LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY WITH ME

MY PHOTOGRAPHY STORY

Hello, Dear Friend!

Since I am guessing you already spent some time on my website or social medias before getting on this page I won’t tell you much about who I am right now (if you would like to read more about my personal story check out this post) and will just share my career story🌞

I am not just a photographer and retoucher (also a stylist, makeup artist, and graphic designer), I also created and developed my business from absolutely nothing, like from 0000 nothing…

My photography journey started when I was 12yo, back in Russia, my dad got a camera for our family and photography was one of my hobbies. I would take pictures of nature, friends, my trips to Altai Mountains and just everything around. I loved doing editing as well, I could spend hours trying different colors and styles of editing. I would never think I would call myself a professional photographer one day though. 

When I moved to the USA I was going through many personal things and had to find a job, a wonderful family hired me to help them with housekeeping. Once, while cleaning, I noticed a camera (it was a very good professional camera with a cool lens). I offered the family a photoshoot, which I am still embarrassed for, since it was my first time doing photoshoot for someone who is not my family and doesn’t speak Russian (I was in the states for 6 months at that point and was barely speaking English).

So yes, it went bad! BUT! I decided to get better and started reading and learning about photography on my breaks between the school and work (I was 16 at the time). I started my photography business with a minimum wage possible for a photographer in DC/VA/MD area and was working like that for 8 months just to create the portfolio and get my own camera (this family was amazingly kind and allowed me to borrow their camera on each photoshoot I would go to, which I am very grateful for, thank you). ***

By the time I had to move out from my step-fathers house I had a camera and $1000, I rented a room for $700 and had $300 left. I was really scared not to survive at that point and decided to take a full time job as a barista (“just in case”, I was already doing photography, but I was so scared to fail and not to survive that it seemed to me as a great backup plan in case photography won’t be bringing much). I don’t know if it was a mistake or not, but I was working 9h/day and would spend 3 hours everyday to get there (I didn’t have a car at that time) on weekdays; working as a photographer and videographer on weekends; on my breaks between shifts I was editing, marketing, talking to clients, and making movies. In 6 months I got sick (I can count how many times I was sick in my conscious life, it wasn’t natural to me). I got up on Saturday morning and I was so tired that I literally was falling down and crying, I had fever and headache. But I had to shoot a little ceremony that day and I went to get ready for it.. I remember laying down on bathroom floor straightening my hair and crying, haha.. Then I got a message that they had to cancel the ceremony due to personal reason and oh I was so relieved. I never felt so sick in my life before.. For about a week I was just laying in bed and getting better, I asked my roommates to get some medicine. While I was laying there I realized that I need a vacation. By then I had $6500 saved from non-stop working and saving, I decided to..

Travel through couchsurfing.com to the Bahamas. I went to the Bahamas and I was so amazed by how beautiful that is.. That blue water, white the sand, I sneaked into Atlantis and hang out there for a day.. I realized that I need to change something in my life and take it to the next level.

I got back from The Bahamas, quit the job, and went to Russia to take photography, videography, filmmaking, sound engineering, graphic design, makeup, and styling courses. Pretty much all the courses I could take to just become my own boss. On my saved money I rented apartments in Russia and paid for the courses, and lived there for 3 months while studying and doing everything I dreamed about, but couldn’t afford when I was living there (like going to restaurants, coffee shops, and some other simple pleasures).

I returned to the US and rented a room in MD, the house was pretty far from any public transportation and I still didn’t have a car so the only places I would go to were the photography jobs (I was spending $1000/month on Uber, but I couldn’t get driver’s license yet as I was 18 and it was too complicated with waiting for 9 months and etc). At that time I promised myself to take care of myself and only take photography jobs, be my own boss. And I made it, I started making money only by doing photography. All I was thinking about is how to make the business grow, I was investing all the money, energy, and time I had into it, figuring out marketing and sales, taking courses. Literally all I was doing is learning how to create and grow the business. I made it work and had lots of client in MD, VA, and DC. Then I finally got driver’s license a few months after I turned 19 and of course it gave me even more opportunities for shoots since I could get anywhere.

Time was going by and I started traveling to other states, I went to WA and fell in love with that state, I loved everything about it: pines, mountains, weather, climate, rain, people! I knew I would be moving there as soon as I can and I planned for it for June, 2018. But in April, 2018 I went to shoot a wedding in FL and met my man, Jordan. My plans changed and I moved to FL instead of WA and of course I had to start all over again (no clients). For 5 months I would drive to VA from FL 21h one way with no breaks once a month for 2 weeks, it made me really sad and tired, I realized that I had to stop doing it and start marketing in FL. Before, in VA, I had more of recommendation-based clients, here I didn’t have time or connections for that and I decided to apply all my marketing knowledge in FB and IG and it worked! In 3 months I got lots of shoots booked and people started reaching out for private lessons. That’s where I decided to open photography, photo-editing, and marketing classes. I had one group of 6 people going through all the courses. I was teaching out of my house in FL on weekdays and doing shoots on weekends. 2 of them are creating their photography business.

