We recently connected with Mitchell & Katie Bennett and have shared our conversation below.

Mitchell & Katie, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

We believe that education is a vital part of one’s journey. However, in the last few decades there has been an over-emphasis on getting a college education. We don’t feel that an emphasis should be put on going to college. We feel the binding debt and unused degrees only hamper many students as they venture out on their own.

Self-taught or on the job training can create a work life that is enjoyable and still in the field that people want to pursue. The U.S. has a thriving self-employed sector, and we believe more people should take advantage of that at a younger age.

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.

We are Mitchell and Katie, The Bennetts. We are wedding and fine art photographers based in rural central Missouri.

Mitchell had an interest in photography and with his technical brain and keen eye became very good at it. Katie has a love for entraptanuralship. With those two passions our photography business was born. We love working together. For most of our marriage we’ve been working as photographers and we enjoy meeting new people and having shared experiences.

We photograph weddings and family portraiture. On the wedding side we provide creative, classic wedding photography. We excel at communicating with the couple as well as making sure their needs are met on their big day. We will make great photographs, but beyond that we make sure they feel taken care of outside of their photographic needs. Whether that is taking a break from photos or cracking a joke at the right time or just listening as they let off some steam about a frustrating experience. We treat everyone as humans first and the photography clients seconds. Surprisingly, that’s not the norm.

With family portraiture we live near a tourist destination. We photography mainly family reunions and celebrations with larger groups. We create a high touch experience for our clients. We are very easy and available to communicate with. We will walk you through every part of your day, from what to wear all the way to what product you’re going to hang on your wall. We consider it a job well-done when our clients are happy with the process and the end product.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Our house was destroyed by a tornado on a Thursday evening. Our lives were thrust into chaos as we were abruptly supplanted from our home and our four children were left scared and anxious. Despite all the turmoil we got together enough clothes and equipment to photograph a wedding two days later. We had slept very little and Mitchell was struggling to function. Katie was having a hard time emotionally.

However, God blessed us. Our entire family was safe and the wedding was a blessing as well. We worked hard to make sure the work they got from us was top notch, but the blessing came from all of the attendees encouraging us, praying for us, and making us cry with their generosity. It’s great to see what a community can do, even when they’ve never met before.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our reputation is built on consistency and loving others. We’ve been at this almost 13 years and have spent a lot of time getting to know people in the industry. That consistency pays off, as other businesses can build trust in our work and our culture as people and business owners.

Both of us are very kind and agreeable people so we don’t put our own interests in front of others. It’s easy to write down that we do these things, but we’ve proven for over a decade that this truly is how we treat people.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits

The Bennetts