We were lucky to catch up with Kee May recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Being in a creative industry is challenging for many reasons but the two that stick out to me would be that there are always so many different opinions because when it comes to creativity there is no “right” or “wrong” way to do something and the other being that with the constant rise in technology the cost of entry becomes lower and lower which means that almost anyone can get into the field with little to no experience. When you combine these two factors being profitable can be a challenge because there is always someone who sees the project differently and knows someone who will do it cheaper. Specifically when it comes to real estate photography and smart phones. The cameras on smart phones have gotten so good now that the common questions is “what can your camera do that my phone can’t?” The fact of the matter is that quality wise there is not much difference between the two nowadays but the biggest difference is knowing what a good composition in an image is and how to edit the photos to make them look good but also natural. I have had multiple times that I have been contacted to re-shoot a house or product because someone had a friend or someone “cheaper” do it first. Because there is a low cost of entry and little no to overhead when it comes to photography this creates a race to the bottom- an environment which encourages undercutting others and undervaluing your craft/service just to attract clients but in the end all that means is it sets someone else up to undercut you even further.

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 have been doing photography professionally since 2015 but was have been doing it as a hobby for many years prior to that. I actually got into photography on accident when I took the introduction to photography class with no experience but had heard it was the class to take for an “easy A.” I did not take it seriously at all at first and would regularly do my homework assignments in the parking lot a few minutes before class started. One day we had an assignment to make an ordinary object look extra-ordinary and I went out with a friend of mine to take photos of his car and something just clicked (no pun intended!) I really enjoyed that assignment and my passion for photography exploded shortly after that. I bought my first camera from a friend who was more serious about photography and would spend hours on the internet reading about techniques, both with a camera and Photoshop. I continued doing photography as a hobby as I finished high school and into college but it wasn’t until my junior year of college that I considered photography as a career. I transferred to the Art Institute in Seattle and began to learn everything I could about being a professional photographer and running a business.

I think what sets me apart from others is that I don’t want to just be your photographer. I will be a part of the process as much or as little as the client wants me to be and that means both before and after the shoot, not just during. If you have questions or ideas and want to run them by me beforehand I absolutely love to be a part of that and give my opinion. Or after the shoot if there is something else that I can help you with- maybe that is some design work or finding a website designer I am more than happy to help you out with that too! A positive client experience from beginning to end has always been a core aspect of my business and how I have grown and shaped my business.

Since 2020 I have been doing real estate photography full time and having a positive experience from beginning to end is especially important since there are so many factors that go into selling a house. A realtor will be dealing with many different vendors to prepare the house which means juggling different schedules and on top of that will be helping their client move which we all know how stressful moving can be! On top of this, since transitioning to real estate full time in 2020 I have added many new services to my offerings in an effort to cut down on the need for a realtor to deal with multiple people and other schedules in order to get the media they need. This allows them to schedule one person and know they can get their photos, video, floorplans, 3D tours and even have furniture virtually added without having to bounce between multiple vendors.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think a story that we can all relate to but one that has had the most impact for me was the pandemic in 2020. Up until 2016 I had been working in a studio and doing product work there. I learned a lot about a studio and the more technical aspects of photography but realized that was not for me long term and ended up leaving. In 2017 I began my own business and started doing automotive photography for some higher end dealerships around the greater Seattle area. By 2018 while still doing automotive work I decided to get back into product work and began adding a product photography service back into my offerings and got to work with some of the previous clients I had worked with but this time through my own business. I continued building my business that way through the next couple years and right as my product work began to take off the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2020 and my product work dropped to almost zero. Instead of working the 40-60 hour weeks filled with fun projects and clients I found myself sitting at home with no prospects at all. Real estate had always been an interest of mine but I had never had the opportunity to do it until then since I was so busy with other work. With housing interest rates at all time low and the housing market being so actively busy and everyone wanting to upgrade to a larger house since we were all at home it seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump into a different industry. It made sense to me since, at the end of the day a house is a product that someone wants to sell and I knew how to photograph products. Networking was challenging since we were all being told to stay home and not get together so I did my best through social media, and working with friends and family when I could by myself to build a portfolio and get some experience. As with a lot of things in life I happened to be in the right place at the right time and knew the right people and slowly began to build a career in real estate through the pandemic. Had it not been for the support of my wife and family who also pushed me to transition to a different industry I would not have been successful in doing so.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn is that running a business- no matter what the business is- is that the business comes first. What I mean is that I first got into photography because I loved photography and had a huge passion for it. Don’t get me wrong I still do- but running a photography business is about 10% photography and 90% business. In my early stages of starting my business I would often get hung up on the photography aspect. Taking a lot of time to get the shot just right and often “overshooting” and taking too many photos that would never end up getting used anyway. Then afterwards I would focus too much on getting the photos absolutely perfect in my mind in Photoshop. Spending time on things that made little to no difference in the actual image but were seen as imperfections in my mind. The key difference between then and now is that instead of spending time, money and effort on fixing those “imperfections” in each individual image and stage of the process, I have had to learn how to spend my efforts on figuring out how to fix those imperfections in the first place but also incorporating those fixes into my workflow. So now instead of spending hours fixing each image individually, I can spend a few minutes setting up differently before hand and not spend the painstaking time doing post processing work.     

Contact Info:

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