We recently connected with Joanna Carina and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Joanna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career

After earning a BA from my 4 year art college, I would say a huge facet was missing in my education as an entrepreneur and business owner – business skills! While I was able to explore and refine my photography, design and computer skills, I was never taught the basics of owning a business, marketing, sales, or any other facets needed to be a self-sustaining business owner. I had to entirely research and learn these skills on my own through online and in-person workshops, webinars and classes from mentors. And this wasn’t just something missing from my particular college, I see it across the industry and everywhere from small two-year programs all the way to bachelor’s and graduate programs too. Students are educated in their preferred area of art, and some include more depth in the subject such as historical development, etc, but not in how to make a living with the particular degree being given.

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?

My name is Joanna Carina and I founded Carina Photographics in 2011. I had just left my graphic design job and wanted to focus on my photography career after we had our first child. I was lucky enough that I had a foundation from my previous job as a designer and marketer so I could use those skills in my new career.

My first year was mostly spent building my brand, photographing portfolio shoots to show the types of work I wanted, and researching and learning more about the industry and how to make a living at a photography career. My first paid weddings and photoshoots started in 2012. I focused on weddings for the first several years, and few years ago I made the switch to specialize in portrait sessions and heirloom portrait artwork. I have positioned myself as a luxury business, and always provide my clients with a first-class experience and artwork offerings for their homes. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic threw a wrench into my first couple years of portrait offerings, so things went a bit slower at first than I had hoped. Happily, business really took off in 2022 as more of the world has opened back up again and I’ve hit the ground running with my marketing and advertising.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I would have to say that the Covid pandemic is a good illustration of my resilience. I had spent the entire year of 2019 changing my business model, traveling around the country for workshops to increase my business sustainability and direction of focus, spending money on new artwork samples for my studio, etc. Everything was positioned perfectly at the start of 2020, and then the big shut-down happened. I lost almost all my wedding photography jobs for the year of 2020 as well as the portrait sessions I had lined up. I was able to keep a few jobs here and there, but we took a huge income and business hit. Luckily, our state allowed “gig workers” (a term that included photographers) to access unemployment funds, and there were also a number of business grants I applied for and was awarded. So I just kept at it, continued my marketing for the time that people returned to our industry, and tried to stay flexible as things were constantly ebbing and flowing.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A major lesson that a lot of photographers (and artists in general) need to learn is how to run a sustainable business. A lot of artists seem to fall for the “race to the bottom” in terms of pricing their work/products – they think they need to offer the cheapest price so more people are enticed to buy from them. However, when you are in a sustainable business, you may have to improve your services and art offerings to get people in the door, and not just lower prices. I have found that I may lose a few price shoppers in my industry, but luxury clients are not looking for the cheapest offerings, but they want the best in products and service, and that is helping my business to succeed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carinaphotographics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carinaphotographics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarinaPhotographics/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carina-photographics/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarinaPhotographics
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/carina-photographics-saint-paul
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carinaphotographics/

Image Credits
Carina Photographics