Digital photos are great in terms of portability and immediacy. But tangible photos that you can hold in your hand have so much more meaning. Think about the difference between a forgotten USB stick languishing in a drawer somewhere and a photo album filled with photos that you can touch. It’s a whole different vibe, isn’t it? This is why our guest today chose the IPS photography model for her business.

In today’s episode, I’m interviewing Ambreia Turner, an award winning maternity and motherhood portrait photographer in the Washington, D.C. area. Ambreia shares why she chose the in person sales (IPS) model for her photography business, the value of tangible photos over digital ones, and her advice on setting and maintaining business boundaries in order to find true work/life balance.

Ambreia also shares how photographers and creatives can discover their zone of genius in order to feel fulfilled in their lives.

What’s in this episode:

• [05:21] How Ambreia got into motherhood and maternity photography and found her niche
• [07:30] Why you should not only be creating incredible images, but you should also be creating an amazing photo experience for your clients
• [09:50] Why Ambreia chose the in person sales (IPS) model for her business, plus the value of tangible photos over digital ones
• [17:12] Ambreia’s advice on maintaining business boundaries and finding balance as a mother and business owner
• [22:59] How to overcome client hesitation during the IPS meeting and makes sales easier
• [26:51] How photographers can discover their zone of genius to create a life they’re excited about

Tune in to this episode for a reminder to have tangible photos printed out as keepsakes.

SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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Ambreia is also joining us in this year’s {online} Newborn Retreat with her class Become a One Light Wonder: Maternity Portraits With One Light

Resources Mentioned

Pic-Time

Wooden Banana

CamRanger

Meet Ambreia 

Ambreia Turner is an award winning maternity and motherhood portrait photographer based in the Washington, D.C. area. She’s a mother of four children in multiple phases of life who dove into starting her business right after birthing her third child. She believes that artists can thrive in business and have happy clients without burning out. Ambreia absolutely loves to spend her free time with her family, traveling and experiencing new restaurants.

Connect with Ambreia

Visit Ambreia’s Website

Follow Ambreia on Instagram

Watch Ambreia on YouTube

Did this episode inspire you to get tangible photos printed as keepsakes? Check out this episode Creating Photography Packages That Feed Your Artistic Soul (and Your Wallet!) with Maria Arellano which offers you even more insight on finding alignment in your business!

Transcript

AS Ep 190_FINAL.mp3

[00:00:00] Ambreia Turner I use the word tangible a lot in my business so that clients understand that this is something they can touch, something that will live in their homes. Because oftentimes the focus on digital doesn’t really portray the value that we see in our digital products. For us, our digital products may be worth $1,000 or more, but to a client, they see it as an Instagram post. Well, why do I have to pay this much for an Instagram post? And in reality, you’re paying to be able to reproduce this image over and over and over again. 

[00:00:42] Lisa DiGeso Welcome to the Art and Soul Show where we dive into heart opening chats on photography, business, life, and that messy in-between. I’m your host, Lisa DiGeso, a mom, a photographer and entrepreneur, and I’ll be sharing honest conversations and advice for photographers with insight on mindset, entrepreneurship and creativity. The goal of this podcast is for you to be able to gain insights and strategies that will get you real results. Because let’s face it, having a photography business can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. This is the place you can go when you need a boost of encouragement, a kick in the pants and inspiration to pick up your camera. This is the Art and Soul Show. Hello, my beautiful friends. Welcome back to the show. Today, I am super excited to dive into today’s conversation with Ambreia Turner. Ambreia is an award winning maternity and motherhood portrait photographer based in the Washington, D.C. area. She’s a mother of four children in multiple phases of life who dove into starting her business right after birthing her third child. She believes that artists can thrive in business and have happy clients without burning out. Ambreia absolutely loves to spend her free time with her family, traveling and experiencing new restaurants. So let’s dive into our conversation and share like who you are and what you’re super passionate about. 

