Meet Melanie Jaramillo!  She’s an awesome photographer and an AMAZING mom!

I’ve read over her interview a few times because each time she inspires me more and more.  Melanie is a force to be reckoned with!  She is a beautiful single mom who has to make her photography dream a reality, no time for procrastination or guilt.  This alone gives her commendable courage that is paying off–I can’t wait for you to read her story!  I’m not joking, this woman is going to inspire you today! Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and prepare to be filled up with inspiration.  Leave her a love note in today’s comments if her experience hits home for you.  When I finished reading her whole interview, I wanted to stand up and cheer!  Let her know if you do too!

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?

A. I officially started my business a little over 3 years ago when I relocated with my daughter. Before that I was a somatic therapist, and photography was more of my art… I did occasionally charge people (a ridiculously low rate)  but it was really just my hobby and passion.  Then I moved to a small town to be closer to family and raise my daughter out of the city, but the area I was moved to was saturated with therapists.  So I had to make a decision:  build up another therapy practice, or really jump into photography.  Guess which I chose. ha ha.

Q. What inspires your photography?

A.  I’m inspired by so many things, but at heart I’m a photojournalist and I love to find beauty in moments that most people pass by.  I love to look at situations or things that people find devastating and pinpoint the beauty in it. Not to go getting sappy, but I worked with trauma victims for many years… so often I would see them so devastated by what happened and yet I could still see their strength and beauty… I really ached to be able to capture that for them.    On a lighter side, I’m always inspired by my daughter and our crazy cat Thomas who always ends up dressed up like a king, or wearing a dress.

Q. What inspires you as a person, artist?

A.  I have to be totally honest and say that for a while after starting my business, I felt completely depleted of inspiration.  I stopped shooting film & spending time in the darkroom, stopped shooting artistic projects for ME, spent endless hours editing images at the computer, only took my camera out while I was working… and my passion quickly became “work”.   My friends even joked that I was the only photographer who NEVER had a camera because I only took it out at work.   But thanks to inspiration from Me Ra, this spring  I took the Momentum in Business class with Karen and Fay at the Wisdom Connection.  WOW-  those beautiful women really helped me understand  what feeds and inspires me, and I’ve just been so clear ever since. I realized that

I’m most inspired by helping people… by using my art to bring people together and bring awareness to issues. I believe that photography is an amazing community building and healing tool!  I recently returned from a trip to Guatemala where I was working with Safe Homes for Children– an orphanage and school in the remote mountains.  I was blessed to spend a week photographing relief work from the hurricane where they were helping 101 families who lost everything.

I was also able to give the children in the evacuation shelters disposable cameras so they could document their world.

I was crying as I watched the joy in their eyes, the deep thought they put into each photograph they took.  It was amazing, and it’s really things like this that inspire the artist within me.
Q. What made you decide to do photography as more than a hobby? What was your turning point?

A  My turning point was when I actually relocated, and realized there was not a lot of work in small towns.  However, there were only a few photographers in the area at the time, and a huge wedding industry here.  I was confident in my skills as a photographer, it was the business/ management side that I really felt insecure in at first.   I absorbed everything I could possibly get my hands on regarding business and creating a successful studio, and it’s been a huge learning process for me- AND an unlearning process too… unlearning my limiting beliefs about myself.

Q. What are the classes/workshops/DVDs you’ve watched to teach yourself photography? Were they helpful?

A. I actually learned back in the film days.  When I was pregnant with my daughter I decided that I HAD fulfilled my lifelong (but secret) dream to learn photography.  I was so scared of photography because it seemed mathematical and mysterious.  Yet I felt that as a (soon to be) single mother, the only way to teach my daughter that she should follow her dreams, was to do so myself.

After she was born I signed up for the fine art photography program at San Diego City College and studied for 2 years there.  Honestly, I learned a lot about  photography.  My training was invaluable, yet it came with a HUGE disadvantage which was a strong thinking that “it takes a lifetime” to become a professional photographer.  It was pounded into my head at film school. Rather than learning how to create a business with photography, I was trained in how to create images for a museum- with the implication that if I was lucky, I’d have an exhibit sometime before I died.  This makes me laugh now.    The result was many years of feeling very insecure about my photography, and feeling unworthy of charging for my work.   When I met Me Ra in the Pictage forum, it was my first “ah-ha” moment, that I don’t have to wait till I’m 60 to be a professional photographer.

Q. What is one or two pieces marketing/self-promotion ideas that you can give our newbies? (something you did to get your name out there).

A.  1. Referral cards are great!  When a client places an order, I create a quick 5×7 promo card with 3 images from their shoot.  I created a template in InDesign, so the process only takes a couple of minutes.  The card thanks them for their order and says if their friend brings in the card both they and the friend will receive $50 in print credit as a thank you.  I print out 5 of them to give to family and friends.  These are amazing low-cost business builders for me, and helps turn clients into marketing evangelists for my studio.

2. Now Facebook galleries are invaluable. After the order, I’ll place a Facebook gallery for the clients and it gets circulated online like wildfire.  Free publicity, what’s better than that?

Q. What was your first “paid” shoot like? How did you feel on the way, during and after?

A. Ha ha, I just have to LAUGH about that one….

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Not to leave you in suspense, but I’m going to!  This is Me Ra!  Melanie has so much more to share with us that I decided to break her interview into two parts.  Part 2 comes tomorrow or Thursday–still working those details out.  But isn’t she AMAZING!  Stay tuned for Part 2, she’ll answer this question and a few more great ones, plus pass on her BEST advice to newbies!  Thank you Melanie, you are so beautiful inside and out!  Sharing your experience with us is such a gift!

xoxo,

Me Ra