But I knew that I only would be staying in FL for a year and so here we moved to WA in July 2019. And again all over agin from 0. No connections or clients. I had to again start active marketing and I made it work! I got many shoots booking.

Since I moved to the US I dreamed about having my photography studio, but I never had the opportunity to do it as I knew I won’t be living in VA or FL, so once I moved to WA I started looking for opportunities to open the space. Right before COVID started I was about to sign the leased invest all the money I had into it, but luckily I didn’t do that as I felt like it wasn’t the right thing to do (then quarantine started…). It was pretty difficult to get through COVID situation, but I did! And I even got 150 shoots done! I was creating different hand-made setups and setting them at parks and etc, it was a loot of work as I had to carry 300+lbs in the middle of nowhere and set it all up + it was pretty complicated with weather condition and etc.. So I was dreaming about my studio. In October I finally got my studio space! I decorated it and shoot my Christmas minis in there. Then I got another space in the same building and decorated it as well. I started renting the space out and having my own shoots in there, in a month the space gained 1500+ followers due to my marketing work and got pretty busy. Today is April 17th and I am getting another space in 2 weeks!

About a month ago people started reaching out for photography and photo-editing lessons, to be honest I wasn’t sure if I could do it as I was getting so busy with my shoots and the studio + going through lots of personal things. But I started balancing out my life, going to the gym, taking care of myself and I have so much energy now! So here we go! School again! Now let’s talk about the course!

HOW AND WHY I CREATED THESE COURSES

Since I started getting many inquiries for teaching (not a single one once in a while, but a few in a week) I decided to write a program for my own photography and photo-editing courses. Since I didn’t have any experience in writing courses I decided to take a look at other photography schools, but I was shocked with how limited, disorganized, and boring the programs were so I realized that I shouldn’t even look further and just start writing the program by putting together and structuring my knowledge and professional experiences.

The courses have least amount of lectures, boring monologs, and unnecessary knowledge. But most of practice and very cool tasks for deep understanding of technical and artistic aspects of photography and photo-editing, as well as development of creative and artistic vision and skills! For student who would want to go in photography business I wrote two additional parts, where they could create their first portfolio with me (we would talk about every photography genre and make sure you know what to do and how to LEAD the session, I would organize the shoots for you and help/direct you during the sessions- pretty much 11 workshops with lectures) and learn everything about leading, promoting, and growing their photography business. All the courses are extremely structured and full of knowledge and fun. Step by step with my personal support I will teach you all I know and will inspire you to create!

If you will want to CREATE (not simply open) a photography business, I will make sure we are not only following the program, but also adapting it for you and your way of thinking, while helping you take over your business fears (if you have any, most of us do when we start), create the perfect schedule for you, and just make sure you are fully ready and confident to become your own boss.

I also would love to add: I know how to motivate people in absolutely different ways and will find the one that works for you. I will be teaching you investing my whole heart, energy, emotions, and imagination into it, so it will never be boring and will be full of examples and associations, so students on any level will understand and REALIZE the information. Before you read the program, please note following:

***I am very detailed and organized person and it’s very important for me to see logic and sense in everything I am doing, especially if I am learning something new. I sincerely wish someone showed me this course when I was starting. I would do so many thing differently and would have much better results.

***I claim myself as a “universal photographer”, which means I can work in any genre, but still let me define what I mean by it.

Any experienced and professional photographer can work in any genre because any genre is about people and/or technical knowledge, the rest is just logic, experience, and desire or preferences of the photographer. Each genre has its own nuances but all of them are just coming out of simple logic. For example, even if you are a family photographer you can easily photograph a car for sale, we just analyze that we need to SELL, hence, we need to attract viewers attention to all the details: color, salon, features, but also don’t forget about the artistic part: backdrop and lighting (not many people would like a beautiful car in-front-of a trash can, frankly speaking). Shortly, we need to attract customer’s attention and from there we start figuring out the location, what time of the day and weather, if we need additional lighting or not, what kind of lenses and angles. Then what style of editing you need to do accordingly to all the details above. Basically, if you have strong technical knowledge, logic, and creative thinking/vision you can easily work in any genres, but it’s all about your preferences! If you wish to focus on something one- it’s wonderful!

If you are interested, please join this group on Facebook and account in Instagram, I will be posting more information and details there:

FB:IAMCREATIVESCHOOL
IG:@IAMCREATIVESCHOOL

I really look forward meeting and inspiring you to create beautiful things! 🙂