We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate Walker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate below.

Kate, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

No doubt, I would have started my career sooner. As a photographer, at times, it can feel hard to keep up with new technology, trends, and marketing. I also feel like I still have a long ways to go in mastering my tools such as camera equipment and editing software. Having to juggle these aspects of building a photography brand can be exhausting, of course I would love to have had more time to build my brand.

I started photography in college, around 2017. I owned a camera for a few years but hardly ever touched it. Once I was exposed to the food photography niche I was hooked and wanted to learn everything about it. I enrolled in courses, got a internship, started my own website, etc.

When I began submerging myself in photography, I was about as inexperienced as you can be. I had to dabble in a few different photography styles before finding my own voice. That is something that can take years and is something I am still working towards. If I had a few more years to mature in my photography “voice” than it could have given me more time to build my brand and better prepare myself for a career in photography after college.

Kate, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a food photographer located in St. Petersburg, Fl. I have been doing photography for about 5 years. My passion is not only capturing food but also the people behind it. Chefs, farmers, restaurateurs, and so on, have so much to do with the food that I am photography so I love to highlight them as well.

I got into the industry by starting out as an intern at Simply Gluten Free Magazine, now Gluten Free and More, and working my way up to becoming lead photographer and videographer for not only magazine publishing, but website and social media as well, including a few magazine covers. There I gained a well rounded set of skills in not only photography but videography, social media content creation, editing and styling.

Since leaving Simply Gluten Free Magazine, I am working as a freelance Digital Assistant with Edible Tampa Bay, a local magazine publishing seasonally. Within this role, I focus heavily on social media management gement and website content management. I have also been able to have a few of my photos published in the seasonal magazine and have even earned a cover photo!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It sounds simple, but I want to think of myself as a great photographer. Every artist can be hard on their own work, I am not different. While I am proud of my work, I am constantly looking for ways to improve and create art that makes even my own jaw drop. I am in many ways, in competition with myself.

How did you build your audience on social media?

The biggest thing is keeping up with the trends. If you have been on Instagram in any capacity the past year than you know how hard reels are being pushed. To have success on social media you need to be able to adjust your brand to fit the trends. When I was posting only photos, I was getting some traction but nothing compared to what I was seeing when I began posting consistent reels. My instagram has grown over 100% since using Instagram reels.

Never forget the old, but always be willing to adjust to new methods, especially when is comes to social media marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kkwphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kkwphoto/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-walker-6b041b179/

Image Credits
Kate Walker