We were lucky to catch up with Leeann Manzoni recently and have shared our conversation below.
Leeann, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
“Capturing life’s memories, one click at a time” is my mission and my slogan, but it’s so much more than that. Growing up, my family did not focus much on taking pictures. For one reason or another, it just wasn’t a priority. When I was a teenager, my Mom passed away. When someone passes, what’s something that people almost automatically start to go through or look for? Pictures. I do not have many of my parents, and that has always upset me. After that, life went on and I was just trying to survive. I have always enjoyed photography since my first Ninja Turtles camera at age 5 , but never considered it to be a career possibility, especially since I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom. My bible study teacher (who is also an art teacher) looked at a few random photos that I took and was amazed. She felt that I should give photography a chance and see where it led. Since I was told that I would never have kids, effectively shattering my stay at home mom endeavors, my photography career then began as a complete leap of faith. Eventually, it was time to start taking it more seriously as I was really learning, developing, and gaining clients in this field. It was time to do what every serious business person inevitably does…. start a Facebook page! “Capturing life’s memories, one click at a time” was born. So were two of my children in the following two years. Little did I know, that mission and slogan held so much more weight than I ever imagined. I was now a mom. A wife. A photographer. I understood the importance of capturing these precious moments. Moments frozen in time to never be forgotten and always looked back on. I have photographed weddings, 1st birthdays, 50th birthdays, people who knew they didn’t have much time left on Earth, but wanted special photo’s to always be remembered by, and they are all special. I now have 4 kids (wow!) and realize how tight times can be financially. Never cheap, always affordable so that everyone can be certain to capture life’s memories, one click at a time.
Leeann, 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 name is Leeann and I am a photographer! Since around the age of 5, I have loved photography. My camera was a Ninja Turtle point and shoot camera, the one that had the cool turtle images in every picture. I’ve had several point and shoot type cameras over the years and have taken lots of nature pictures, but I never took it too seriously and certainly didn’t think of photographing other people. In 2011 that my bible study teacher, who is also an incredibly talented art teacher, had seen some of my photos and was impressed by them. She urged me to think about doing photography as a career. I can still remember my very first client. I was so nervous! Once the session got going though, it started to all seem natural. After that, I was hooked. And since then, life has been one big, incredible journey unlike anything that I could ever imagine.
On top of being a photographer, I am also a wife and a mother of 4 wonderful daughters. Juggling all of the home responsibilities and the business is a challenge, but we make it work. I absolutely love seeing the smiling faces, knowing that I am capturing these special moments for people to treasure for the rest of time. Whether it’s kids birthdays, weddings, parties, or capturing an up and coming small business doing what they do and sharing it with the world, there’s a joy in every session. I think what sets me apart from many photographers in my local area is my passion. Not only am I passionate about photography, but I am passionate about making sure everyone can afford it. I am the person that extends a lot of financial flexibility with clients if needed. I just can’t deny capturing their special moments because of financial hardships. I have found that more often than not, it always comes back to me in some way or another. I am a firm believer in God and have seen many times how He graces my family and I when I help others in a hard time.
One of the greatest examples of this happened in 2019. It was a crazy year, we had just bought a house the year prior and put a ton of work in to it. We had 2 kids at the time and work was busy, Checking my email one day early in 2019, I received an email from one of the Pastors at my church. He asked if I would consider going on a missions trip to Liberia, Africa to take photographs of children there so that they could get sponsored to get basic living necessities. That was quite the shocking request. After a lot of talking, and a whole lot of praying, I felt the right decision was to go. Many people that I blessed with photographs willing gave financially to help get me there. People that could not give financially gave me or allowed me to borrow certain things that I had to take over. And wouldn’t you know, 2 days before I left my husband and two kids for 7-10 days, we discovered that I was pregnant with our 3rd child! Liberia was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The things that I saw were so humbling. How they live is so different than us and really brings to light how much we take for granted. They had so little, yet were happy and content. They welcomed us with open arms. I was able to individually photograph around 100 kids. We were invited in to many homes, several offering the little food that they had to us. I was able to see how they lived, how they survived, and how little they had to work with. Seeing all of that only reinforced my belief of making photos affordable for everyone, while still providing a high quality service.
