Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Tanner.
Sarah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In 2017, when I had my daughter, I took approximately 3521985382 pictures of her first year on my iPhone. Every picture looked different to me at the time (that look! the nose scrunch! the half giggle!), but now I look back and all of my photos of her first year are grainy, low light cell phone pics. Not bad by any means, and I have wonderful (though sleep-deprived) memories of that time, but I felt like I wasn’t really doing her cuteness justice. What a mom thing to think haha.
Just before her first birthday, I decided to take a photography class, and I honestly haven’t been able to put my camera down since. I went from taking pictures of my own baby girl and posting them on the ‘gram, to capturing babies and families of friends, to a fledgling business. I am so honored to capture the everyday moments and special occasions in their lives, but I think the thing I love most is creating something that makes my clients and friends feel beautiful.
See, the way I remember professional photography from my childhood is through those Easter Bunny poses at Sears or when Olan Mills came to take pictures in front of their marbled blue background for the church directory. They were great in their own formal way, and we always got super dressed up for them, but when I look back on those photos, they didn’t capture US. They didn’t capture my dad’s corny jokes or my mom’s listening ear. And they definitely didn’t capture my sister’s silliness because she was too busy sitting still (or trying to) and smiling for the camera! And while I love having those photos to look back on regardless, I really wish we had more beautiful photos that captured my family just as we were.
So now, I’m taking pictures of the backyard playtimes, the park dates, and the silly faces because it is all just too precious to risk forgetting. And I am SO honored to be asked to capture my friends’ and clients’ everyday moments and special memories too.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Aside from the normal full-time working mom thing that requires me to constantly juggle my time, I’ve found that it’s really important for me to spend the MOST time doing the thing that brought my joy in the first place. For me, that’s taking and editing pictures of sweet families and babies. It’s so easy to get sucked into the overwhelming world of website design, marketing strategy, Pinterest, and what every other photographer out there is doing. My advice to others, and that which I must constantly remind myself, is to stay in my lane. If I focus on perfecting my craft, practice a LOT, and share photos I LOVE, then this little passion project of mine will continue to get even bigger and better than I ever thought possible.
Please tell us about Sarah Tanner Photography.
The photos I’m most proud of are the ones that make my clients feel AMAZING. I think what sets me apart from other portrait photographers is that I understand that natural looking photos, don’t always happen naturally. At my sessions, I play photographer and director to guide my clients into poses that show off their best features, illustrate emotion, and capture both candid and posed moments.
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
One of the most important pieces of advice I could give is to find your career tribe, your friends and family may be the people you go to when you have an issue in your personal life, but when it comes to your business, it’s important to have people who you can trust that know what you’re going through. My husband supports me in many ways, but when I’m not sure what to do in my social media strategy, he’s going to give me a blank stare and not much else – haha! I save both of us some trouble by going to the people that are ALSO thinking about their social media strategies. If you’re not sure where to go to find those people, I highly recommend checking out your local chapter of Rising Tide society. It’s a group of creatives that values community over competition, and that’s where I found my go-tos for business advice!
Pricing:
- Portrait Collections begin at $350
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sarah-tanner.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @sarahstanner
Image Credit:
Sarah Tanner Photography
Kaley Elaine Photography
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