[00:02:06] Ambreia Turner So I am Breia and I am a mom of four, so I’m super passionate about motherhood. I love capturing motherhood and maternity portraits because I believe that this is like the beginning of our legacy. Being in such a patriarchal society that focuses on a man’s last name and a man’s lineage and legacy, I believe that it’s so important to focus on women that are making their own mark and creating their own families and how we contribute to legacy as a whole. So that’s what I’m super passionate about. 

[00:02:43] Lisa DiGeso I love that. So you got started with photography with the birth of your third child. So how old is your little one now? 

[00:02:48] Ambreia Turner So she is almost seven and I feel that her personality is just so big. And we recently had a daughter that graduated high school. But on our way to celebrate her for dinner, my daughter was talking about like what she wants her future husband to be like. And she was like, Well, he’s going to have to cook and he’s going to have to cut the grass and he’s going to have to find me a car. And I was just, her personality is so big right now. She is very into tumbling. So she flips all over the house. She’s always trying to, like, make her body stand up against the wall or against the couch. And it’s crazy when I think about the fact that she has never really seen me work a full time job outside of my business. It blows my mind. Yeah. 

[00:03:36] Lisa DiGeso She’s watching you be an entrepreneur. 

[00:03:39] Ambreia Turner Yeah. 

[00:03:39] Lisa DiGeso And, like, isn’t that so powerful? 

[00:03:41] Ambreia Turner And build my own legacy yet my own schedule. And she was like, Mommy, do you have to work this weekend? Do you have to work today? And you know, sometimes it’s no, sometimes it’s yes. 

[00:03:52] Lisa DiGeso You know, it’s funny because I’ve never actually really thought about that because I have. I’ve been the sole income for our family for the past 12 years, and my son has never really seen his dad go to work. But he works obviously for me and he works like at home and he’s like, he’s a he does all the domestic stuff because to be completely honest, I’m terrible at that. That’s not my that is not my strength. So I get to go to work and do what I love. But he’s never seen that. And he’s just seen me like being an entrepreneur or self-employed. 

[00:04:22] Ambreia Turner It’s a beautiful norm. Yeah, beautiful norm, because a lot of kids don’t get to experience that. Yeah, they don’t get to experience their parents making their own schedules and being able to stay home when they’re sick or be able to drop things at the time when things go awry in the family. Yeah. 

[00:04:45] Lisa DiGeso It’s powerful. 

[00:04:46] Ambreia Turner It’s powerful. It’s very powerful. It’s funny because my husband, although he does work outside of the home and he works in like cybersecurity, sometimes he’ll message me or email me and he says, we need some more funding so that I can leave my job and work for Ambreia Artistry tomorrow. Yeah, honey, eventually. Eventually. You know, there’s so many artists and photographers that have been able to retire their, you know, their partners, and I think that’s an amazing thing. 

[00:05:16] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I think so, too. It’s pretty cool. 

[00:05:18] Ambreia Turner It is pretty cool. Yeah. 

[00:05:20] Lisa DiGeso Power to us. I love it. So tell me how you, like, got your start and got into motherhood and maternity photography because you really made a niche there. 

[00:05:30] Ambreia Turner Thank you. So I’ve actually always had a passion for photography. When I was a little girl at my grandmother’s house and at my own home, we always had photos everywhere. It was the norm for us to exchange photos with our, you know, our family, our aunts, uncles have photos printed for our grandmother and consider them when we’re ordering prints. But it actually really started about 14 years ago when I decided to pick up just a Nikon point and click camera yet document my child or my children. At the time, my daughter was four and my son was a newborn and I just wanted to take cool pictures of them and dabble in making them into black and white pictures. And of course, back then sepia was a real thing. Yeah. Oh, gosh. 

[00:06:22] Lisa DiGeso Selective color. 

