May 17, 2017

Meet Gary Norbraten of Gary Blake Photography in Clear Lake

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Norbraten.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Gary. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My junior year of high school my parents moved and I landed in a new school. My desire to play football dropped off with the move and I instead enrolled in a video technology class that completely set the course for the rest of my life. In that class, I fell in love with both photography and my now wife Christie.

We went off to college together and my free time went into teaching myself photography. Any extra money went into needed photography gear as I learned the trade. Every weekend we’d set up photoshoots together or hike through a state park to practice.

In 2008, after a long string of free photoshoots for friends, I officially opened my business. It’s now nine years and thousands of wonderful, kind, and amazing clients later and I’m still completely in love with what I do. This business has allowed me to travel, to start a family, and to experience so many beautiful weddings.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think most people can relate that there are struggles in life and starting a photography business is no different. For the first 5 years, I had to work a separate accounting job to make ends meet, but eventually took photography full time with the help of my wife who worked full time and now works part time.

There’s also the struggle with improvement. When you care about customer service and the product you deliver, it’s hard to look back at work you produced nearly a decade ago. It certainly keeps me striving to make sure my clients are happy with a good and timely product.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gary Blake Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I specialize in wedding photography and anything under that umbrella like engagements or bridals. I try to represent well-lit and colorful photos that reflect the positivity of these wonderful events.

I’m absolutely most pleased with the customer service I provide. I make sure to respond to e-mails quickly and I never take on more work than I can handle so my clients get their photos back both quickly and properly retouched. It’s the most common theme in the reviews my wonderful clients have left for me.

I think the other thing that sets me apart is my calm demeanor at weddings. I’ve been to so many now that nothing gets me flustered or scrambling. I think sometimes such an attitude can be reassuring to couples. When you combine that with hard work and pleasing final product it makes for a good overall experience.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the industry is going to really benefit from new camera technology that is going to propel the craft more in 10 years than it has been propelled in the last 100. We’ll be able to take clean and beautiful photos in the dark and these new cameras will help us focus so we capture many more special moments.

We might also see camera technology that can produce several photos from a single capture or the ability to focus perfectly in post-processing.

These tools will still need an artist’s perspective and a hard-working attitude which is exactly what I’ll try to provide. It’s a very exciting time.

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