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

Hi Katharine, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I got interested in photography when I was in middle school but didn’t actually learn how to use a camera until my photojournalism class in my junior year of high school. After I learned the basics I just started practicing on literally everything. I would ask friends if I could take photos of them, and I would ask my mom if we could go drive around so I could take photos of random places. Anytime I traveled somewhere I always took my camera and would take pictures of absolutely any and everything.

It honestly didn’t take me too long to learn, but I do wish I had started earlier. As I said before I got interested in photography in middle school, but it took me a couple of years to get serious about it, so I wish I would’ve started taking it seriously earlier.

I think the most essential skill for me was just constantly trying and trying. If I didn’t like how a shot looked, I would re-evaluate and try something new until I figured out what I liked.

I’d say the biggest obstacle to learning more was myself. I would doubt my own skills sometimes and not want to continue. I also lived in a decently small town, so there weren’t a whole lot of places to go and take photos of.

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 currently finishing up my last year of college and on the side, I have my own photography business. I mentioned this earlier but I first got into photography when I was in middle school and then started taking it seriously when I got into high school. Once I started learning my own style and what I liked, I decided to start my own business and start taking photos of other people. At first, I did it for free because I wasn’t confident in my skills, but when I started getting more clientele, I started charging for my services. As of now, I’ve done senior photos, maternity photos, feature/magazine photos and I do some landscape photography. I’m hoping to branch out in the future and do some other styles!

The thing I’m most proud of when it comes to my business is how hard I’ve worked to grow it. It wasn’t easy and there were times when I wanted to just quit. Thankfully I had a great support system behind me who encouraged me to keep going.

Photography has been one of my greatest and proudest achievements and I’m so thankful that I get to share it with others and make a name for myself with it.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Honestly, networking has been my greatest and most effective strategy for growing my clientele. If you don’t know people, it’s hard to first start getting clients. When I first started I would ask my friends if I could take their pictures. Once I started posting on social media and my friends would tag me, their friends and family would see my photos and then contact me.

My family was also super helpful with growing my clientele. My mom would tell her coworkers and share my posts on social media, so I have her and the rest of my family to thank as well!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I didn’t know this answer for the longest time, but now I would say my personal happiness is what drives my journey. I love photography, I love taking pictures of people and seeing how happy and excited they get when they see their photos. It all just makes me incredibly happy and that is the most rewarding thing for me. I also love learning new things and photography is a never-ending learning process. Trends go in and out all the time and that affects the photos you take, so I love taking snapshots of different trends and eras and getting to look back at those and see how things have changed.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @katharine.bellephotography
• Facebook: Katharine Belle Photography

Image Credits
All photos taken by me