We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Wendy Nielsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Wendy below.

Wendy, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I grew up in a home with my mom and dad and my twin sister. My sister and I were very creative from an early age; we were drawing, painting, sculpting, etc at a very early age. My dad was an avid photographer and often took photos of my sister and me at the zoo, in the backyard playing in the leaves, and at holidays. My mom signed my sister and me up for every activity in the city that involved art, such as day camps in the summer. Both of my parents encouraged my sister and me to create art. In school we had many projects that required storytelling, drawing, and building and my parents never did those assignments for us. They helped but only with our leadership. Both would cheer us on to make the best projects we could. I think this constant support of my artistic qualities made it easier for me to continue to strive and pursue more experience in these areas. We always had large rolls of white paper, fresh markers and colored pencils, construction paper, stamps, stickers, ribbon and fabric remnants around to create art with. My mom kept a large trunk in the basement that was filled with dress up clothes and items for Halloween costumes. We were encouraged to use our imaginations from the time we were tiny through our early 20s (heck, even now my mom is the first person we ask when we are thinking about Halloween costumes!).

I remember at an early age my sister and I were into fashion. We played with Barbies and many other dolls, paper dolls, and Fashion Plates daily. My sister would draw pictures of models walking on the catwalk and wearing high fashion clothing. I would draw pictures of photographers taking photos of the models! When anyone asked what I wanted to do for a living my answer was always “a fashion photographer.” There has always been something I love about photography. I see pictures EVERYWHERE. It can be overwhelming at times. I have seen the world like this for as long as I can remember. I day hardly ever passes where I don’t say to myself “I wish I had my camera.” I think when you are an artist you see the world differently. I think the encouragement of my parents to be creative as I grew up had a large influence on how my life unfolded and how I finally became a professional photographer.

Wendy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a professional photographer since 2011. I started with second shooting and assisting, mostly for weddings and boudoir photo shoots. Being a second shooter really gave me a way to be extremely creative in what I shot, since there was less “have to” photos I needed to take. This freedom allowed me to use my environment to come up with unique and interesting shots. I love a good detail shot and these can be done in any type of photo assignment, whether it’s sports or a newborn baby session.

In 2018 I steered my business more towards shooting sports, since this was and still is a huge passion of mine. I still photograph the occasional wedding or family, but my main focus is sports photography. I’ve been an athlete since I was a little kid and I love photographing the body in motion and muscles working. CrossFit, bodybuilding, baseballl and volleyball have been sports I’ve really enjoyed shooting. I have a long list of other sports I really hope to photograph during my career. I started CrossFit in January 2013 and brought my camera to my gym at the time a few months into our membership to photograph athletes at my gym doing the CrossFit Open. This is really where my sports photography work began. After that I kept practicing at my gym and upgraded my equipment, I got better and better at shooting fast paced movement in low light situations. This type of work taught me so much about photography and made me a better shooter overall in any other situation I was shooting in.

I provide full coverage of sporting events and edit all of my own photographic work. I typicially give online galleries of fully edited, high resolution images to clients. I cover the day; my work shows a story of what that day or that event looked like. I try to capture how it felt, how it looked, how people were interacting, etc. Clients do not simply receive photos of athletes but they gain a depiction of the story of that day/event. When clients allow me to send a separate gallery to athletes, the athletes have the ability to not only download images of themselves but they can also purchase photographic prints. I think prints are very important since we all carry so many pictures on our phones and our computers and it’s really those printed photos that will withstand time. Who doesn’t want a printed photograph of themselves doing something awesome?

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

I love being able to offer something to a client that they really want but cannot do themselves. I become the ultimate problem solver, and that is so rewarding! This weekend I was shooting an event with boutique owners showing their goods in a really cool venue that had windows surrounding the tables. There was plenty of dreamy backlight around all of the items for sale. I had one of the shop owners tell me “I am so glad you are here! I can’t get any of these photos to turn out with my phone; they are all too dark. I know you will do it and I’m so happy you are here!” It was awesome to have this interaction with her! When I got home I edited those photos and sent them over to her right away. Now she’s a potential client as she has asked me to photograph her store for a future advertisement.

Many photographers have heard the comment about “having a nice camera” but in this case not only did I have the “nicer” camera but I knew how to use it. I also reached out to her immediately after the event to show her her shop items looking great in a cool venue but also what I could do with my artistic eye and my skill with my “nice camera.” :)

How did you build your audience on social media?

While I admittedly do not have an enormous following on social media, I think the fact that I reach out to other small businesses and related businesses to my photography business has helped me grow my following. I am shameless when it comes to reaching out to another creative or business. I think the only way most of us are going to succeed is going to be based on who you know and how you can connect with people. If there is an event I want to shoot, I reach out on Instagram, by email, or Facebook messenger and inquire. I’m always myself in these messages. I ask questions and offer my services. I give background on my experience and why I want to work with them. Reaching out to other businesses and clients is the #1 way I get hired. If I sat back and waited for clients to come to me I would have been out of business long ago. When there are so many photographers around who are trying to break into the business and shoot big events (especially in CrossFit and other upper level sports) you have to be assertive and tell clients you want to work with them. It’s the best advice I can give to another photographer looking to make it in the area of sports photography.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wendynielsenphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendynielsenphoto/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WendyNielsenPhotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-nielsen-35a566207/

Image Credits
Wendy Nielsen photo