Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lissa Chandler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Hey My name’s Lissa Chandler and I’m a long time professional photographer who branched into digital collage design in 2022. As a photographer and artist, I absolutely love color. It’s the driving force in all the things I love to create and, while many photographers decide to niche down on a specific genre of photography, I’ve approached things a little differently.
While I cut my photography teeth photographing weddings and will photograph weddings for as long as I’m physically able (I love them!), I’ve never identified myself primarily as a wedding photographer. Instead of niching on one genre – weddings, families, high school seniors, etc. – I niche down on a feeling instead! That feeling? The feeling you get when you open up a box of 120 crayons: a lot of color, a lot of hope, and a lot of excitement too!
Doing this has been invaluable in my photography as it’s granted me a ton of creative freedom in the type of photography work I’m able to book. And when I added mockup photography and digital collage work to my business in 2022? It opened so many creative doors! Having a specific feeling I’m trying to create never gets boring and, whether I’m designing a silly tee shirt for book lovers or photographing a family running through sunset at a local park, it’s amazing to chase after a specific feeling in so many creative genres. The more specific that feeling is, the more possibilities I seem to find!
Lissa, 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?
I grew up with a camera in my back pocket.
Photography is literally my favorite thing in the world besides my husband and kids. I’m the most passionate photographer you’ll ever meet and I love that, as a mom, I’ve been able to carve out a career where I can be home with my kids when they’re home but still have a creative profession that keeps me inspired, busy, and full of ideas.
When I became a professional photographer in 2011, the photography landscape was pretty different than it looks in 2024. Facebook was king, Instagram was a brand new spot where we posted snapshots with retro filters, and TikTok was a clock noise. Without the social media we know today, I didn’t really understand that being a photographer was an option and I thought that, if I wanted to be a photographer, I needed to take documentary photographs or photograph wildlife with photos that belonged in National Geographic or swanky mountain art galleries. I didn’t know that I could take photographs that would just make people really freaking happy. And now that it’s been my job since 2011? I can’t imagine doing anything else!
Photography is so fun because you’re capturing fleeting moments that people will look back on and love. For me, photography is all about color, emotion, and connection and, while photography will always be my main creative love, I decided during the pandemic that I needed to make a few changes to my business. As an artist, it can be really hard to see past what you want to make and it can also be difficult to diversify when you really love something. As a mom during the pandemic with three kids at home, though, my photography calendar began to shrivel for the first time in nearly a decade. This was a really sad experience and, when I felt overwhelmed by balancing pandemic motherhood and marketing my photography business at the same time, I decided that it was time to retire.
My retirement lasted for less than two weeks in the summer of 2021 and, that fall, I spent a lot of time shooting and brainstorming. I knew that I didn’t really want to retire – I’d just been completely overwhelmed – but I also knew that, if I was going to build my business up again, I needed to add more revenue streams. Winter is typically a slow season for photographers so, when 2022 rolled around, I blocked off my shooting calendar for a couple weeks, delivered all my edits, and gave myself permission to try out a few different photography adjacent creative ventures.
In 2018, my friend and I had pulled our collective photoshoot closets together and started a side rental business for photographers called Opal and June. Set up as a division of my photography business, we rented out photoshoot gowns for photographers who wanted to shoot creative shoots but didn’t have the clothing to do so. Setting this up was a total blast but, as it was a side project, it basically just did (and does!) its own thing. My friend stepped back from Opal and June in the fall of 2021 and, after this, I was really on the fence on whether I should pull the plug on the gown rentals or keep the shop running. I kept the dress rentals running at a low volume and, when I came across a video about people creating funny shirts and printing them through print on demand partners, a quick idea to add photographer tee shirts to Opal and June’s website completely upended all of my career plans.
Creating merch was a definite slow burn for me and, because I knew my designs were not great, I didn’t want my first designs to appear on my established Opal and June website. Instead, I dusted off an old, vacant Etsy shop I’d had since 2010 and started listing things as I got the hang of what I was doing. And from there? Things kept evolving. I sold one tee shirt. Then another. And another! But I wasn’t selling photographer merch at all. Instead, my first bestseller was a funny floral collage of a dinosaur standing in flowers surrounded by butterflies. I’d always loved creating collage art as a kid and, when I saw that this dinosaur collage was something people bought and loved, it was a total game changer. And when I discovered print on demand? I discovered mockup photography, too!
