We recently connected with Kelly Germond and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.

Learning photography has been a lifelong process. It started for me in high school, and grew, and progressed as I started my family. I have taken classes, mentored with industry leaders, and mostly learned through self taught methods of trial and error. Photography in itself is a never ending process of learning. That is something that doesn’t really get “sped up”.

The skills that I think are most essential in photography are understanding that you will be forever growing and learning. You must know and understand that what you know today isn’t the best of what you’ll know a year from now. Take criticism with an open ear and heart…that one is hard. You grow from it though. You learn so much when you listen to others who have it in their hearts to help you to improve on what you have started with. I know that the work I do isn’t the very best I can do. Is it good? I hope so, but my best, no way. Every year, I want for it to be better. In order to do that I need to learn new things, learn from others, take what I have learned and grow from it.

Some obstacles that can stand in the way are never ending self doubt. This is a tough industry to get into. Finding a place in a sea of talented, (and sometimes not so talented) photographers is tough. At every turn you tend to doubt yourself. When bookings are down, you doubt yourself. When social media changes the algorithms for the 60th time, you doubt yourself. When you just don’t think you’re producing your best work, you doubt yourself. There are so many facets to being a professional photographer, not just pretty photos. The doubt can creep in often.

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 got started as a fine art portrait photographer like many photographers do, by taking photos of my family. When I was in high school, I had a camera with me at every single event we had…the proms, graduation, school functions, parties etc. I’d get up the next day, rush off to the one hour film developers, and set off to get my beloved photos back. That love grew into a new and blooming love for photography when I had my own children. I pushed myself hard to learn each new camera, improve on how I took photos, composition, lighting, editing and everything that went along with it. It took many years of friends, and even other photographers (because at this point I was in several photography groups), asking when I would open a business, before I actually decided to open my own portrait business. At the time, we lived in Arizona, my 3 children were 2, 6 and 9. Those were good ages for me to try something for myself. We did not yet have our baby girl, and life was a bit more manageable, as the 3 were a bit older. And so, Kelly Ann 3 Photography was born (hence the name including the “3”).

When I first opened my business I was also working part time, and then for a short time full time, as a Physical Therapist, and raising my family. Life was busy, but good. In 2018 our sweet baby girl Hazel was born. Hazel has blessed our lives more than we ever expected, or knew that we could ever hope for. Hazel has a diagnosis of Trisomy 21, also known as Down syndrome. With Hazel’s birth, and the multiple therapy and medical appointments, in combination to needing to be with her at home, I knew it would not be possible to dive back into both my career in Physical Therapy as well as photography. It was at this time I “retired” from my Physical Therapy career and went full time into photography. Hazel was now my full time assistant, and my new muse. We learned and grew together in that beautiful desert landscape. We searched high and low for gorgeous places to take photos. It’s not all that easy in the desert, but when you find a beautiful location, wow, is it ever stunning!

We lived in Arizona for the next two years and my business did amazingly well, with little baby Hazel by my side, and my clients getting to know and love her right along side of my. In 2020 we made the big move across the country to North Carolina. I have since set up my business here, started to gather new grounds, new clients and set new footing in “greener grass”. I say that in the literal way….the desert was quite brown hehehehe. My settings have become ever so much more lush and green, more floral and colorful. However, I feel that the challenges of shooting in the desert are what have made me the photographer that I am today. Without the push to try harder, find the perfect spot in the, not so easy to find, perfect lighting, I am the artist you see now. Had I not had to work hard to push my limits, I would be perfectly happy shooting in the limitless shady destinations available here in North Carolina. But that just does not give you the same wow.

All of this background has brought me here to today, it has shaped the photographer I am, and who I will continue to grow into. It is reflected in my brand, and what you get when you get me. A loving, passionate, family first, emotion feeling, art inspiring, fine art portrait photographer.

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

The goal in driving my mission is the ability to work for myself, and therefore work for my family, in particular our youngest daughter, with Down syndrome. I have always worked jobs that I have been able to model my hours around my kids school schedules. As the older kids got older they also began to have sports and activities on the weekends and evenings. In the past I have worked weekend positions, so that I could stay home and manage all of the weekday comings and goings. With weekend activities now, it was not feasible for me to take on a full tie weekend position once Hazel was born. I had already been working in my photography business for two years when she was born, so this was just the extra push to take it to full time.

Having my own business does not by any means lead to working less hours, in fact most times it creates more hours in the long run. I do, however have control of when I work those hours. I am able to drive my kids to and from all of the school and sports activities that they need to get to. (and having 4 children that is A LOT of driving). I am able to attend every single school function, every soccer game, all the baseball games, and awards assemblies. These things are important to me, and to us as a family.

For the past 4 1/2 years, going on 5 years, I have been able to attend, every one of Hazel’s specialist appointment, therapy appointment, take her to doctors, comfort her when we go new places and be right with her everywhere we have needed to go. There really isn’t a replacement for being able to do that.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that I knew more about making, creating and taking advantage of a website properly early on. The advantages of utilizing a website properly can advance and help a business tremendously. I just didn’t know or understand that. I am still working on and learning how to take advantage of this.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kellyann3photography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyann3photography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellyann3photography

Image Credits
Kelly Ann 3 Photography