We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathleen Lisbeth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kathleen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally when I entered my second to last year in college studying art and photography. Although, I always knew from such a young age I wanted to be a professional photographer when I grew up. I used to spend a lot of my time photographing my family and friends, posing them, styling their wardrobe and making sure I captured them in the most beautiful ways. As I got older I started studying and following artists that inspired me and that were doing the same things I wished to do someday. I didn’t know where to start or how to get to where I wanted to be so I started investing in my education to learn from photographers that are doing it themselves. Quickly I started learning the business side of my creative journey, developing my own artistic style and falling in love more with what I do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Kathleen, the owner and founder of Kathleen Lisbeth Photography. I specialize in maternity, motherhood, family and beauty portraiture. Photography has always been my absolute passion that I wanted to achieve in life. I started learning the basics in college, studied art, and the history of it. Once I graduated college with my Associates in Fine Arts Photography I knew I wanted to keep growing and learning more.

During my first year in business, I joined educational platforms and had a great support  community of amazing talented photographers. This is when I fully started learning with my mentors about what it took to run a successful and sustainable business to not fall into burn out. I quickly had to learn how to separate the two; my art and business and truly understand both.  This was all new to me, I was taught the basics in school and how to shoot a pretty picture but never how to start a business. I’d have to admit that in the beginning I was really scared to start because you fall into self doubt, shifting in a positive mindset that it’s possible, wondering what ifs but, I took that jump in believing in myself and I’m so glad I did.

Today, I have created a beautiful brand I am very proud of and can say it represents who I am. I love empowering women to give them the push of confidence they truly need to feel amazing and beautiful again. My main mission for my brand was to create an experience that was simply unique and tailored to each individual while carefully planning and preparing with each client getting to know them and how I can help create legacy portraits. When I first got started, I kept getting feedback on things such as “do you offer hair and makeup?” “Do you have a wardrobe?” or “do you know where I can print my photos?” These were things that were taking away from the client experience I’ve always envisioned. To improve the experience, I knew I needed to change a couple of things. Giselle and Blanca, my two amazing makeup artists I knew I wanted to work with to create the perfect client client experience. As a young girl, I loved drawing dresses so I started to incorporate custom draping of fabrics to make an illusion of a gown. It’s become something my clients love and it looks so beautiful!

My favorite part is when I can deliver clients their final custom printed products and albums for their homes. I’m so passionate about printing photos, it’s become my artistic process  because there is nothing like holding your image in your hands and passing these beautiful memories down. I want my potential clients to know that I am here for them, to listen to what they want and create beautiful imagery for them to hold forever.

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

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing the final outcome of my clients’ visions come to life. I love seeing how far in creativity we can get and exploring all different types of inspirations for their photoshoot. Playing around in the studio to create different set ups, lighting techniques, wardrobe changes and just having a good time is what I enjoy the most. Each session is unique to each person and that is where I find the most creativity.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As any artist, many times throughout my creative journey I have been told I shouldn’t limit myself and that you cannot make a career out of portrait photography. I’ve been shut down many times and told I should be photographing everything and anything. My passion has always been portraits. I’ve been told multiple times that how I photograph or where I photograph is the wrong way of doing it. This journey is a hard one and it can be lonely at times when you don’t have that support or that community of others doing what I’m doing close by. I would have moments where others’ criticisms of what I did would get to me and I would shut down right away and get into my head of self doubt.

Although, I always gave myself permission to cry it out for one day only if I truly needed to and for the next day to jump back on it. I had to understand quickly that the criticisms I would get from others were just because they loved me and wanted the best for me. As an entrepreneur and creative, the journey is lonely and very hard because if you want something so bad you have to always find a way. But, you need to understand that no one can do the things you do and how you do it. I took a chance on me and will everyday from this day forward

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kathleenlisbethstudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenlisbethphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleenlisbethphotography/

Image Credits
Kathleen Lisbeth Photography