Q & A - Phoenix, AZ Family Photographer

Yesterday I asked on Facebook what would people like to know about me. I've been wanting to share more about me on my Photography blog, but have a total writers block. So I thought it would be fun and here are the questions asked...

Marco Samardzija -

"What made you want to do photography, since you got a degree in psychology. To me, they are opposites. One is an art the other is a science."


In 2004 I got a BA in Psychology at ASU. (Go Devils!) When I started college I was a pre-business major. First year of college I took Psy 101 for one of my general credits.

I didn't think it would change my life.

The class was interesting, but I wasn't going to change my major because of it. Then, the following semester I took a Social Psychology class from Professor Steven Neuberg. It changed my life. As a pre-business major I was not having fun learning about economics and what not, it was work to understand it. Psychology was different. I wanted to go home after class and read the textbook just like any other good book out there. I loved it! Professor Neuberg made it fun and interesting and I just couldn't get enough of it. So, I switched my major! After graduating, I worked for The Child Crisis Center as a Healthy Families representative... in other words I was a social worker for the AZ Healthy Families Program. It was one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done. I loved thinking I was helping to make a difference in people's life. Getting people to trust you with their problems and open up wasn't easy, but over time I felt the families I worked with trusted me and allowed me to help them.

On the other hand, I've always loved photography since I was a little child, as a matter of fact I've been published... (ha!) ... in two of my high school yearbooks. I laugh because I was talking to some friends last night who were telling me I should blog about this. I loved being part my high school yearbook team and helping conserve the memories from the years I spent there. I was known by my peers to have a camera in hand at all times. You just never know when the best picture opportunity may come and so I got some great pictures published. Having children ignited by passion for photography once more. I wanted to document everything about my children, so that I may remember the everyday things when they are grown.

So to answer the question. I see more similarities in psychology and photography than differences. They are both an art and they both impact people's lives. There is some science to both, but you can approach them differently depending on the situation. I love to think that I'm making a difference and helping people document important events/periods in their lives.

Life is short, so document it.

Faria Munmun - "How did you become a successful photographer/entrepreneur?"

To be honest, I'm not sure how to answer this. Success is subjective. When I started photographing people I just wanted to take pictures, but quickly realized that to stay in business I needed to become more business savvy. After all, I was spending so much time away from my family that I needed to make it worth it for me. I love doing photography, but I love my family more. I will never get back what I miss out on. Melissa Jill just yesterday tweeted "Don't start a photo business unless you enjoy business. Less than 20% of your time will be spent on photography if you want to be successful." That said, also take care of your clients! My business is word of mouth, meaning my clients refer other clients. I don't ask for this, they do it because they loved the experience they had with me.

Sharon Cherry - sent me an email with questions about doing a birth and I thought I would share my answers here. To check out the Birth post click here.

Having delivered three kids of my own, the last thing I wanted to do during a birth was have the flash going off. I thought it would be distracting for everyone including the mother and doctor. I was already in the market for a new camera a couple of months ago and decided to bite the bullet and purchase the d700. I already had the 50m 1.4 lens which works great in low light. These two things made the shoot possible. Most of the time my ISO was between 3500-5000 and I shot at 1.4 most of the time. This could not have been done on my d5000 or even the d300, ISO quality is just not there.

As far as when to go to the hospital, I asked Trisha to let me know when she was 6cm. I determine this because I knew it was her 3rd birth and the hospital was close to me. Though she assured me many many times that her labors are long and I would probably be waiting, that wasn't the case this time.

How to price a Birth session is hard. You really don't know what you are in for. When I was in labor with my first child it probably took me about 8 hours to get from 6 to 10cm. So, I'm still working this out.

Thank you guys for asking questions! If you are reading this post and you would like more posts like this leave a comment. I would love to do another one!