[00:06:25] Ambreia Turner In there. Oh, my gosh. So I had a lot of horrible pictures back then. But in 2016, after having left my corporate job, my husband asked me, you know, what would it really take to get your photography off the ground? And that was the first time that I felt really dream about being a full time photographer. Although I had interned with the wedding photographer and studied television and film, that was really where it was like, okay, it’s a fork in the road. I can find a different job or I can take this permission to figure it out, to make my mistakes and learn on my feet. And so I did. After I gave birth to our daughter, Emory, in August of 2016, October 6th, I shot my first model session for my business to create my portfolio. And from there it’s just been photography full time. I love it. I love it so great. 

[00:07:30] Lisa DiGeso Well, your images are beautiful. And how important would you say is not only just creating incredible images, but also creating the amazing experience for your clients? 

[00:07:41] Ambreia Turner The image and the experience go hand in hand. I actually have a long history of working in customer service and guest experience. Actually, after I finished completing my degree, I worked for Target as an executive team leader and I was over everything that a guest could see in the stores. So I really got to hone in on guest experience making things right for the guests and looking at the experience from the guests perspective for the store. And so that translated very heavily into my business acumen for my company. And I wanted to create an experience that pulled down a lot of the boundaries and a lot of the obstacles that moms incur when they’re wanting this experience. They want the photos, the feeling, and that gown that I really like, it’s like $500 to hire makeup artist is another $250. And then I have to pay the photographer. And so my studio actually offers wardrobe as well as makeup artistry as a part of our client experience. And then we don’t create a DIY project for our client. We actually go ahead and do the IPS process. We create wall art and heirlooms for our clients. I love the design process, but I know that that’s not everybody’s not. So being able to create that for my clients is beyond any of my wildest dreams. 

[00:09:14] Lisa DiGeso I love that. Well, when I when I do research for my guests, I always like, check out their websites and everything. And what I loved about your website was you are so clear about what you do, what you offer for your clients, and how that you’re there to serve them and make it like this amazing luxury experience that’s like completely taking care of them and like the how that was conveyed. I was like, You nailed that. You nailed it. 

[00:09:40] Ambreia Turner Thank you. Thank you. It’s just been, again, six years in the making, understanding what their pain points are and trying to remove those obstacles for our clients. 

[00:09:51] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, love that. So you are an IPS model and can you maybe share that your how you’ve made that decision that you wanted to serve your clients in that way as well as maybe your process for it? 

[00:10:02] Ambreia Turner Yes. So as I said, I started my business over 6 years ago when my daughter was a newborn and coming from a position where I had a salary that my family could really rely on to moving to being straight commission. It’s so funny because I had this very spiritual moment when I was in between those opportunities and I sold life insurance for a little while. And I remember driving into the office and, you know, in my spirit, I heard God say, So you’re going to into this job, the straight commission. But you won’t trust me to start your business. And I mean, talk about literally having your spiritual spot completely blown up. And so when I finally made that leap, it was really important for me to try and create as much stability and predictability with my pay as possible. So even though I started out trying to sell prints and products online, I realized how much of a pain that was for me. You know, letting a gallery expire and then the client reaching out to have it open back up. Yeah. Having clients be uncertain about what size was what and what was the difference between this product versus that product. Now, I think that platforms such as like Pic-Time do an amazing job with being able to showcase what products look like to gallery guests. But at that point in time, we’re talking 2016 and it was not that way, you know. So I quickly learned that waiting for a client to order $100 online was not for me. And I quickly moved into that IPS model. Learning about the profitability, being able to create the same product twice if you make a mistake. Being able to leverage your clients in a way that helps them feel confident in the money that they’re spending and making sure that they are documenting their legacy in a tangible way. Yeah, I use the word tangible a lot in my business so that clients understand that this is something they can touch, something that will live in their homes, because oftentimes the focus on digital doesn’t really portray the value that we see in our digital products. For us, our digital products may be worth $1,000 or more, but to a client they see it as an Instagram post. Well, why do I have to pay this much for an Instagram post? And in reality, you’re paying to be able to reproduce this image over and over and over again. In our experience, most of the time, the clients are not even using it past social media, they’re not printing it, they’re not displaying it. And before you know it, they need another session. Yeah. God forbid something happens and their social media account gets lost or hacked or something like that to where they can no longer access those memories. I’ve always tell my clients, if that happens to be your experience, I don’t want to be anywhere around for the people that don’t have something tangible. Yeah, I want all of my clients to have something tangible so that in case of the worst happening to your digital memories, you already have something tangible. 

