Vanessa Joy is an award-winning wedding photographer with more than 20 years in business. In 2020 she was named one of Canons Explorers of Light. An exclusive position reserved for photographers who have dedicated their lives to the craft. Today she talks about how she almost chose a different career path and what it was that brought her back to photography.

Episode Timeline:

• Vanessa describes her early interest in photography, and when she knew that photography was going to play a big role in her life.
• Vanessa shares personal shots from her early days in photography.
• What influenced your preference for portraits in photography?
• About Vanessa's plans to move to Texas.
• Vanessa was announced as one of Canon's Explorers of Light.
• Is there anything Vanessa thinks new photographers should know?

Premium Members Also Learn:

• The marketing efforts that have worked for Vanessa in New York over the past 20 years
• What marketing efforts Vanessa is using now to build authority when she moves to Texas

Key Takeaways: 

• The passion had always been there for photography, the realization that it would be a full-time career much later.
• Highlighting the benefits of her photography career, Vanessa talks about the love for it and the freedom to plan her schedule.
• Vanessa describes the drive behind her preference for portraits. In a lot of ways, I think I enjoyed photographing people in how I felt, so photographing people is a little bit of photographing them but a lot of expressing who I am.
• Combining two styles of portrait photography, one where every aspect of the picture is controlled with one where things are allowed to be more natural is possible, and do not have to be mutually exclusive.
• When you first start in photography it is understandably necessary to try many styles and then hone in on a particular one, but as you get better in that aspect, you get bored and have enough control of your craft to try other things and expand your photography interests while maintaining your brand.
• Discussing Vanessa's move to Texas, she noted some key differences regarding the technique in her photography.
• Asides from her technical know-how with the camera, another point Vanessa attributes her Explorers of Light announcement to, was her ability to find simple uses for the camera for the average person, knowing that the company would need that kind of market to make sales on a large scale.
• To new photographers: Gear doesn't matter, and should not stop you from being a great photographer, and as gear gets more expensive it's good if there's a particular reason. Just keep going at it, you have to love photography for the work itself because that's the thing that's your daily life, not the results.

Resources:

• Austin Texas Wedding Photographer Vanessa Joy’s Website
• Vanessa Joys Website for photographers
• Vanessa Joy on Youtube
• Vanessa Joy on Instagram

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