Full Transcript for Capturing Magic: An Exclusive Journey with Altlanta Photographer Marcie Reif

a photographer out of Atlanta. She specializes in newborn and family photos, and she's also a teacher in photography and a Tamaron professional. If is there anything I missed? Marcy, I bet there's a lot more than what I have. Just. And no, I think you summed it up really well in just a couple words. Cool. But yeah, mostly kids, newborns, families, outdoor portraits. I have an Atlanta studio, so we do a little bit of awesome, awesome. So a few of the listeners could probably already guess what it is that you enjoy most about photography. But I'd love to hear what you have to say and let you answer that question. Okay, well, I love pretty much everything about it. I used to be an elementary teacher and did that for ten years. So I think just having that to compare to being a photographer full time and just the difference of being at a job all day. Now, I love being a teacher, and obviously you're not like sitting at a desk all day when you're an elementary teacher, but just the flexibility that you have as a photographer, the creativity, making your own schedule, just getting to make dreams and chase them. And I feel like that is probably my favorite part, always thinking about what's the next thing I want to do and then figuring out how I'm going to do it. Yeah. How long have you been doing photography and how did you get started in photography? So I've been doing photography for twelve years. I started when actually it's 13 years. I keep track of it by my kids age because when my first daughter was born, I became just obsessed with taking her picture. And I had a camera, but it wasn't anything fancy and I had a phone and everything, but I never stopped taking her picture. And I really, really wanted a camera just to take her picture. I had no dreams or aspirations of having a photography business or anything like that. I just wanted to take pictures of her. And so I did get a camera. I got a Canon 60 D and just using the kit lens that came with it, my father in law bought me a class like an in person photography class because he saw how hard I was trying and how into it I was. And he has a photography background, too, so we were kind of sharing that. And I took the class and I just took off from there. I just never stopped practicing it. Kind of slowly, other people started asking me to take pictures, and I was an elementary teacher at the time, and I certainly could use some extra money. So I opened a small business called it giggle prints photography. I really only intended on taking pictures of kids. I never again did not see it growing, and I loved being a teacher, so I didn't have any aspirations of stopping that either. One thing led to the next, and I would say five years into the business, I finally stepped out of the classroom and started doing photography full time. And that was in 2017, and I've just been going strong ever since. Oh, that's awesome. I can relate to that a little bit with her in the sense of, I mean, I've been doing photography before she came along, but having those moments that you want to capture. Do you have a favorite lens or look or favorite subject? I do have a favorite lens right now is the Tamaron 35 to 150. I've had it, I think, two years now. Pretty much whenever it came out, I got it right away. It is perfect for me and I think a lot of photographers, but it's kind of like the true all in one. I use it for my outdoor portraits, I use it for my studio. I use it for sports, literally a landscape, travel. Whenever we go on a trip now, I really can just take that lens. I use it for everything, but I'm the type of person that gets very stuck on one lens at a time. So it's like I'll be really into one lens until the next one comes out, and then I'm really into that lens. So before the 35 to 150, I was really attached to the 70 to 180, and that's also a Tamaron lens. And I shoot with a Sony mirrorless. So these are the Tamaron mirrorless mount emount lenses. And before that, when I was with my canon DSlr, I was really hooked on the 85. So in the end, my style is more of that portrait, longer focal length. But the 35 part of the 150 is perfect for my studio. So that's why that one is kind of the best of both worlds for me. Nice. No, that's cool. So you would probably say like that longer. You still like the 85, that standard portrait like look or focal length, especially for outdoors. Now in my studio, I don't have the space so much to shoot with an 85, and it's not necessarily necessary in my studio, but that's where I'm more at the 35. And that just works better because I can only back up so far. So now that I have the 35 focal range on that lens, I use it even more when I'm outside. I get closer up to families, and when they're kind of doing the more lifestyle shots or making each other laugh, I'll get really close to a kid laughing really hard or something and just get those single shots where I could still do that with the 85 or the 70 to 180, but I would just have to be backed up a little bit. Now I get a little closer to them. So I've kind of fallen back in love with that focal range as well as the longer focal range, which I used to stay pretty much exclusively with. Nice. The next question I usually ask people is, like, a favorite project or a recent project, and, I don't know, maybe you've had projects or you have, like, a personal project, or you can kind of answer that however you'd like. Okay. One of my favorite things that I do in my business is a retreat for women, and it's called the road Trippers retreat. And right now it's launching for 2024. So it's been a big focus in the last couple of weeks, and next year we're going to Utah. But it's something I pour a lot of energy into. A lot of my passion goes into it. I love teaching. I love being with other women. I love traveling. I love being in beautiful places. So it kind of combines a lot of my favorite things. And right now we just do it once a year. And that's mostly just from time

