Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where I want to take my business and what I want it to look like a year from now. I want to be successful, of course, but I also want to be happy and fulfilled by my work. I LOVE photography and it makes me happier than just about any career I can imagine, but I feel like I need to make a few adjustments to my course in order to ensure that I reach my goals.
In photography, it’s important to be unique and to develop your own style, but I also think I can learn a lot from the photographers who have already reached the level of success for which I strive. So, I spent some time thinking about the photographers across the country I admire most and asked myself “what do they all have in common?” The answer had nothing to do with their photographic style or the oh-so-subjective “quality” of their work. They’re all very different in those respects. Nor is it their personalities as revealed through their blogs (they range from silly & fun to dry & witty to downright serious). The main thing my favorite photographers have in common is that they specialize in the one or two areas of photography in which they are most passionate. For Anna Kuperberg, John Michael Cooper, and Jasmine Star, that means weddings. For Amy Wenzel, it means kids and high school seniors. For Carrie Sandoval, it means babies, and for Erin Vey, it means dogs. For Marissa Boucher and Kimberlee West of The Boudoir Divas, it (obviously) means boudoir. There is not a single photographer I admire who would consider themselves a “generalist” in terms of portrait photography. You just can’t specialize in five different genres of photography! Up to this point, I feel like that’s exactly what I’ve been attempting to do. I’ve tried to master the arts of baby, kid, family, senior, couples, pets, boudoir, and event photography. The only obvious genre that I have yet to delve into is that of weddings and that was a conscious decision on my part made after spending many a Saturday night working at weddings during a college internship. It’s apparent to me that in order to become a truly successful photographer, I need to narrow my focus and really specialize in the photography genres that I find most enjoyable and rewarding. As much as I would love to be the best at all types of photography, the reality is that is just plain silly! I truly believe that if I focus on my passion, the rest will come.
Ok, enough waxing poetic… I’m sure you’d like me to get to the point and tell you what this “passion” of mine actually is. It happens to be two completely unrelated photography genres: high school seniors and boudoir. Obviously, if I’m going to focus on these two areas, I’m going to need to switch up my business plan a bit and develop a separate web presence for each. (Something tells me that the mom of a 17 year old senior girl is going to think twice about sending her daughter to a photographer who specializes in boudoir!) So, my goal for the next few months is to create an entirely separate identity and blog for my boudoir photography business. The high school senior photography will stay under the Adrienne Huebner Photography banner along with occassional work with babies and families (which come in a close 3rd on my list of photographic passions!).
Here is my question for you: What should I call the boudoir business? All I’ve come up with so far are “Adrienne Huebner Boudoir” and “Boudoir by Adrienne.” Leave me a comment down below and if I end up using your suggestion, I’ll send you a very cool prize.
Now, for some photos! My love for senior photography was reinforced a few weeks ago when I had the opportunity to learn from the afore-mentioned Amy Wenzel at her workshop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here is one of the fabulous senior girls I photographed that weekend:
Isn’t she gorgeous? I have a few more beautiful seniors to blog, but I’ll save them for another post. If you know a senior girl looking for some unique, stylish senior portraits, please send them my way!
Ciao,
Adrienne
