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Meet Kelsey Anderson :: {Women In Busniess} Series

INTERVIEW WITH KELSEY ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY , Las Vagas Nevada

 

 

Hi Kelsey! Thank you for taking the time to share with everyone a little insight into how you run your successful photography business & letting us just get to know more about you! First off , where are you located, and how long have you been in business? I am located in Las Vegas Nevada and have been in business for about a year and a half.

How did you first get started in photography? I got my first dslr  (Nikon D40) for my birthday in June of 2009 and I just couldn’t put it down.


Are you married? Have any children? If so how do you best manage your work time with your family time? I am married. We will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary this year. I have 3 amazing children Haylee (almost 6), Hayden (4) and Hudson (2). I am also fighting the Baby Itch at the moment 🙂 Manage my time between work and family. I don’t know if I do that very well lol however I have implemented a strict shooting schedule to try and achieve greater success at that this year. I shoot no more then once a week if that depending on what my family activity schedule is and I shoot only two weddings a month maybe only one again depending on my family schedule. First and foremost I am a Mommy and I know how fast my little ones are growing up and I don’t want to have regrets later in life when they are grown wishing I would’ve taken more time for them and not been in front of my computer so much.

What camera body do you shoot with? What is your favorite lens to use?
I shoot with the Nikon D700 and my back-up is the Nikon D300. My favorite lens is the 85mm but have been using my 50mm a bit more lately. I am a prime lens girl for sure!

Prime lenses are my favorite too, and a Nikon girl, right after my own heart! 🙂 How would you describe your photography “style”? How did you go about developing and perfecting your look? I would say my style is dreamy, airy and romantic. At first I really struggled with finding my style. I looked at other artists work that I totally adored and wished I could have a distinct style like them. I finally just stopped worrying about it. I shot the way I wanted and processed the way I loved. It is still evolving of course and I am always tweaking my editing a bit here and there as I grow and learn.

This sort of plays on the last question here, but “How important do you think it is for a photographer to be consistent to a style?” “Do you think it’s okay to switch post processing styles up to fit the mood of certain images, or do you think it’s better to keep things unified when displaying your work on say your website, or blog, facebook etc?” I think a consistent style is a must. If you are all over the place with your shooting and editing style how are your clients going to be confident in what you will provide for them? If you are shooting for yourself and want to play around a bit with editing go for it but I personally wouldn’t do that for a clients session. I also don’t edit a clients session with a ton of different processing styles. I want my images to flow well together if they choose to do a wall gallery or album.

What is your favorite subject(s) to photograph? I adore shooting couples (weddings), boudoir, maternity and high school senior girls. That is actually all I photograph. Last year I made the decision to only photograph what I truly love and cut out the rest. One of the best decisions I have made for myself and business! I didn’t want to be the poster child for the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, Master of none

What editing programs do you use ~ Would you share a little insight into your workflow? I edit with Lightroom 2 and CS5. I first cull and do basic adjustments to my images in Lightroom. Then I bring them into CS5 for the more detailed stuff. I don’t do a ton of editing to my images. It is more my shooting style and use of natural light that creates the look of my work.

What has been your best form of advertising? How do you bring in new clientele? Word of Mouth and Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook business page you need to set one up like yesterday! Seriously it is free and who isn’t on Facebook!

And finally what are five pieces of advice or helpful hints that you would give anyone who is looking to better their businesses? If you aren’t legal get legal! Don’t just pull numbers out of thin air when it comes to pricing and don’t under value yourself. If you don’t value your art your clients won’t either. Don’t under cut your ‘competition’ and don’t think of other local photogs as your ‘competition’. Become friends with them! Shoot what you love and nothing else. If you don’t love what your doing then do something to change it!

Thank you so much Kelsey! It has been a pleasure featuring you this week! Check out more of Kelsey’s work HERE

All images in this post are (c) Kelsey Anderson Photography

Did you enjoy this entry in our {Women In Business} Series? Please leave your thoughts and comments below! If you have any questions that you’d like to see answered in future Women in Business posts, or if you’d like to nominate someone for the interview leave those below as well!

Hope you enjoyed this! Much love & happiness to you! ~Heidi

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