Meet Brooke McDougal of Brooke Aliceon Photography in North County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke McDougal.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brooke. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was an intern for a prominent wedding photographer while in high school. One day he sat me down and told me I would only do well in this business if I worked for myself. That stuck with me. After that, I went off to college and supported myself by teaching dance. When I met my husband, I found out that he had been a hobbyist photographer in high school and I asked him what he thought about starting a photography business. He said let’s go for it and shortly after we were married, we photographed our first wedding together. 9 years later we’re still photographing weddings together. The 9 years consisted of two kids, graduate school and a few years of teaching high school English for him, and a lot of incredible road trips. We were able to take our business full time for both of us 2 years ago and we’ve had a blast since. We look forward to what the future holds and we can’t wait to meet and work with more incredible people like we have over the past 9 years.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been a fun but challenging road. The scariest part about going into business for yourself (I imagine any business) is not always being able to count on that routine paycheck. Wedding photography in southern California is interesting because the season is really all year long and months definitely can vary in work. Typically, January through February will be slower but sometimes we’ll have a couple weddings in March or we’ll have 8. Fortunately, we’ve been consistent in the number of weddings we get throughout the year, but each year does change in when they come up. Also, because there are so many photographers in the area, it can be challenging to find that angle that sets you apart from other photographers. Neither of us were business majors in college (my husband was English and I was Bio Engineering) so we always relied more on our photographic skills over our marketing skills. But early on we made it a point to make sure our customer service was key. We make sure to treat every wedding individually and provide our clients with the best experience possible. A lot of photographers fall into a trap with this because they will miss deadlines or not feel confident around their clients but we focus on the entire experience when working with a couple. A lot of our clients will meet us for an engagement session (if they haven’t already met us) and say they’re not really comfortable with taking pictures and by the end of the session they’ll be laughing and totally comfortable in front of the camera. We go into every session with this being our hopeful outcome.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We started off as wedding photographers and continue to specialize in it. We’ve explored most avenues of photography but found we really enjoyed working weddings. It’s fast paced which keeps it exciting and we enjoy getting to work alongside a couple on their most important day. Although I’ve really enjoyed shooting weddings, I would say I’m most proud of some of the workshops I’ve hosted. Education has always been a passion of mine and workshops are something I would love to offer more frequently. Our last workshop was a three-day event and it included so many different types of settings. One was a Notebook-esque shoot in a boat on a lake and another was on safari with a zebra. It was a lot of work but we all had such an amazing time. I’ve always been the type to see something through, no matter how challenging the work is and I think as a photographer, that’s really the only way to set yourself apart from others.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
San Diego is a great place to be a wedding photographer. Although there are a lot of photographers, there are so many venues and the season is all year round. Also, where we’re located, Orange County, Riverside and Los Angeles are not too far away so it really opens up the market. A close friend of mine is an amazing photographer in Seattle and she said it’s really tricky working around the weather so San Diego really gives an advantage especially in starting out because you pretty much have every day to get out and practice. San Diego also offers a variety of locations. When really delving into photography you start to see which areas are heavily saturated with other photographers but the advantage of working in San Diego is there’s a lot of places to shoot. Whether people want to shoot at the beach, in the desert, in a woodsy area, in a field, or an urban area like The Gaslamp, all areas are pretty much accessible. I remember hearing someone once say only in southern California can you surf in the morning, ski at noon, and dirt bike in the early evening. Even though that applies to extreme sports it really shows you how many different types of locations we have in such close proximity. 

Contact Info:

• Website: brookealiceon.com
• Phone: 7605002273
• Email: BROOKE@BROOKEALICEON.COM
• Instagram: brookealiceonphotography
• Facebook: brookealiceon

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