I normally keep my internet world separate from that of my wife, but she officially announced the start of her new photography business! Kelly doesn’t know I’m writing this entry and she rarely checks my blog because she considers it too “business nerdy.” However, instead of writing up her Wikipedia or Facebook page like a good marketer should, I will share her story with my limited audience. If you stumbled onto this entry organically, take a seat. I’m going to give you a glimpse into the life of my favorite person in the whole wide world. Closet creative people… this entry is for you!
For those of you who know me personally, the journey began with our own wedding extravaganza. My wife was the crafty Miss Eggplant on the Wedding Bee. At the time, there were only a handful for Bees out there, so readers got to know Kelly *ahem* Miss Eggplant pretty well. When our big day was finally over, Kelly put her creative energy toward her popular craft blog, The Sunset House. In over a year, The Sunset House built an incredible following (not to mention craft room) while I watched from the sidelines (tinkering with the site here and there). Unfortunately, Kelly had (and still has) a day job at a wonderful company, so we couldn’t find a way to make crafting a full-time gig with equivalent benefits. As many of you know, I’m notoriously frugal, so we couldn’t expose ourselves much to outside risk, especially because I had hogged up all our savings for business school. She had always taken a liking to photography, especially after having Apertura (the uber-duo) shoot our wedding. A year after we got married, Kelly got her first DSLR and two lenses.
Kelly continued crafting. She even found ways to combine her paper crafting with photography. Somewhere in the deep annexes of The Sunset House is an entry about how Kelly created her own mini-photography studio. My wife will never admit this, but she has one of the best creative eyes I’ve ever known. And since she’s the complete opposite of me (she is anti-self-promotion), I have no shame in saying that. I always tell her how I worked with creative agencies and designers for a living, and yet I rarely see a person with such innate aesthetic taste. I heard from her old college friends that Kelly always had a good eye, whether it be in fashion, home decor, crafting, and now… photography.
Her aspiration to do something “creative” never let down. Through her craft blog, she was doing wedding-related projects for internet strangers once a month and even second-shot a couple weddings. By the time she told me about taking a lighting workshop at a local photo studio, I knew her true calling was in photography. Kelly had always said that she wished her parents let her study graphic design or art in college– but had she not studied economics, she probably wouldn’t have all that business-savvy.
If I had to describe Kelly’s professional style, it would be that she’s super resourceful. We don’t have much disposable income these days with mortgage payments and all, but Kelly found ways to sharpen her photography skills– learning post-processing on her own, teaching herself Illustrator/InDesign, and even learning how to code a bit of HTML! I think her perseverance is what makes her venture into photography so amazing. One of my favorite memories of Kelly during her initial start-up phase was when she made her home-made snoot! She didn’t want to pay $30 for an overpriced piece of foam, so she went to Michael’s and bought her own foam and velcro! When I saw her using it, I thought to myself, “My, how incredibly brilliant!” Now, if only she could use her skills to make DIY Canon “L” lenses.
There is still a lot to be done. We are in the process of getting her an LLC (via Legalzoom) and making business collateral (there are only so many ways you can make a price list intuitive, yet entertaining). However, I think with the progress she’s made so far, I know it’ll turn out perfect.
I would go into more detail about how Kelly gets into her “creative mood,” which is another interesting process, but until then, I’ll just leave this glimpse as a glimpse. I hope any reader who reads this will see that he or she, too, can start something. If Gusteau from Ratatouille was an entrepreneur, he’d probably say “Anyone can create!”
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Comments ( 2 )
what an inspirational story! It takes courage to take the leap of faith to chase your dream and I am so glad you and your wife are doing so. Best wishes! (you guys make such a great couple btw
theDreamChaser added these pithy words on
Feb 25 10 at
12:22 pm
Your website truly is “business nerdy” but it’s interesting. Anyway, I think it’s awesome that Kelly is doing this, and that you are taking those steps with her. As a person who has seen Kelly firsthand in action, I know she’s the type who succeeds in the things she does because she puts everything into it. She only needs to believe she can. Anyway, I’m looking to forward to seeing what BOTH of you create.
Phoebe added these pithy words on
May 26 10 at
1:27 pm