constraints, having my own kids, going into other workshops and other times of the year and teaching. And anytime you leave home when you've got little ones at home, it's hard. So something I love to do, but I can't do it as much as I want to right now. But I think down the road, when my kids are older, we'll be able to add on some things like that. And in the future, hoping to, in the near future, hoping to host more workshops in my studio in Atlanta, so I don't actually have to travel. People can come to me. That's something I'm working on, too. Oh, that's awesome. That's really cool. I think that's important to have those retreats like that. You're in those groups and you're able to bounce ideas off of each other, and I think that's really cool. They're awesome. Favorite subject to photograph. Okay. My favorite subject to photograph is still my daughter. I have two kids. I have a son as well. He doesn't like to be photographed as much. He would be another favorite, but it's not his favorite. So my daughter and I, she was my first subject I learned to photograph, and we have been doing this together now for 13 years. And there were some periods of time where it wasn't as fun because she just didn't want to do it. But we're kind of back to a time where we love to go out and do it. And she's super creative, too, so she gives me really good ideas, and she's very good at it, and it's so rewarding. And when I come home from doing something like that, I cannot wait to edit it, and it just makes me really happy. And when we go on vacations and stuff, we'll set aside time where we'll go somewhere. We just went to Zion National park. We took our kids out there, and we made sure to set aside some time to go explore and where I could take pictures of her, and we have fun doing it. Now, that does not mean that we don't clash a little bit and we don't have a little back and forth on the outfits and all that, but that's all part of mother daughter. But she really still is. I tell her that all the time. She really still is my favorite subject to photograph. Oh, that's awesome. That's cool. The clashing. That's funny. But typical, right? Very typical. Yeah. If you could change, I think this is always a fun question to hear the answer because everyone's answer is a little bit different. But if you could change anything about the photography field or the industry, what might that be? Well, it's a bit of a deeper question, I think one of the biggest challenges that I have, and I don't know if this really answers it, but I always have these really big ideas, and when I execute them, there's always so much challenge to it because it's like we want the reward so fast. This isn't really an answer to that question, but if I could change anything, it would be just easier to get to the end result, if that makes any sense. Like anytime I know I want to do something big, I know that there's going to be a lot of growth happening while we get to the end. So selfishly, I wish things could just move a little faster. And sometimes I'm even hesitant to jump into it because I know what I'm going to have to go through to get to the end. And then if it works out and it's something that. Something like the retreat, it gets easier as you continue to do it. But as far as anything would change. I don't know. I need to think about that. No, I like that. That was a good answer. Okay. I'm sure even just doing a podcast, you know, anything that you do that you set out to do something, it never goes as fast or as well or as seamless as we want it to. Yeah, that's actually kind of where my thought was, and then it went away. But yes. No, it's like you'd think. Because I think this is episode probably 32 or 33. Okay. But you'd think that by the time I've done this many episodes, I'd have it down super smooth. And it's a lot smoother than the first three or four, but it's nowhere near as smooth as it might be when I met 100 episodes. Yes. No, I completely agree with that. I think sometimes we want to learn everything super fast. We want to know the information right away, but it takes time sometimes, which is not a bad thing. No. What goals for photography or for life do you have? What's that look like? My main goals for my photography are to continue to do it and to continue to grow. My Atlanta studio, I've had it for less than a year. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm so thankful to have it, but it takes a lot of work to keep those doors open. So continuing to grow that it's going so well, and I just want to have it for years. I don't want this to be like a quick little. I've invested a lot of money into it, so that's a huge one. Just to keep those doors open and not only have it pay for itself, but that it brings in lots of money. Continuing to host workshops and stuff that can be at the studio. The studio is perfect for it. There's lots of space there. So getting that going, starting that up, I've poured a lot of effort and time into the retreats, and now I want to pour some of that effort and time into building workshops. Just that happen either monthly at the studio or quarterly or something, because it's almost a waste not to be doing that in that space. So those are my big goals right now, is the studio is also great because when you're a portrait photographer, a lot of your work is based around the time of year and the weather. So you're really busy in the fall, you're really busy in the spring. Where I live, summer is really hot, so we don't do a lot of outdoor portraits here because people just would sweat to death. And then in the winter, again, everything's kind of dead and the grass is brown and the leaves are off the trees. We don't get pretty snow and stuff like that here. So that's not a busy time. So one of the main reasons I opened the studio was I needed to build work that happened all year round, and that would be your maternity and your newborn. That's something that's happening all the time. That's not a