It took me almost a year to fully jump into mockup photography and a year and a half of design work to really hone into my collage art + design style but, now that they’re fleshed out, creating my merch and mockup photographs has become an absolute joy. While I’ll always be a working portrait and wedding photographer, it’s amazing to have two extra income streams that are able to grow in pockets of time. It’s also a blast to have creative projects that are quick! My weddings often book 18 months to two years in advance and my portrait sessions often book six months out. With mockups and shirt designs, though, I can have an idea, make it, and have it listed online all within one day. It’s really refreshing and such a fun way to channel creative energy when my kids are home!
The biggest issue nowadays? I don’t always know how to respond when people ask me what I do for work. I usually stick with photographer but, because I absolutely love all my creative ventures, sometimes my conversations take a definite detour! I love photography as much as ever – maybe even more! – but one thing I didn’t expect to love about my design work is how much community it has built between myself and my buyers. Because I design really girly history and book lover merch, I’ve met so many passionate book lovers and historians and chatting with them is one of my favorite parts of my work day. It’s really rewarding and has taught me so much about how different types of creative jobs can end in the same goal. My photographs are happy, my merch is happy, my mockup photos are happy and, at the end of the day, all I’ve ever really wanted with my work is to make people feel valued, accepted, and so full of excitement + love for their lives. It’s amazing achieving this through photos and through silly history based tee shirts, too!
Have you ever had to pivot?
I feel like, when you’re a mom, there’s always a bit of pivoting going on behind the scenes.
Before the pandemic, I never would have thought of doing anything besides photography. In fact, I’m positive that, if the pandemic hadn’t occurred, I’d still be shooting happily with no thought to other revenue streams. Because of the pandemic, though, I really had to pivot and find a way to work while being more home based. And while it’s great now? It wasn’t so great when it started!
First, my designs were really bad when I started my digital art collages. Two years in, some of them are still a little lackluster. Second, when I pivoted into design work, it was hard to explain why I was trying something new. I’ve had an awesome photography career and love photography with my whole heart. Because of this, it was really hard (and slightly embarrassing) to explain to friends and family that I was building up two Etsy shops in all of my spare time and worse when I scaled back my bookings in late 2023 to build the shops out more. This came to a bit of a head once while I sat with a bride putting together her wedding timeline. She’d found my merch shop and, when she told me she followed it, I felt like melting into my chair. Luckily, she loved it! Or at least said she loved it, lol. Creating my merch felt very vulnerable because it was so different than what I was used to and I didn’t want anyone to be put off by my merch if they loved my photography. I felt very exposed because I was still learning to balance what I wanted to make with what customers wanted to buy. While I’m happy to celebrate it now, it definitely took some time to get there!
Pivoting will always make you feel a little vulnerable. But once the pivot is more established? You’ll be so happy you’ve done so!
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
My business now has three main revenue streams. Photography, merch, and mockup photographs. I also offer photography education and mentoring, a few self published photography journals, and take a small amount of dress rentals each month.
In addition, with multiple revenue streams, I’ve been able to create a community driven photo series called Our Favorite Villes, host the podcast Your Photographer Mom, and am currently working on the second season of a laid back conversational podcast about print on demand called Lissa Talks Print on Demand. It’s really lovely!
Contact Info:
- Website: lissachandler.com + opalandjuneshop.com
- Instagram: @lissaclair @opalandjuneshop
- Facebook: lissaclairphotos
- Other: Etsy Merch Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OpalandJuneShop
Etsy Mockup Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OpalandJuneMocksOur Favorite Villes: http://ourfavoritevilles.com
Your Photographer Mom: http://yourphotographermom.com
Lissa Talks Print on Demand: https://www.lissachandler.com/lissa-talks-pod-a-limited-series-podcast-for-print-on-demand-sellers/
Image Credits
Lissa Chandler