Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Gray.
Hi Amy, we understand you have more than one business. What got you started as an entrepreneur?
My first business was Sitterwise, which my husband and I purchased from his mom less than a year after our wedding. We had started our family, and I wanted to be able to stay at home with our children while they were young. I stepped away from my teaching career and jumped into the entrepreneurial life. Sitterwise (formerly Marion’s Childcare) was already a thriving business, providing childcare for vacationers in San Diego’s best hotels and resorts. I loved using my experience with website design and databases to modernize the systems and processes. Soon, I was ready to look at leveling up the marketing, and I realized we needed photos. Rather than hire a photographer, I determined to purchase a camera and learn photography myself. That was the beginning of my journey!
How did you first learn photography?
My sister and I enrolled in an adult school course, signed up for all the online photography message boards, and started practicing on our kids. We posted the results on social media, and before we knew it, we were shooting a wedding. The next few years were full! Between mothering little ones and the daily demands of Sitterwise, I wedged my growing desire to excel at photography and to expand that fledgling business.
How did you end up specializing in beach photography?
Somehow, despite my aversion to sand, seaweed, and sunscreen, I kept ending up on the beach. I blogged and shared my sessions consistently, and one day in 2014 or so, I googled my name and realized I was on the first page of search results for “San Diego Beach Photographer.” I decided that must be what I was! I leaned into it, learned all the ways of making great beach photos, and dialed in my editing style to create consistent results for every client, and my business grew.
In the years since then, I’ve enjoyed meeting clients from around the world, watching hundreds of beautiful beach sunsets, and experiencing so many events I never would have otherwise: touching proposals, intimate weddings at dawn, a cesarean birth, high school football games from the sideline, and epic birthday bashes. I’ve gone into classrooms, witnessed infant baptisms, attended awards banquets, and even met a few famous people! I always joke that a big enough lens (especially one of Canon’s long white zoom lenses) is like a press pass. You can go anywhere with one of those things!
How else do you spend your time? Are there any passions you pursue?
As I built my businesses, I was able to build my teams and use the time I got back to pursue other passions. I am a huge supporter of Christian education, and I spend quite a bit of time these days working on marketing and communications for the schools my kids have attended.
This year, my sister and I joined forces again to expand our modern school portrait company, and we photographed six schools this August and September—right in the gap where things are slower for beach photography, but the holiday card portrait season rush hasn’t quite kicked in. We love offering families images that capture their children’s personalities. Our portrait poses include much more than the simple yearbook headshot, and we have figured out a lighting system that enables us to shoot fast and capture those in-between expressions that are golden. Doing a hundred one-minute photo sessions in a day is grueling but incredibly rewarding and fun!
Most recently, I’ve been diving into the branding photography niche. There’s always something new to learn with photography… a class to take or a training to watch. I love learning new things, and this winter season when nobody wants beach photos (thank goodness… it’s cold out there!) is the perfect time for a new project.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t always been easy! Every photography session comes with its own host of potential obstacles. My job as a photographer is to do my best to avoid the obstacles, I know may come . . . communicating clearly about the best time and location for a session, for example. Providing guidance for styling and clothing choice is important, and of course, packing tiny boxes of Nerds candy and organic lollipops in my bag doesn’t hurt.
Business building is fraught with challenge and struggle. Every new type of photography comes with new things to learn, and just yesterday I was thinking about how many different ways there are to do the same thing, but how important it is to nail down the way “we” do it and stop making the same decisions over and over. Although photography is undoubtedly an art, consistently creating a pleasing and beautiful product for clients comes down to business choices that are less romantic but extremely important like software, workflows, and communication.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I love creating systems! A system keeps on giving. Whether it’s figuring out a good preset to use for a cloudy day, creating a template for an Instagram reel, designing a database for Sitterwise, determining a schedule for blogging and repurposing the content, I feel that system creation provides a structure for success for many days to come. It’s like blessing your future. Even on a lazy day when you feel unmotivated, if you have a locked-down system, you can check the next box and get your work done with excellence.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happy? My family. My parents are THE BEST, and I love that we are close and can enjoy so much together. My dad even comes with me to my photo sessions sometimes, and occasionally I’ll walk off the beach after a session to see both of my parents hanging out, watching me do my thing. I love working with my sister on big projects like Patriot Photo and helping my husband with his ministry work, and I love watching our kids thrive, learn, and grow. Now that my daughter is at college out of town, I especially love having us all together as a family.
Pricing:
- $1250 | Beach Session with Full Gallery of Digitals + Print Release
- $1250 | Branding Headshots with Mini Makeover & 10 Digitals + Print Release
- $3950-$8500 | Wedding Photography
Contact Info:
- Website: amygrayphotography.com
- Instagram: @amygrayphoto
- Facebook: fb.com/amygrayphotography
Image Credits
Liz Romeka
