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

Nicole, appreciate you joining us 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.

Learning photography takes time, patience and a lot of trial and error. I’m a hands on learner so for me I needed to get out there and practice getting my settings right. Sure, I took educational courses, listened to podcasts and did a ton of research. But it didn’t all truly click until I put it into practice. I would have my family and friends model for me whenever possible so that posing and using my camera became muscle memory. I think the most essential skills is experience and figuring out your workflow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a photographer who provides services for families, couples, milestones, maternity and military homecomings. I got into the industry by turning my hobby and passion for photography into a full time business. I’m a military spouse who has moved every few years so it can be challenging to jump from job to job. This is what encouraged me to start my own business, so that I could be flexible with a schedule that worked for my family. Plus turning a long time hobby into a business was really exciting and fulfilling. With my photography I love to photography the authentic and candid moments that people experience. I aim to make my sessions fun and flow with the client. I also make sure to capture the classic, smiling poses because they are so timeless. I put my heart and soul into my work because I love it so much. I want my clients to feel their photos, every emotion that they had during the session. I want them to be able to reflect back on that stage of their life and know that this photography is a memory frozen in time.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a photographer is when my clients love their galleries. Because that makes my heart happy but then they are likely to refer me to a friend or schedule another session with me.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

With every military move with my spouse I’ve essentially had to start over building clientele in a new duty station. Sometimes it can feel exhausting to feel like your starting from scratch but its always worth it. We just moved again about 8 months ago, shortly after having our second child so everything just felt overwhelming and the thought of starting over didn’t seem fun. However, my creative soul got restless very quickly and I knew I had to put my work out there at our new location. I’m so glad i pushed through the challenge because now my business is more successful then ever.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nicolecphotography.mypixieset.com/
• Instagram: @nicole_c_photography
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/nicolecowenphotography

Image Credits

Nicole Cowen