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

Kiran, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

An Idea or a passion can change your mind. Its was a very slow and organic start. It was purely for fun and to take my own pictures, deep down may be I wanted to be a model- loved being in front of the camera.
Not knowing if I am truly talented or just a girl with camera. I had no idea what I was doing or had a vision for the same. Only when I did to community collage in Bellevue, the professor there was one of my biggest motivator. She loved my work/projects we did, and she said-
” YOU HAVE AN EYE” I believe that may have planted the seed in my mind. I loved how it felt to be appreciated. I started posting my images on social media and slowly started getting recognition and small fun gig. My first paid gig was $ 30 and I was ecstatic. It really made me feel so awesome! haha. If someone can pull out even a dollar out of their pocket to give you than you have what it takes.
Hence the journey began :) And I never looked back.

Kiran, 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?

My journey of capturing memories goes far back while I was in 8th grade. Not knowing that this would be my calling and profession some day. I had a old Kodak camera, a gift from my sweet brother. The idea to freeze special moments, had me at first click. The joy I got to see the printed images after the fact was like no other. Be it mothers day, friendships day or any festivities, I would be with my camera ready to click and pose. Hence I have a huge collection of photos that I love to view and show my kids. They cant believe its me, haha! I also was a big fan of taking this images , scanning them and making small slideshows for my friends and family for special occasion. I loved to give me that special feeling that they were loved and important. And turns out I still do the same. I love the feeling of making people feel loved and special and amazing. This profession is made for me. I love capturing life precious moments , to cherish and relive them again.
I am going to be ever grateful to the small black old film camera, which really gave me this gift of capturing life’s  moment in the most beautiful way. I truly love my job and cant think of anything more meaningful :)

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

I had so much fun clicking away everything and anything.

I volunteer birthday parties , corporate events , fund raisers etc. This gave me a lot of confidence and experience. I realized I love meeting new people and making connections. It comes very natural to me to connect emotionally with people.

In this whole process I met some amazing people , whom I would love to share MENKA SONI. I photographed beauty pageants and that gave me a lot of recognition , especially in the Indian community in Seattle.

If you are spending time doing something make sure you are having fun with it :)
When you volunteer ,make sure you take home something valuable, in my case it always was human connections :)

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I love social media, especially Instagram. It feel I can connect and update my clients, not only business front but also personal front. I love to put myself out there showing them my fun/ emotional side. Its fun making reels and updated things happening in my day to day life. I love the lovely comments and wishes I get :)

Contact Info:

• Website: kiranphotography.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiranphotography02/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KiranRaiPhotography/
• Yelp: kiranphotography02@gmail.com

Image Credits
kiran photography