Exploring Life & Business with Sierra Campbell of Sierra Campbell Photography

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sierra Campbell.

Sierra, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up with a photojournalist dad and a creative go-getter mom. My dad was always going on all kinds of different shooting assignments for the newspaper, including most of the winter Olympics and many different local sporting events. Some of my earliest memories are working alongside my dad in the dark room, developing the negatives, exposing the paper, moving it through the developer and fixer, and then hanging it to dry. The smell of developer, fixer, and newsprint will no doubt bring me right back to my childhood.

I have always been drawn to photography and it felt comfortable to me, I took classes in high school and was my dad’s understudy but at that point, it was just a hobby. I graduated from the University of Utah with a communications degree, but after a few years in public relations and advertising, I just wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I also wanted to create an environment where I could be self-employed and raise my kids at the same time.

At first, I started taking pictures for family and friends and the word just spread from there. It’s crazy for me to reflect on the fact that it’s been nearly two decades since I started, and almost my entire business has been built on a foundation of referrals.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the lessons I learned pretty quickly (but that took me a while to get up the guts to change) was spreading myself too thin. I see a lot of photographers do this – charging too little for their services so they hardly make a living and then get so busy that their entire life is centered around shooting and editing. Having a balance is key – for my family, and my mental health and also to keep myself engaged and loving what I do.

I found myself losing my love for photography when I was spread too thin and my creativity and customer service suffered. Since photography is most definitely an art service, I believe it is extremely important to find ways to make sure it remains a passion and doesn’t turn into just a job. For me, this was to learn how to say no to jobs that weren’t interesting to me and to cap how many shoots I booked per month.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I officially started taking pictures for profit about 17 years ago. I pretty much started with every genre but focused mainly on families and kids. I also did a handful of boudoir photo shoots for young women getting married, and once those women started having babies they asked me to do their newborn photo shoots. Over the years I started realizing I was very good with newborns and that it was a very unique niche to be in. I started mentoring under some of the best newborn photographers in the world and learning all of the little tricks and making adjustments along the way. Slowly that started to become what I was known for (although I still do family and children portraits), as newborn photography is not something every photographer can pull off successfully. I believe that newborn photography is about 40% photography and 60% baby handling!

Having four of my own children, newborn photography was natural for me. Then a handful of years ago, one of the best OB/GYNs in the area (Newport Center Women’s Health) asked if she could use my art to decorate her office. I was very humbled and flattered and it has been one of the best partnerships I have ever been in, both business-wise and friendship-wise. They are a great group of women and I feel like we jive well.

Over the years I have fine-tuned how I do business, and it is my goal to make it one of the best experiences of those first few weeks of new life. I control every aspect of my studio environment from sanitation, light, sound, temperature, etc. to resemble the womb as closely as possible. I have a huge collection of hats, headbands, outfits, props, backdrops, etc. and I meet with each client beforehand to help them design the shoot to their specific taste.

After the shoot, my clients help me design beautiful heirloom albums or portrait boxes, meant to last hundreds of years. Especially coming from an era of film photography, I appreciate the idea that the photos that mean the most to you will be tangible in your hands and not lost on a computer and never seen.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
As I reflect back on my childhood, I can’t help but recognize the influence my parents both had in shaping my career as it is today. My mom had her creative hands in everything: sewing us unique handmade costumes every Halloween, teaching me how to knit at an early age, and being highly involved in all the activities. I now enjoy sewing and knitting my own props when time allows, and I attribute my attention to detail to her.

As for my dad, I saw the creative freedom he had as a professional photographer. I loved getting to sit on the sidelines of sporting events with a photo pass (basketball, football, gymnastics, etc) as his assistant even at a very young age. I loved running/playing around the newsroom/darkroom after he would race back from an event and have to quickly develop his negatives and prints before the paper deadline. One night both my mom and I were helping him on the sidelines of a University of Utah football game. When those football players run out of bounds, you have to be on your toes and get out of the way quickly or you turn into an accidental target – which is exactly what my mom turned into when one of the huge linebackers checked her with his shoulder. She went flying through a lookout point where a startled onlooker caught her! It shook all of us and she had a big bump on her head, but it was named play of the game later that night!

A few other cool photography moments I had with my dad was when I took a photo of Chad Hedrick qualifying for the Olympics and my image was published in the newspaper. Another time I got to spend the day assisting my dad as the still photographer on a shoot with Jennifer Aniston while Animal Planet filmed a piece with her and grizzly bears.

Later, when I was well into my photography career, I had the privilege of being the photographer at a few different private concert events: Goo Goo Dolls, Blues Traveler, and also Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Random fact, but I’ve created a tradition (without really meaning to!) of doing a fun, wildly photoshopped family holiday card every year. This year will be year eight!

Pricing:

• $250 Sitting Fee
• Portraits start at $190
• Packages start at $990
• Tax not included

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sierracampbellphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sierracampbellphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sierrasmartcampbellphotography