Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikell Kolod.
Mikell, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In the beginning, my love for capturing the moment came in 2 parts. In short, the first part was when I came to the realization that if collected I barely had enough photos to fill your typical photo album. Baby photos, toddler photos, tween years, awkward teen years you name it. I guess my family wasn’t big on photographing milestones and whatever photos were available for me to look back at were either located on the walls of my grandparents home.
My real passion started when my 1st born had arrived. That camera was always at arms reach making sure I captured everything so I could leave behind photos upon photos that was my sons legacy. I didn’t always think I was going to be a photographer though. In high school, my passion at the time was designing and creating websites. Yes! Back in 2000 I was using good old dial-up services and hand-coding HTML (that I’ve taught myself) and creating web content. It wasn’t til graduation that I had an idea of what direction I wanted to take. Enter Graphic Design. I loved it.
The concepts, the color theory, and typography! Oh, the typography! It wasn’t til my second semester that I took a couple of Photography classes that was required for my BS, and I kid you not… I walked into that room and was floored with all the shiny new toys. I wanted to use everything! And when the time came to use strobes, I was in heaven. After those classes, I proceeded to buy my first camera (crop sensor) and a couple of kit lenses.
Anyway, long story short, graduated, found a position as a production artist while honing my skills as a novice photographer with products, macros and landscaping capture. After some time I became pregnant with my 1st born, and well you’ve read what happened after he was born. Seriously that camera never left my hands… Every single milestone I captured. After my son turned 12 months I had friends asking me for shoots as well and how could I say no.
After that? Well, it was time to legitimize! Workshop upon workshops, from newborn workshops to studio lighting workshops, insurance, business licenses, permits, equipment rentals, marketing, brand creation (which I like to think my BS in Graphic Design helped) and my now in-home studio space. To think my journey is still not over! I am growing every day and learning something new every time!
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s a bit of both actually! It’s always a struggle in a market that’s so overly saturated, but with every business, you just need to find your niche that something that sets you apart from this other photographer 20 minutes from you.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Willow & Ferns Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
Willow & Ferns Photography offers studio and on-location sessions. I specialize in newborn & children with occasional maternity and family clients. I am known for my styled newborn sessions as well as my elaborate cake smashes. When I look back at the beginning, I am just flabbergasted on how much I have grown as a business owner.
Five years ago, I was a woman who had a vision, and I was going to make that happen with my crop sensor camera and my nifty 50MM to now a lady who creates custom sessions with her full-size camera and ART lenses haha. I like to think my edge is my creativity, especially when it comes to my cake smashes.
My attention to detail and I mean the details! Everything is thought out right down to the plastic ornaments that are used to create those fake bubbles in a ‘mermaid’ themed cake smash. The amount of props that I have accumulated over the years is ridiculous!
You should see my studio and garage (which is slowly being taken over by those tissue paper pom poms)
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.willowandferns.com
- Phone: (760)442-8488
- Email: willowandferns@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowandferns/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/willowandfernsphotography
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