We recently connected with Kalie Berin and have shared our conversation below.

Kalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I love being a photographer. I am so grateful that I’ve been able to run my own successful business and hope I’m still doing this years from now. I’ve been on the other side before- I was a teacher for 11 years before quitting in 2021 to go full-time as a photographer- and I definitely don’t want to go back to that (or any other 9-5, to be honest). That being said, there are definitely challenging days when I think it would be nice to have the guaranteed, stable income a 9-5 provides.

Kalie, 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 think a lot of things probably led me to photography, but the main catalysts for starting my family photography business were the birth of my daughter and Covid-19 Pandemic. I’ve always loved taking photographs and I think I’ve always had a pretty good eye for composition, that being said, prior to 2020 the only cameras I had ever owned were a point & shoot and iPhone. When my daughter was a year old, I was still teaching, but I had already wanted to quit and going back after the Pandemic only made that more clear to me, so I started to finally take photography more seriously as a way out and bought my first DSLR. I taught myself as much as I could about how to use it, found a mentor to help, took some courses on shooting and editing, and started practicing on friends and family. I started testing the waters as a photographer by posting on Facebook and things grew from there. In January 2021 I quit teaching and started my business full-time.

When you’re starting out I feel like everyone tells you if you want to make any money as a photographer you have to shoot weddings, but I knew from the start that what I really wanted to focus on was families. I lost my mom 8 years ago and all I have now are photographs- most of which my mom isn’t in. I think that’s true for a lot of mothers- we tend to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. I knew that I didn’t want that to be true for my own daughter one day and it just kind of bled out into my work, too. I think what sets me apart is my ability to capture authentic moments for families. My clients don’t come to me because they want a perfectly posed, traditional portrait. I am not the photographer for that. They come to me because they want real, candid moments and photographs that are filled with emotion. I’m able to preserve memories for clients that are otherwise hard to capture.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence is not big, by any stretch. I’ll only hit 1k followers this year- that being said, the followers I do have are, for the most part, clients and potential clients. I built my social media presence organically, and although it’s been slow to grow, over the past two years my audience has widened and it’s becoming a more valuable resource for me in terms of generating leads and attracting clients.

My advice is to be consistent and be patient. And, maybe most importantly, to recognize that the number of followers someone has is not the full picture of their business.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My husband and I joke that any time we get too comfortable in life, we life to mix it up by pivoting- and, it’s honestly not really a joke at this point. One of the biggest pivots I’ve had to make in my business is re-building after relocating. Exactly one year after going full-time as a photographer, we decided to move from Cincinnati, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio (about a 2 hour drive) for a job opportunity for him and to be closer to family. I’m fortunate enough that I’m still able to serve both cities and so haven’t totally started from scratch here in Columbus, but it’s been a big adjustment. That being said, I’m so grateful that it happened how and when it did- if we hadn’t moved I don’t know that I would have started charging what I was worth as early in my career as I did and it’s also forced me to put more boundaries in place in terms of my availability for clients. Even though it was really hard at first (and still is sometimes) the move helped me figure out my priorities in business and showed me that the clients who value my work also respect me and the boundaries I’ve had to put in place. I have a better work-life balance now because of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kalieberinphotography.com
• Instagram: @kalieberinphotography

Image Credits
Kalie Berin Photography