[00:13:36] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. You got a plan B and you’d like and we’ve already preplanned it. Yeah, it’s interesting because, you know, it actually happened to me very recently is I had a client from 2011 contact me and she said her USB had gone corrupt. She had never backed up her newborn session file and she was so upset she was like desperate. And because I am a file hoarder, I have never deleted a photo I’ve ever taken. So I was able to go find the files for her. And actually, because I’m pretty darn organized, I found it within like 10 minutes. Wow. But like, it really was like, such a light bulb moment of like, wow. Okay, But did she even ever print them? Right. Like, do you have copies of these? And then I started thinking even more. I’m like, Do I print photos? Does my son have photos of me with him that he’ll be looking at when he’s, like 70, 80 years old, showing his grandchildren? 

[00:14:37] Ambreia Turner Right. 

[00:14:37] Lisa DiGeso Do I have that for him? And I can’t say I do right now. 

[00:14:41] Ambreia Turner Right. Right. It’s definitely a confidence building moment when I can show my clients that I value this enough to print this and to share my personal albums with them. Yeah, I have my son Zander’s Newborn album at our studio. I have, you know, blog posts with my own wall art. Yeah, I have one of our family albums here in my office that I share with my clients in their consultation so that they know and understand that this is something I’m passionate about. Yeah, I love that and that I believe in it for myself. So why wouldn’t I believe in it for you? 

[00:15:18] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I love that. And you know, it’s interesting. What comes up for me is my hang up is that I’m like, my work wasn’t good enough back then, so it’s not good enough for an album, which is so silly. Like, isn’t that crazy? Like, that’s silly, right? That I would I would put my own ego and my, like, lack of confidence on my early work. And I would take that away from my son having a memory. Yeah, That’s terrible. I need to like. I’m going to fix that one. It’s like a little therapy session for me, girl. 

[00:15:47] Ambreia Turner Right. 

[00:15:51] Lisa DiGeso Oh, my goodness. Okay, I’ll be changing that. 

[00:15:55] Ambreia Turner Yeah, I’ll hold you to it. So please do. Ability to email. 

[00:16:00] Lisa DiGeso Did you make your albums yet? Like you need to send. Me a picture. 

[00:16:04] Ambreia Turner I need to see it. I need to see it.  

[00:16:06] Lisa DiGeso And it’s funny because I actually just found an amazing album company that I am obsessed with. I love Like, they have these, like, velvet covers and like they are like, buttery, soft and like, not super expensive. Yeah, it’s actually the company is called Wooden Banana for listeners out there. And yeah, if you want to just check them out. I ordered some samples and they were beautiful. Wow. Yeah. 

[00:16:28] Ambreia Turner Going to take a no get out. 

[00:16:30] Lisa DiGeso It’s like this. Like, almost like a crushed velvet cover. Yeah, I just really like luxe and pretty. 

[00:16:36] Ambreia Turner That’s hilarious. I actually tell my client. Well, the primary thing that I offer to my clients is leather covers, because I tell them that all of the other materials are not Cheeto proof. 

[00:16:49] Lisa DiGeso Oh, my gosh. Good point. 

[00:16:51] Ambreia Turner Kids love Cheetos, they love Doritos. They love the things that are sticky and can transform different fabrics. And so I typically sell them leather only. 

[00:17:01] Lisa DiGeso That’s brilliant. 