seasonal type of work. So that was one of the main goals for that. No, that's, know I'm in Utah and so the interesting thing is you don't necessarily think about that, how there's places that don't have the best season for doing pictures outside all the time. And so I think that's pretty. Where do you live in Utah? Do you know where Ogden is or. I'm north of Salt Lake by maybe 40 minutes. Okay. Yeah. Well, you live in the most beautiful state. I keep going back to Utah because I think it is just be the. If I could live anywhere else, it would be Utah, I guess. I have another question normally that I ask, but I want to ask one before that one. And, I mean, it kind of falls in line with this second question, but I'm going to ask them in like two different parts, I guess. And that is for someone that wants to start a studio or have a studio, what advice or tips would you suggest? Well, you need to be financially ready for it. It's something that, well, depending on the studio, depending on the cost, but it needs to be something. It's almost like buying a home. You need to look at how much money you're bringing in and make sure that you can afford it. The one thing I will say about having it, though, is just having it. It does bring in business that you would not normally have. So I've always been a pretty big risk taker with my business and it has paid off. But these decisions are scary. I wasn't doing newborn and maternity sessions on the regular before I had that studio in January or February when it's cold outside. So just knowing all of the sessions I have on my calendar now, purely because I have that space, has been great. So it will bring in work that you wouldn't otherwise have, but you also have to have a lot of things in place. Like my website helps me out a lot. I don't rely on Instagram or Facebook for my clients to book me. I rely on my website for Google to help connect me with the right people who are looking for those things who live near Atlanta or live near my studio. So having a well functioning website I think is important to help bring in the business. So you got to have some things in place. But if you're ready for it, then I think it's a great move and I'm so thankful I did it. Nice. Awesome. I think sometimes, and you could probably talk more on this, but on just like the business aspect of it because I feel like studio photographers definitely have that business side. Like maybe not down to a t, but a lot more I's are dotted and a lot more t's are crossed than. Yeah, because you have overhead costs. Yeah. My studio costs more than our mortgage on our house. So that's a scary thing. But I was making the money. I just had to be smart about it and I was ready for it. It was time for something like that. And I'm in my house right now, but the room I'm sitting in we had made into a studio and then this other room that's next to it, we made into a studio. So I was doing studio work. It just was in my house, but it wasn't to the level of what I wanted. It wasn't big enough. So when I found my studio, it was very scary. I wanted it so bad, but I wasn't sleeping at night because I was so worried about it, which I think is just how big decisions go. But I knew that I could afford it. But I knew that I was going to have to work really hard to continue to afford it. I had money in my savings and things like that, but I needed to work really hard and I still am working really hard to make sure that everything, like you said, the business side, everything is functioning like it should. So that if somebody is looking for a newborn photography that lives 1 mile down the road from my studio, that they're going to make sure they see it on. Yeah. Because people who tend to have the money to afford photography, I believe that they're more likely to go to Google and start to look for photographers that way than they are going to go to Instagram. Unless somebody they know and it's like a referral thing that's different, that might connect you through Instagram or Facebook or whatever, but somebody who doesn't have that is most likely going to go to Google and that's where the business side comes in. That's where you kind of got to know what you're doing there to make sure that the business can find you. Yeah. Did you know that stuff? Or did you have to find someone to help you with that client? Like connecting all the dots with your website and Google? I learned it for sure from somebody over the years, business coaching classes, just having a website. I recently at the road Trippers retreat, I had brought a girl, a speaker in who is just a website designer. Her name is Bernal Westbrook and she's awesome. And I first met her at a conference I was at and she spoke all about the power of a website. She builds them and she was so amazing. And for all the years that I had been hearing this, I had never heard all the things she said and I was writing them down as fast as I could. So I actually asked her to completely start over