Meet Keri Doolittle…An AMAZING Photographer and Mom!
Keri Doolittle is a Wedding and Senior Portrait Photographer based in Denver, Colorado. She is a SONY gal and has mentored one of our very own “SOAR! Sistas”. She does fantastic work and has an unforgettable “Brand” to her business. Check out her website!
We are so excited to have her to answer questions during tomorrow nights Ask and Learn Session on the Soarority Forum. Grab your favorite morning beverage and enjoy this interview with Keri.
Q: When did you start your business and what was the turning point of taking it from a hobby to a business of charging people?
I got my business license in May 2007, which meant I was officially paying taxes! 🙂 When we moved from Spokane, WA to Phoenix, AZ, I decided to make the jump to FT photography and drop my middle-school teaching job. Luckily, I was booked for my entire 2008 wedding season within a month of moving to Phoenix. Normally, that doesn’t happen right away, but my Phoenix brides jumped all over my $1500 price-list. I quickly found out that I was WAY underpriced and I didn’t make a darn thing that year, however, I made some GREAT vendor connections, which kept me busy for the remainder of our time in PHX. We currently live in Denver, CO and continue to grow my business approximately 15 – 20% a year, which is very exciting (and a bit overwhelming at times).Q: What inspires your photography? What made you fall in love with photography?
My kiddos are both my reason for falling in love with photography and also my inspiration. I bought my first dSLR when Ryland (almost 5 years old) was born and really enjoyed the technical side of learning about the camera. I wanted to take better pictures of my kiddos, so I read anything and everything I could find online about starting a business. I jumped into weddings when a local photographer asked me to second-shoot for her during the summer of 2007. I instantly fell in love. What an amazing day to document…two people in love, everyone is happy and full of emotion. It was just something I wanted to be a part of!
Q: What inspires you as a person, artist?
Love. Relationships. Family. God. Any connection between people is truly inspiring. Maybe that is the reason I love shooting weddings. I am inspired when a groom brushes off a tear from his new bride’s face, when my husband laughs with my kiddos, when a grandma holds a newborn baby or when a mom quietly reads a bedtime story to the ones she loves most.Q: How would you describe your style?
Clean, crisp, modern, fun. I try to edit my images very cleanly. I don’t want to add any type of action or filter that will “date” the images. I want them to be timeless.
Q: What is one or two pieces marketing/self-promotion ideas that you can give our newbies?
1.Professionally branding yourself has been the best investment I have made for my business. I wanted people to take me seriously as a photographer and a businesswoman. I feel very confident that people and vendors visiting my blog-site will get the feeling that they are looking at a professional business with good photography skills and top-notch customer service.
2.Image boxes…I love giving image boxes to some of my vendors. I will design an image box, using their products (flowers, for example) and their logo. Inside the image box, I print 5 x 7 promo postcards that say “If you book your florist with Brilliant Blooms, you will get 10% off of Keri Doolittle Photography”. Because the box is branded with THEIR work, they are more than happy to put this out on their front desks for brides and customers to view.
Q: If you are not behind the camera photographing fantastic people, what might we find you doing?
Sports! I love to golf! I try to get out at least once/week, but that is almost impossible during wedding season. If I am not golfing, the family and I will either be at a sporting event (football, baseball, etc) or at some local museum. The hubs and I also love to find great places to eat. Denver is FULL of great eateries, so we enjoy trying to hunt them down.
Q: What is one of the best things you have done for the success of your business?
Branding, social networking, top-notch customer service. Oh, did you just say one thing? 🙂
Q: What are the classes/workshops/DVDs/books or websites that you’ve watched or read to teach yourself photography? Were they helpful?
Unfortunately, I haven’t been to many workshops that have really blown me away. I, do, however, belong to a great online forum of gals that are really supportive. We have been together for about 5 years and have really supported and learned from each other. I really owe a lot of my knowledge to them (and to the occasional You Tube video). We consistently critique each others work, strive to better ourselves and our business and also try to have a little fun every now and then. My local PPA chapter, Professional Photographers of Colorado, Mile High Photographers Club, Pictage and Collages.net bring some great and affordable (most of the time free) speakers and workshops to the Denver area which are also very helpful.
Q: What type of camera equipment did you have when you first started shooting portraits? And what have you added to your camera bag since then? Your favorite lens right now? What would you purchase next?
My very first camera was a Sony Alpha A100. I quickly out-grew that and upgraded to the Alpha A700. Finally, I now use Sony’s professional-grade camera, the A900 and use the 700 as my back-up. As far as lenses go, I have the 70-200mm 2.8, 85mm1.4, 50mm1.4, 16-70 Wide Angle, 16mm Fisheye, 50mmMacro, 3 pocket wizards, 2 speedlights, video lights, lots of memory cards and batteries. FAVE LENS…hands down is the 85mm1.4. Next on my list is the 35mm1.4. Gotta start saving for that one!
Q: Tell us a little bit about your blog site design. Who, what, why the look? (BTW-It’s genius!)My blogsite was designed by Into The Darkroom. It was about a 6-7 month process, including wait-time on their wait-list. I wanted to have a COMPLETELY unique site. I came with them with a couple concepts…”Nick at Nite” and “Cars Movie”. I knew both of those could get cheesy really fast, so we had to come up with something classic that would appeal to both my portrait clients (mostly seniors) and my brides. After a few revisions, I was in LOVE with what they came up with. I can do so many fun things, marketing-wise and really get creative. There are still a few “tweaks” I would like to do, but it will have to wait awhile. 🙂
Q: How do you know about Me Ra and the SOAR! community?
I think most photographers (especially us Sony gals) have heard of Me Ra in some form or another. I am sure I heard about the SOAR program online at one point or another, but one of the gals I mentored last spring, Jane, also gave me some insight to what the program was about. I love the vision behind the program and hope to keep up in the forums!
Mahalo!
Wendy (Your SOAR Coordinator)
Keri, is wonderful!!! I appreciate the knowledge Keri shares with us all. (Yay, Keri. It’s so fun to see you on here.)
Can’t wait to have her on the forum tomorrow night too!! Her photos are gorgeous and her heart is so open to others!
xoxo,
m
Yay Keri! I am so thrilled you said YES to doing this and others can benefit from your amazing wisdom and talent. You know I adore you! Now others can too! Love ya girl! 🙂
Keri, Is that forum where you learned alot, a private forum, or can others access it?
I absolutely love your images, and the ‘look’ clean, cant wait to ask what you do about post processing!!!
Thank you for all your kind comments, can’t wait to chat with ya’ll tonight!
@Cyndi, I guess the forum would be considered semi-private…anyone can be on the board via invitation, however, it is limited to the amount of photographers we have on their. I believe the max is 250 (however, I could be completely wrong, lol).
Chat will you soon!
I’m so excited to meet you Keri! I can’t wait for the chat tonight!