We were lucky to catch up with Joni Schrantz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joni, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

After 10 years as a business owner I thought I wanted out, a regular job with all the benefits, as we were starting our family. I went back to school for nearly 4 years, got the job I thought I wanted and found myself regretting it pretty immediately. I just wanted my business back, but I wanted it to look differently.

I had been a wedding and portrait photographer for my entire career, while I enjoyed aspects of it, I knew I didn’t want to shoot weddings and families until I was 65, but I didn’t have the confidence to just jump into food and beverage work, nor a single person who would be willing to give me money to do that. I went to nursing school. I became a pediatric nurse and while the job was incredibly challenging and rewarding it wasn’t a good longterm fit and I knew it right away. All I dreamed of was photographing restaurants and food and booze brands. I stayed working as a nurse for nearly 5 years, while slowing growing my food and beverage photography portfolio, contacts and client list. It’s been just one year since I quit and it was the best decision, I finally had the guts to bet on myself. The hustle has come naturally because I love what I do so much.

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?

I am a photographer who focuses on the food and beverage industry. I take photos for restaurants, magazines and food and beverage companies. Much of my work occurs on-location often working with chefs, bartenders and business owners but I also shoot in my home-based studio as well. Every day looks a little different. One day I’m shooting staged content in my home-studio creating sets, pulling props, lighting scenes and hand-modeling for myself and the next I’m shooting a seasonal menu for a restaurant’s social media feed.

When I shoot I’m usually trying to convey a client’s branding message through my imagery while trying to stay true to my style. The imagery needs to make the viewer feel something, in my case, usually it’s hungry or thirsty.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Early on I had e mailed a local magazine’s art director asking if I could bring him coffee and introduce myself. No surprise, I never heard back, pretty common, I’d gotten used to not hearing back. 5 months later, he was in a bind, needed a food photographer, had saved that e mail and called me. After that assignment, he kept giving me work. Slowly I started meeting people through the assignments and more importantly, I was creating new work on a regular basis and was publishing that work. It’s taken 3 years but I’ve been able to build and now have a solid body of work and client list and now people in the local scene finally know I exist. I owe it all to that art director, who I still get to work with every month. He’s helped my career in immeasurable ways.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

Getting to lead a life I’m excited about is the most rewarding part of my job. I genuinely enjoy the work, so I when I’m on set working with clients, I’m usually having fun. I’ve also made a point to keep things pretty simple, I’m a one-man operation, so being in control of my schedule, timelines, projects is all on me. I like not having to coordinate with anyone before making decisions, so inevitably this will potentially limit the kind of projects and clients I can take on longterm, but I’m ok with that. I’ve been lucky enough to build the career that looks pretty damn close to what I dreamt of.

Contact Info:

• Website: jonischrantz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joni.schrantz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonischrantzphoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joni-schrantz-481485b/

Image Credits
Headshot by Jeremiah Corder