my website. I believed in what she said so much that I started completely over with my website. That was a big investment too. But at the time I did not have my studio. This was like in November or December that I think that I made that first payment. And then in January, kind of out of nowhere, the studio kind of fell into my lap and I didn't get the studio until May 1. But January is when I realized it was available. And then I started the process of signing the lease and everything like that. But anyway, it wasn't going to be available till May 1. So luckily when I had signed up with her and while we were in the middle of making the website, the studio became available and then we could kind of redo the new website based on having a studio. So kind of got lucky in that way. A timing. But I definitely understand SEO and the power of blogging. I use Pinterest a lot to help bring traffic to my website. So I definitely understand the power of all that before I signed

up with her. But I knew that she would have my website ready to do all the things that I wanted to do. And it did. It worked. I mean, the second we hit publish, I was getting more inquiries into my website than I ever had before. No, that's awesome. You can be really great at photography and make no money at all, or you could be really great at business, not good at photography and make a ton of money. So it's true, you do have to have both, but the business end is really important for making money. That's true. That's something that I've learned over the years and I think continue to learn but yes, for sure, this is kind of falling in line again with the previous questions, but do you have any tips or advice for anyone beginning in photography or wanting to start their photography career? Yes. I think the best thing you can do is practice a lot. Think getting with a mentor or a coach is really important. Getting advice from people who have experience and not necessarily somebody online that might be in the same peer group as you, where you guys are both just kind of muddling through. I think you need to find a mentor, somebody who's been doing it for a while, has some experience that can get you through and I think you'll reach your goals a lot quicker. But practicing, I really recommend model calls. I still do them myself when I either need to learn something or I need to gain something. Whether it's experience, practicing something, I don't know anything. I think that they're great. Even when I was kind of redoing my website, I did a bunch of model calls because I had a different look that I was going for. I have a client closet that I invested a ton of money in and I wanted people to be wearing those clothes. And so model calls are not just for brand new photographers. Model calls are for anybody who has something that they need to gain where it's a win win for both groups. So I think that's a good idea. And, yeah, just keep learning and just know that you're going to have a lot of self doubt and a lot of insecurities and a lot of confidence issues when you're putting yourself out there with your art and things, that you're always going to be watching somebody who's better than you do it. And that's always going to be kind of like, well, you're not good enough, or, well, you're not as good as them yet, so you shouldn't be doing this. But the thing is that those voices never go away because there's always going to be somebody better than you. So you either have to learn how to not listen to them or understand that they're probably going to be in the back of your head and you still need to keep moving forward with your goals because if you wait for those voices to go away, you'll never move forward. Yes, absolutely. I completely agree. Not just think, but I completely agree with that because you might get recognized for all these different things, but a month from that moment of being recognized for stuff, the self doubt can creep itself back in. Oh, yeah. I used to think that I would watch other photographers get like a feature in a magazine or win an award. And I used to think if I just could get that, I would feel so much better. And then the first time I was in a magazine, I mean, it felt great or whatever, or I was publishing something, but then I was like, I still feel exactly the same, that self confidence. And I do think that I do have self confidence in it, but only because I've been doing it for a long time. And I know that it just doesn't really these things that we think are going to change our self confidence, they don't. I think the self confidence comes from experience and just having success within your own business, not necessarily the outward awards and things like that. I don't think that those really make you more confident moving forward with your business. I think they're great and they make you feel good. But thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to be on here. Where can people find your work? You have your website you want so people can find my work on my website, marcyrife.com, my Instagram Marcyrife underscore photography and Facebook and yeah, that would be the best place. Awesome. I'll link those in the show notes. Okay, sounds great. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of your photography podcast. We hope you enjoyed the insights and tips shared today. If you found this episode valuable, be sure to subscribe so you never miss out on future conversations with amazing photographers and industry experts. And here's a quick favor to ask if you love what we're doing here, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. 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