Our Maternity Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes with Sophia Barrett Studios

 

How did you get started in photography?I used to take my Dad's old Minolta while he was at work and take pictures of random things. I knew nothing of dark rooms so CVS was my best friend. I had album upon album of images from my childhood. Before we got married, my husband bought me my first entry level DSLR and the rest was history.When did you start Sophia Barrett Studios and what was it like starting your own photography business? Are there certain areas that you specialize in?We started Sophia Barrett Studios in January 2011. Derrick and I studied and practiced a whole lot together. We would randomly leave the house to go practice and drive around for interesting photo ops. From the beginning, we challenged ourselves to not only be “Natural Light” photographers but photographers that could cover a wide range of surroundings and situations. We used strobes or flashes with different light modifiers to see how we could manipulate light. We started photographing our friends and family which lead to a few free weddings to get our feet wet. God truly blessed us because everything snowballed quickly. Before we knew it, we were photographing multiple weddings per year as well as portrait sessions. Weddings and Glamour photography are my favorite things to photograph.What do you enjoy most about being a photographer? About owning your own business?What we enjoy most about photography is the finished product. A price can’t truly be placed on what we give our clients. We are freezing moments for clients in ways that help they relive moments that are often forgotten! How incredible is that. I recently sat down with a client and friend who looked over the images of her firstborn's birth at the hospital. The look on her face was truly priceless! She didn’t even remember much of what happened until I showed her the images. When she saw them, forgotten moments suddenly shot to the forefront of her mind. We laughed and came close to tears. That to me is an irreplaceable feeling.How does it feel when you get to photograph various stages in one couple's life (engagement, wedding, maternity, newborn and growing family photos)?First off, it lets me know that we are doing our jobs successfully. We consider ourselves “Emotional Photographers”. If clients are coming back then we are helping them feel through our images. God gave us this wonderful talent and while it is a career, it's also a ministry in and of itself. It's also awesome because they usually become life-long friends!Do you have any advice for those who may be looking to get started in photography and for those thinking of starting their own photography business?Get all the challenging things out of the way in the beginning. Don’t learn with handicaps. Therefore learn to shoot in manual mode first. When I learned to drive a car, my father made me learn how to drive his stick shift. After I learned to drive that, I could drive anyone's car without a problem. If I learned to drive the automatic first, I probably would never have taken the time to learn stick shift.

So we noticed you're a naturalista too! What's your natural hair story?I LOOOOOVE being natural! I started to transition right after I got married in May 2011. My husband loves it too! My hair texture doesn’t hold twist outs very easily so I tend to do stretched wash and go’s often. I also love straightening my hair safely with curlformers or wash and sets.