Why my business couldn’t function without my Mom

You may have noticed before that when talking about shoots I often say “we”. “We loved shooting..” “We had such a great time..” ect. That is because there is another half of Katie Grace Photography. A half that my business simply couldn’t function without.

My Mom.

Today is my wonderful Mothers birthday, so I thought I would take this chance to explain how awesome she is.

Warning: Things may get mushy here, but for real, she is awesome. 

My Mom has always loved photography, design, decorating, and all things creative. She is where all of my creativity comes from. Our house is constantly changing as she finds new pillows at HomeGoods, and wreaths at Target. She always has DIY projects in mind, and has always encouraged me to push my creativity one step further.

When Danielle and Ty asked me to shoot their wedding it was a natural fit for my Mom to be my second shooter. We spent hours and hours planning how we would shoot their portraits, style their details, and get it all done in a short amount of time. I had been shooting sessions here and there, but planning for the wedding with my Mom gave me someone to bounce ideas off of. The wedding day came and went, and I quickly realized there was no one I would rather shoot with. Over the past 8 month she has become a crucial piece of my business and I rarely do a shoot with out her.

Want to know why you should love her (purely from a photography standpoint, for crying out loud there are a million more reasons to love her outside of photography! The list would be too long!)?

(fur blanket..on our piano bench…in a field…with a senior girl..) 

-Her eye for design

She has got one. A good one. Far better than I will ever have! I very regularly get calls from her saying she has found a new blanket that she can picture on a piano bench in a field with a senior girl on it. When looking at a vignette she knows exactly where things need to be moved, what needs to be removed, and what extra touch it needs. I am not an interior designer/stylist/anything like that, and don’t know that I ever could be, but my Mom is awesome at it! She adds extra details to shoots that I wouldn’t be able to come up with on my own!

-her eye for details

There are so. many. things. to focus on while I shoot. Settings, lighting, and posing are all important, while keeping up a conversation with the client to keep them comfortable. While I am focused on other things I often miss details like a hair out of place, or a dark weed in the background. My Mom however, does not. She is there to pick up on the things I miss.

(this pose was my mom’s idea and ended up being one of our favorite pictures from the shoot)  

-her stye of posing

In this department two heads are better than one. If both of us are focused on coming up with new poses we can make sure each shoot is unique. This is another area that gets tricky when I have a million things to focus on. I know that at any moment if I am at a loss my Mom has something awesome in mind.

 (big hugs for Audrey after getting engaged)  (Danielle was starting to get a little overwhelmed with all the things to do before walking down the isle. My Mom simply stated “I know what she needs” and ran off to grab her bouquet, which she had not yet seen. Somehow my mom knew that seeing her bouquet would set her mind at ease, and sure enough it did!) 

-her ability to connect as a mom

When we started working with senior girls this started to show. As we started booking more weddings it came out even more. As the mother of four girls she gets “the Mom thing”. She knows how to make a girl feel beautiful on a shoot. She knows how to put a brides mind at ease while making a timeline. She has raised girls who have had their senior pictures taken, and she has planned her daughters weddings. She knows what each situation is like as a mom, where I sometimes see things just as a photographer.

p.s. I have several pictures of her dancing with brides at receptions, but she would be very unhappy if I posted them, even though I think they are adorable. 🙂

-the fact that she is a baby whisperer

For real though…I couldn’t get through a newborn shoot without her.

-her patience with me

Lets get real. Running a business can be stressful, especially when you are 18 and have no idea what you are doing. I love every second of it, and am grateful for where I am, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard sometimes! Where most people would get irritated with me, my Mom is endlessly patient. She is encouraging when I need it, motivating when I need it, keeps me sane.

-The fact that she is always thinking of what is next

Someday we will find a church pew for a photoshoot and it will be because she started trying to hunt one down a year ago. She always has the next idea in mind, or three ideas down the road. Her ideas feel limitless. We feed off each other and end up with ideas that we both are excited about.

Love you so much Mom! So grateful for you and everything you do!

p.s. I’m never moving out. 🙂