We were lucky to catch up with Olivia Nittmann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Olivia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

When I decided I wanted to really make photography a business for myself, I realized that I needed to build a portfolio. I had a few pictures that I had taken over the years but I really didn’t feel that these portrayed my style anymore and I didn’t really know how to use my camera back then. So I knew that I needed to take new photos of people.

My first model that I did for free was my best friend, Julia. She has her own podcast and really needed some headshots and things she could use for social media. Once her photos were done, people started to take notice. I then posted on my facebook for a model call. I wanted to take some more photos of women that had their own business. This would help me get recognition and help them get some new content. I immediately had people reach out to me and I was super excited. I did another free session with a girl named Kristy. Once her photos were out there, I had another woman reach out to me that was willing to pay for a session… I couldn’t believe it! It was working. I was about to have my first client.

My first client, Erin, just wanted some photos for her business page and a new headshot or two. As soon as I gave her back her photos, she called me and let me know that she had more opportunities for me to take more photos. I was on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe that more than one person liked my photography. One of the photos I took of Erin, actually made it on the cover of a guidebook for Erin’s company.

From there, I knew this was something I wanted to continue with. I wanted to make more people happy and feel good about themselves in a photograph. Learning about what these women do for a living was also a fun part to taking these photographs. Now it is one of my favorite things, to get to know my clients on a deeper level. Where they are from, what they do for a living, etc.

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

Taking photos and videos has been something that I have done since I was a little girl. My father had an old video camera and I would take it and use it to document our family vacations or just things going on around the house. I still go back and watch those videos from time to time.
Back in 2014, I took a photography course at a community college. I wasn’t planning on turning it into a business or anything close to that. I just wanted to learn how to take better pictures. Honestly the class didn’t help me a lot and I continued to take mediocre photos. I was also doing little videos on the side with my iphone, videoing myself riding my horse, and editing those for a YouTube channel.

Fast forward to 2022 and I decided to take my cousin up on an offer she had of doing a personalized class on how to use your camera. I learned more in those few hours than I ever did in a whole semester! I then decided that I really wanted to commit to taking photos and really try to perfect myself and stand out from others. I came up with a business name and began taking many free photo sessions… but I needed to do this to start building my portfolio and getting people’s attention.

I thought that all I wanted to do was photos. I told myself, I would not do weddings because they were too much work. Then a few months went by and I decided that maybe it is something I should try.
I shadowed my first wedding in 2022, so I could decide if it was something I wanted to do or not. At that wedding, I met the videographer and I was really blown away at how amazing her job was. “You can get paid to video a wedding?”, I thought…. I fell in love with the idea of taking videos of someone’s special day, instead of photos. So, I went into the day shadowing the photographer and came out of that day, realizing I didn’t want to necessarily photograph weddings, but now I’m thinking that I could get into the video side of weddings!

From there, I started playing with videos, while still taking portrait photos and working part time as a licensed veterinary technician.
I booked 4 weddings last summer, because it was towards the end of the season, and now I have 9 booked already for this coming wedding season, along with doing portrait photography shoots as well. This may not be a lot in comparing to some people, but I am so honored that people choose me to capture their special moments. Whether it is a wedding, a family portrait, a baby shower, an engagement, a maternity session, anything!

I equally love to video and photograph. Nothing gets me more excited, than getting ready to sit in front of my computer afterwards and put someone’s wedding video together or edit photos from an amazing session!
My hope is that I continue to improve on my photography/videography skills and leave people completely satisfied that they chose me to capture memories for them.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that you can compare yourself to others around you.

Coming up in the photography business, you absolutely are constantly looking at the people around you on instagram, and so on. You see how many followers that people have and it seems that overnight, people got in the positions they are in today.

I had to realize that seeing someone’s success on social media does not show behind the scenes of how much work it took to get there or the struggles they still have going on.
I also compared myself to others thinking “I want to edit like that”. This was my biggest comparison to others. I wanted the look that others had. I didn’t care too much about the followers, as I knew the followers would come. I’m happy to have 200 people that enjoy seeing my work. It means so much to me. However, I knew I needed to work on my editing.

I watched videos, talked to others to get advice, read articles, watched others edit their photos, saved photos that I liked from others, so I could figure out what I wanted my photos to look like and so much more. Over this past year and half, I have put a lot of effort into finding what I was looking for.

I am now finally comfortable and am learning that you can not compare yourself to others around you, because you never know what struggles people are going through or how long it took for someone to get to where they are. Photography is hard work and for some it may come naturally, but others may need to work at it and that is okay!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The best thing you can do for yourself is surround yourself with people that are better than you.

I knew that I was coming into this field with people who have been doing it much longer than I have, perhaps even as a full time job. I also knew that some of these people I had seen be in the field were people that built up their reputation over the years and knew a lot of people who knew a lot of people.

The key to building up my reputation is that I surrounded myself with these people that already had a reputation. I asked to shadow them, I talked with them, asked advice on things I needed help with, etc. I didn’t even know these people before this. But this is why I love this field. Everyone is out to help and boost others. There is enough room out there for multiple photographers/videographers, because we are all different and you may not be someone’s cup of tea, while others may drool over your work. That is the beauty of being an artist.

With surrounding myself with these people, they were able to recommend me, or use me as an assistant… I even have a friend that let me video the wedding that she was going to do, because she was having s difficult pregnancy. And now we both recommend each other, if we have a wedding request come in and we are already booked that date.

In closing, I believe you should never be the most successful person in the room, because then there is no where to go from there,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://livimages.mypixieset.com/
• Instagram: liv.imagesandmedia
• Facebook: Liv Images and Media

Image Credits
All photos taken by me.