We were lucky to catch up with Paula Goforth recently and have shared our conversation below.

Paula, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

How did you learn to do what you do?

When I started out in photography, I dove into lots of educational learning. For example, I found mentors that taught the specific area of photography that I was interested in learning. I attended workshops, did online training and found lots online tools to help me understand all the in’s and out’s of photography.
Learning is a process…it takes time and investment to learn and develop the art.

Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?

I don’t think I would have done anything different than what I did from the beginning. I started out slow and eventually found what I truly desired to do and from there I focused on those areas to fine tune them.

What skills do you think were most essential?

Definitely finding someone who is trained and experienced in the areas of where I wanted to go in my photography career. I definitely wanted someone that who truly loved what that do and were highly trained. I feel that this is very important anyone starting out in a photography career. It is easy to want to jump in and start without being properly trained, but training is very important and I highly recommend finding the right person to help anyone in their photography journey. Also, I feel it very important to continue learning. This is very important to me to continue with all the education I can find from the best educators around.

What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Well, like anything, money! It is a huge investment and can get rather expensive. I would say start small and build up.

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 am the owner of Paula Goforth Photography. I am married and have 2 beautiful daughters and 4 amazing grandkids. My family is my biggest encouragers and supporters!

I live in the DFW area and serve all of the DFW and surrounding areas. I started my photography career in June 2010.

I started out as a Senior photographer and eventually decided I wanted to move to newborn photography. So, I reached out to different newborn mentors and took as many workshops as I could to learn the art. I found that that was what I really wanted to do. I wanted to start from the beginning of the journey with my families, so I decided my genre would be Maternity, Newborn, Children, and Family. Starting from the very beginning with them was a way to create that client friendship and tell their stories from the very beginning. I love what I do and love that I can capture all these memories for them.

My style is storytelling/lifestyle approach. I love capturing those real raw moments in every session. I truly want my clients to be them…relaxed and having fun. I want my clients to play, connect, and love on each other.
I provide a curated client closet and is exclusive to ALL my clients. I can completely style you and your family. It takes the stress off of trying to figure out what to wear, not to mention the expense of purchasing a full wardrobe for one time. I offer a variety of payment plans that will help with every budget.

My style is warm and rich. I love earth tones for all seasons. You can choose to go with a bold warmth for the fall/winter or a warm soft color palette for the spring/summer. Upon inquiring about a session, my clients will receive a style guide that will go into detail what works best for styling any wardrobe…anytime of year!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As we all know, 2020 brought a lot of challenges for everyone.

In February 2020, we decided to move to the DFW area. Of course, we moved when the world was shutdown. That was a challenge in itself. I was definitely a little nervous about starting over and finding new clients, especially during the crisis of a pandemic. However, the transition was smooth and I had clients booking before I even made the move to the area. I am truly blessed to say…my business transitioned very well, considering how crazy everything was. Overall, there were not a lot of hiccups!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As mentioned above, the challenges of 2020 with the pandemic and moving taught me to keep on keeping on. I knew that IF I wanted to make it work, I had to work it! That meant getting my name out there way before I made the move. SEO is a huge part and just finding the right people to share away on social media. I had family and friends in the DFW area that would put my name out!

There were days I truly just wanted to “throw in the towel”, but I knew that was not the answer. There are going to be days when you just feel burned out and overwhelmed. That is when you just have to step back and evaluate what needs to be done differently and move forward with the changes. Change is not always easy, but it is very important to keep a positive attitude going forward. Keeping things fresh, taking time for self and making goals are very important to any business.

When the going gets tough…that is when you got to get stronger.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits
Images credits: Paula Goforth Photography