The business of ‘capturing the beauty of life’
When Chris Holden decided to become a full-time photographer in 2016, he was in his early 40s, had an established career, a family to support, and was at a pivotal point in his life.
“I worked in the corporate world at the same company for about 18 years. And I did photography on the side,” said the 47-year-old Holden. “I’d walk around doing different things. I’d share photos and everybody was like, ‘You know, you’re really good. You should be a photographer.’”
His response was, ‘Well, I am a photographer.’ But the idea of becoming a professional photographer didn’t take hold until someone said, ‘You should really start a business.’
“I had just kind of put it off, and put it off,” said Holden. “And then one day my kids were grown, and I was like, ‘You know what? I want to try it on my own.’ And that’s kind of where it started.”
MSR: What originally attracted you to photography?
CH: My mom was a photographer, and so that kind of started the bug. I was just really curious about her and her cameras, you know. I remember playing with the actual film cameras. You had prisms, where you had to line them up to get them in focus. I always thought that was the coolest thing ever. That’s kind of what started me towards a photography career.
MSR: How does your business impact the community?
CH: I work with a lot of different nonprofits, so I’m able to offer services at a reasonable rate. I work with a lot of different churches. I work with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health) and other mental health services and provide them with photography for events and different events. I think that helps the community.
I also work with different communities. I work with the Nigerian community, the Jewish community—you know, providing services for them.
MSR: What is your most popular service?
CH: Business-to-business, I’d say it would be real estate photography. After that, portraits, bar mitzvahs, and bas mitzvahs are a pretty close second.
MSR: What has been your biggest challenge in owning a business?
CH: The biggest challenge would be the back-end stuff. You know—building the websites, continuing to improve customer experiences when people are ordering stuff. Just finding the time to do all that stuff. Because this is the only month of the year [December] that’s slow for me. Otherwise, I’m slammed. It’s crazy. So right after the holidays, it’s going to start back up again for me.
MSR: What has been the most rewarding part of owning your business?
CH: Working in the corporate field, you’re working for somebody else. You are working hard and you’re improving yourself and fighting to get a raise. It’s like once a year you get a raise. It’s like three percent. When you’re a business owner, it’s actually kind of fun, because you look at different ways that you can improve.
When you do things to improve, you can translate that into revenue rather than working for somebody else where it’s you fighting to get a raise. It’s a little challenging, but it’s fun because you can see the direct way that improving yourself can make your business better.
MSR: What’s your vision for your business? What does success look like for you?
CH: You know, it’s pretty simple—just take over the world! [Laughs] My goal is to always provide the best product I can to people. The photography and video work is second to the customer experience.
If you’re shooting a wedding, if you’re a technical photographer and you don’t bring the energy and the happiness to the event, then that’s going to reflect in the photos. It doesn’t matter how good the photos are. They won’t translate into customers having a good experience.
MSR: What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
CH: I would say for aspiring entrepreneurs, find people to work with. You have to understand what you do and then try to find people to leverage. You can only do so much yourself. So I use a lot of different things to help me out. There’s a lot of apps, people and resources out there.
MSR: What would you like to add that hasn’t been covered?
CH: The tagline for my business is: “capturing the beauty of life.” People ask me all the time, what’s your favorite thing to photograph? And it’s not necessarily a thing. I’m capturing a moment in a person’s life. I’m either helping to create that moment or I’m capturing a moment or something that they worked up to.
Even when I photograph real estate, people are like, that’s just a simple transaction. That’s not a big deal or whatever. But if you think about it, when you’re shooting a house, sometimes it could be the first home someone’s ever lived in and now they’re selling it. That’s a big thing.
Or somebody has lived there for 50 years. Sometimes, if somebody says they lived in a house for like 56 years, I’ll ask, “Do you guys want to take a picture of yourselves out in front of your house?” To capture that moment, you’re helping them to relive it.
I’ve done that a bunch of times. With action, sports and weddings photos—it’s all the same. Somebody has dedicated part of their life to being the best they can at something. When they’re 60 or 70 years old, they can look at this picture and be like, “Wow, that was me.”
That’s what drives me in my photography. And that’s where my tagline came from.
For more info about Chris Holden Photography, call 612-669-8763 or visit www.holdenphotos.com/home.
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