We were lucky to catch up with Kristina Rust recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kristina , 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.

I have always loved photography and have had a camera in my hand since my teenage years. It was after I had children that I decided to really learn the craft. The first photography class I took was a film photography class in San Francisco and it was before digital cameras were affordable and mainstream (I’m dating myself). In this class I learned how to operate my camera, exposure settings, and composition, as well as basic darkroom techniques like developing film and making prints. I think this class was really helpful because the fundamental skills and techniques I learned could be applied to what eventually would become my digital photography work. As my photography journey continued (and cameras advanced), I was always learning. I took a digital photography class at my local community college, I participated in numerous online courses, attended photography retreats/workshops and read a lot of books. I think what made the most impact on my photography skills was participating in the various photography retreats I attended. It is here where I really honed my composition skills. I think anyone can learn the technical basics, but having a photographer’s eye is something unique to each individual photographer. I’m not sure that there is anything I would have done to speed up my learning. I think the mix of classes, retreats, books, workshops were all necessary to help me become the photographer I am today. And my photography education has not stopped. I am now working on learning more about lighting, tethering, and editing. There is always something new to learn.

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’m originially from a town of 900 in Illinois and shortly after graduating from college, I bought a one-way ticket and moved to San Francisco. I think my parents always thought I’d move back but as luck would have it, I met and married a fabulous guy. Fastforward we had 4 children and decided to move from the fog of San Francisco to the sunshine of Silicon Valley. As my four children got older (and I had more free time), I along with a friend started a photography business. Our initial concept was to use photography as a means to fundraise for schools. We worked with local schools to do their fall and spring portraits and provided a percentage of the sales back to the school. While we loved helping schools fundraise (my friend and I had served on our own children’ school fundraising boards), we realized that this type of photography did not feed our creative souls. So after several years we decided to go our separate ways and focus on our own portrait photography businesses.

For 8 years I focused on building my family and high school senior photography business but in 2018 I decided to pivot once again and focus on branding photography and social media marketing. I realized that I wanted to combine my marketing background and photography skills to help businesses grow online. I love helping small business owners, entrepreneurs, and fellow creatives tell their story and attract new clients through branding photography.

There is nothing I enjoy more than photographing fellow business owners and showing them how to use their images on social media to grow their business. I truly believe that one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to share your story through branding photography. YOU are what makes your business unique. Creating images that showcase who you are as well as what you do is so exciting to me. My goal is to create images that will help you build relationships, gain trust and grow your business. These are images that can be used on your social media platforms, website, marketing materials and more. And it doesn’t stop there. Using my marketing background, I also help businesses with social media marketing. Whether a business is just starting out with social media and needs a little coaching or they are ready to take it completely off their plate to focus on what they enjoy most, I offer a variety of social media marketing services. I like to consider myself a one stop shop for photography and social media marketing.

I think one of the things I’m most proud of when it comes to my photography work, is the feedback I receive from clients who tell me that I made them feel comfortable in front of my camera. I know that having your photo taken can feel awkward. I’m not a fan either. :). But I feel that I am able to make the experience more enjoyable than you’d expect. When you have a photo shoot with me, it’s like hanging out with an old friend. We chat, laugh, and create great images.

I believe we all have a story to tell and I am honored to capture it for my clients.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

One of the best sources for new clients for me as been word-of-mouth. I think by providing a great experience for my clients, I’ve been able to get a lot of referrals. As we all know, peer recommendations are extremely valuable. This type of marketing is so important because of the high level of trust. My goal is for my clients to love their photo shoot experience and for them to tell their friends and colleagues. The great thing about word-of-mouth marketing is that it doesn’t stop with just my interaction with my client. If they are happy and tell a friend, that friend will tell another, and another and so on. And now with social media, those interactions have the potential to grow more quickly. I’ve received referrals from clients who recommended me on social media sites like NextDoor or Alignable.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building your social media audience takes time. I think there are a lot of small business owners who feel that their accounts should grow more quickly but it really is a slow process (unless you are lucky enough to have a post go viral). What I tell my social media clients is that you have to be consistent to see growth. Posting once a week or once a month is not going to grow your account. I believe you need to pick the platforms where your potential clients hang out and then commit to a schedule. And committing to a schedule is easier when you think in terms of content themes. You need to mix up your content and not just talk about your product or offering all the time. This is where the personal branding really comes in and having a library of images that tell your story is really helpful. Showing up on your platforms so your potential customer gets to know you will not only help build your social media following but also your business. Your customer wants to know you and build a relationship with you even before they buy from you. So I try to have a post where I show up and share something about myself, a behind the scenes, a tip or inspiration at least once a week. Oh and I also try and do a lot of Reels on Instagram since right now, it is one of the favored forms of content.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kristinarustphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristina_rust_photography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristinarustphotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinarust/

Image Credits
Jen Vazquez Photography photo credit of image of myself