Once back from Africa, life was filled with pregnancy jitters, doctor’s appointments, and all of the fun things that go along with preparing for a new baby. In Liberia, they name their babies after something biblical. We had her first name already picked out, but were struggling with a middle name. We decided that since she was the only one to travel to Africa with me, that we would incorporate their naming tradition to our new daughter. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says for we walk by faith, not by sight. A lot of faith was needed in 2020 with Covid-19 in many areas of life, and in June 2020, as lockdowns and masks were in full force, Zoey Faith entered the world.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
While there have been several instances in which a slight pivot was required, there is one that really stands out. I felt established enough and thought it was time to acquire my own studio. Covid was still rearing it’s ugly head, but we were figuring out ways to continue life while still being aware and safe. I found the studio, filled out the paperwork and moved in. Things were going great. Until they weren’t. The following year, I was again, you guessed it, pregnant. Boy were those those doctors wrong in telling me that I’d never have kids. I had just finished up a crazy busy holiday season. I was looking forward to taking a little downtime before I took on a bunch of sessions before our 4th daughter would be born. I ended up getting Covid during the holiday sessions. It was horrible. I went to the hospital twice for it, both times I was told to go back home and ride it out. By week 2, I was getting a lot worse instead of better. The third trip to the hospital, they admitted me. Long story short, I was close to death. Two people in the hospital at the same time as myself had both passed away from Covid; one was pregnant and chose to save her unborn baby over herself. I was told that my husband would be notified and he would have one hour with me to say goodbye. By a miracle of God, an infectious disease doctor decided to have an experimental medicine flown in for me. To this day, I have no idea what it was. I was able to come home after another few days of getting the medicine. However, I was far from recovered. I had, and still have, a lot of complications from Covid on top of being very, very pregnant. I had put away enough money to keep the studio afloat for a few months in anticipation of our daughter being born and taking some time off, but with Covid, I was really stretching my funds. Once daughter number 4 was born, our focus was on her and still dealing with my complications. I still had Covid pneumonia and a number of other issues including severe post partum depression to the point of slight psychosis. Eventually, I could no longer keep the studio and was barely doing any photography. I really thought my business was done. The holidays were again approaching and I had no studio. Then I saw a post on Facebook about another local small business that had an area they were decorating and renting to photographers to use for Christmas sessions. The lightbulb went off. Since then, I have done a huge pivot in my business, no longer relying on a studio or finding random places to rent out and decorate on my own. I have found a local candy store that has a greenhouse and decorates for all types of seasons and events. They have been incredible in working with me. It makes me feel better knowing that I am supporting them by renting out their space and bringing awareness to their business, rather than putting money in to a landlord. I have learned to be even more creative in my outdoor sessions as well. Looking back, it seems like the studio, for me at least, was more of a hinderance in my creativity and my finances.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In my area, as I’m sure is the case in a lot of other areas, photographers pop up all the time. With cell phones having great picture quality and a ton of filter options, a lot of people seem to think that’s all it takes. I can’t begin to count the times that a new photographer pops up, goes on a social media frenzy, advertises insanely cheap pricing for a few months, and then disappears. On top of that, they love to trash talk current and established photographers. One seemed to have a personal vendetta against myself for some reason, reporting my work, and even got my Facebook page shut down for a short time. Out of all of those photographers, there’s a small handful that are still doing photography and they’ve even changed the way they do things. I think the fact that I am still here, never went to their level of playing dirty, and kept my composure, is a testament to my resilience. Along with various other things, several babies, Covid, my husband having multiple major surgeries. While a lot of times, it is very difficult to keep going, I have a career that allows me to create most of my own hours and gives me a lot of flexibility with my mom life. 
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeannManzoniPhotography
- Email: Manzoniphoto@gmail.com
Image Credits
knova Designs Photography >Family & Head shot photo All other photos taken by me