1. What digital SLR camera/lens would you recommend for an amateur?
(oops, sorry Shelley, realized you asked me this earlier)
if you don’t have experience with using an SLR camera before this, you’ll want to think ‘user friendly’. That, to me, is a Canon Rebel. Friends that have this camera say that it’s easy to learn and once you get the hang of it you can always upgrade to something a little fancier. A great site for side-by-side comparisons of digital cameras is here.
2. Which camera(s) do you use?
There are two kinds of people in this world…Chocolate(*) or Vanilla, Early birds or Night owls(*), Aggies(*) or Longhorns, and Canon or Nikon(*)
I’m a Nikon girl, all the way. I was back in the film day (with a Nikon F and an N80) and now shoot with a D200 and have a D70 as backup
3. What is your favorite photo-editing software?
photoshop
4. Do you know anyone who prints custom photo stickers?
so sad-I pulled up the company I had bookmarked 2 years ago when my son was born and we used photo stickers on his cute birth announcements-they are closed: www.confoti.com The google search I just did yielded several results though
5. Do you have any working mom tips for balancing it all?!?
forget sleep! Organization is key for me, which is laughable since I am the most unorganized person I know. Having kids forced me to take a step in the write-it-all-down-and-keep-a-calendar direction, but this business has made me hold my nose and jump into the deep end of the organization pool. My desk is still a disaster area (I won’t let anyone see how bad it is for fear they’d run screaming). But client sessions, print orders, paperwork, samples, etc are organized enough to where I know where anything is at any given time (except for the points in time where my husband’s OCD gets in the way and he “helps”). Other than being organized, keeping a sense of humor about life, parenting, and the smeared graham cracker on your shirt (that you noticed just before walking into a client’s home) is always key!
6. Jennifer, I’ve been a self taught professional photographer for about 12 years now… business was booming….. we even made it through 911 unscathed. But now, NOT. Would love to hear advice on how you carved this niche; I have been trying to sell this type of session for about 3 years now with no sucess. Been talking with 3 other photographers as well, and still cant get it… can you tell me some secrets? Im the sole provider for a family of 4, and sure need this income. Thanks for any advice, help ect. I have been reading your blog for a few months now… along with Audrey Woulard, Tara Whitney, ect ect….. everyone seems to get it… but me!
Thank you!!
Well first, to be on your blog reading list with the likes of Audrey and Tara is flattering! Thank you!
Second, I don’t know that I have any secrets, per se, about selling what I do. This is a type of session that I believe in, and my clients believe in it. Their friends see their prints and ask ‘who did that’ and I survive 99% from word of mouth. One thing I’d suggest you do is take a look at what type of work your website reflects. You want to show what it is you want to shoot…I don’t want to shoot on a backdrop, I prefer lifestyle moments captured in a family’s home with NO cheesy smiles. So in the beginning I shot on a backdrop and gave the clients what they wanted, but at the end I took a few ‘just for me’. Those images are the ones I used to fill up my website galleries, and now clients come to me because of those moments. It’s a gradual process.
At the same time, I’d consider going back to what it was that was sucessful four years ago. You don’t have to provide lifestyle portraiture to make a living. There are photographers out there for every type of client…old master’s style, modern and fresh, lifestyle, and even backdrops and cheese! Find what it is that YOU want to do, what fuels you, and as long as you are producing what is in your heart and what drives you, clients will know and believe in you, and they will come (channeling “Field of Dreams” here).
7. Without giving away any of your secrets, are there any plug-ins or other tools that you can’t live without?
Sad me, I have no secrets 
I edit with photoshop, and have a few actions that I created to streamline the editing process. I am not one to run funky cross processing actions or do a fuzzy/soft/glowy type of effect. I use Photospop to create what I like-clean, crisp images, colors that pop and black & whites with depth. So no, no plug-ins that I can push, sorry
8. Also, PC or Mac?
Both! My current workhorse is a PC, and my laptop (for meeting with clients) is a Mac…I am working on upgrading to full-mac, probably early next year.
9. Do you see yourself doing this (photography) for the rest of your career, or would you still like to try something new?
I have always loved photography, always. Before I had kids I took pictures of my other love, horses. The only other career I’d consider would be riding horses, and I learned a long time ago that I don’t possess the full-on-do-or-die mentality that it takes to really succeed in that industry (Plus, wiping out into a jump is not very comfortable).
10. Have you totally given up on the plans to move?
You’ll have to talk to my sweet husband for that one.
11. Did you know when you were younger (adolescence?) that you wanted to get into photography?
I was always fascinated by photography, the idea of capturing a moment and freezing it forever, and making sure it was the PERFECT moment…ahhh, the challenge of that is so intense! I didn’t take photography in high school or college though, I was too busy riding my horses. It took my daughter’s birth in ’02 and my intense need to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE to push me to finally enroll in a photography class (“Processing of black and white film”). Which led to my photographing friends’ new babies, and then their friends, and the list goes on
12. If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?
We went to Fiji this year, and realized that we should have gone further east…a dream vacation would be through Singapore.
13. When are you coming to Austin???
When are you coming to Dallas?
14. What qualities must successful photographers (with their own business) possess?
Drive. Passion. Organization. Memberships to professional organizations (PPA).
15. In %, how much more do you feel you have to learn?
100%… Things are always evolving in the digital world, and just when I think I’ve mastered a technique I realize there is an easier/better way just waiting around the corner. Hooray for organizations like PPA and their seminars-otherwise I’d still be trying to hammer my vertical peg into the horizontal (or landscape) hole.
16. What’s a dream shoot of yours?
My dream shoot is a laid back family with a sense of adventure in a simply decorated house surrounded by tall, brightly lit windows and hardwoods (hmmm…this is also my personal dream house-just add 15 acres.)
17. What comes easier for you, the composition or camera settings?
I’m definitely a go-with-your-gut kind of girl. for me, it’s composition. Forcing myself to RTFM (read the *ahem* manual) and learning the technical aspect of photography is what has brought my work to another level (and what pushes me to keep improving). Noone asked this, but I shoot exclusively in manual…a background in film photography and apertures and f-stops helps me in this regard. But the technical aspect of photography has not come easy.
18. Favorite Starbucks drink?
Grande non-fat, half-caf hazelnut latte
19. Who is your hero?
I’ll have to come back to this one…
20. I want to see a dog photograph.
Here’s Hannah (great dane extraordinaire)
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