemotherapy, so your hair doesn’t fall out. My clients didn’t even know I was fighting cancer during my entire diagnosis. It was challenging as I did have some tough days that I was just exhausted or felt sick, but I didn’t even think about having cancer when I was working with my clients. I truly feel that working helped me through my cancer treatments. I ended up having a full response to the chemotherapy. I had to continue with infusions for an entire year and about 32 radiation treatments. When I was done with all my treatments, I finally announced to my clients that I had beat cancer! They were all in shock as they had no idea and were astounded by my resilience.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I typically have a quick turnaround on getting my clients their images. I tell them 2-4 weeks but I typically get it to them in 1 week. But, they love that I give them a sneak peek of one of my favorite images from their session, the day of the session. So my clients are always excited to follow me on social media so they can see their sneak peek or sneak peeks of my other clients that I post on both Facebook and Instagram. I have had fun doing some behind the scenes reels on Instagram and Facebook so my clients can see how I set up a session and what it would like during a typical session. I also think just being authentic and genuine, that’s what people like to see.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joannaandresphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joannaandresphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoannaAndresPhotography
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joanandresphoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jojoandres1
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/joanna-andres-photography-columbus
Image Credits
Joanna Andres Photography