[00:17:02] Ambreia Turner Any leather cover that you want. But we’re not going to do the other stuff. We want it to last for a long time. Smart. 

[00:17:10] Lisa DiGeso So smart. I love that. So let’s talk a little bit about as a mother of four, I know you are super passionate about creating balance and ease and making sure you’re not burning the candle at both ends. So can you maybe share your advice on creating and maintaining those business boundaries? 

[00:17:28] Ambreia Turner Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. So because most of my clients are becoming mothers for the first time, they are used to dropping their boundaries, dropping their ego and sacrificing a lot of their personal time in order to propel their career forward. For me, having been in business for over six years and having children from 18 down to four, it’s more important for me to have balance on the family side. So typically my business hours are between 10 a.m. and I’m out of the studio by 2 p.m. to pick up kids from school. I’m the one that’s usually in the car line and I usually try to set a schedules where I’m working every other Saturday. I don’t work Sundays and all those are strictly for my family. But I try to emphasize that people have to set their and create their own ideal schedule. If you set your ideal schedule, you’re typically very happy with your work life balance. I don’t answer emails before 8 a.m. if a client texts me before that time, I’m not responding. And so being able to have those boundaries that lets your client know, you know, you have 30 days to order from your session. This is how my payment plans are structured. This is what my contract says. Those things actually make your client respect you more than being someone that says, Oh, whatever you want. Well, what if you like? Sure, I can do that. Well, I don’t typically work on Sundays, but I’ll do it for you. I’ll make an exception. Yeah. And so when you make someone else the exception instead of the rule, you create chaos in your personal life. You create less predictability for your family and even for yourself. And so having an ideal schedule is just the beginning for me. But having actual policies in place for what happens in the event that it doesn’t make a payment on time or if they want to get on your calendar, if you charge a session fee, that session fee needs to be paid prior to them going on your calendar, prior to you giving any creative input and drumming up any type of concepts for them, reserving wardrobe for them and so being able to have healthy boundaries is also important because you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why someone doesn’t want to work with you when it’s really them that’s the problem. 

[00:20:09] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, it’s so true. You know, it happened to me that this is actually probably within the last year a client of mine was wanting to do something for a special occasion in her life and had pitched me on what she wanted to do. And I actually wasn’t taking clients at the time. And I was like, Oh, well, it’s kind of like an interesting idea. I might be interested. And then so I started sending her all these ideas about it, and then I had gone on, probably invested like maybe an hour. And she was like, actually I’m going to go with someone else. Yeah, with all my ideas. And I was. 

[00:20:41] Ambreia Turner And it’s personal for us because it’s our artistry, but it’s business for them. Yeah, I literally had someone text me yesterday morning. She texted me a seven something, so I didn’t even see it until I got into my studio at ten and I was just like to use this as an oh, she texted me. She says, Yeah, I’m going to have to cancel my session. And in my mind I was like, Girl, we didn’t have a session. You didn’t. 

[00:21:06] Lisa DiGeso You didn’t pay your retainer. 

[00:21:08] Ambreia Turner You didn’t pay your retainer. There is no session to be had. And so I think that the more that we look at our businesses as an actual business structure, because we don’t own something from Target until we pay for it. Yeah. That it creates less stress for us and more ease because our artistry is so personal to us. We want to make every session very personal to us, but it’s not, it’s business. 

[00:21:36] Lisa DiGeso It is. And it’s such a lesson that I always have to keep learning that like I can’t be just nice my way into success, you know, like I can be nice and successful, but I also have to have those boundaries. 

[00:21:48] Ambreia Turner Yes. 

[00:21:48] Lisa DiGeso And it’s like such a lesson that I always just bump up against.

[00:21:52] Ambreia Turner Yeah, I can coexist and they can have balance. For example, I recently had a client earlier this month, she had her viewing appointment and she had decided on a collection. She said, Oh, well, send me the invoice. The next day she had something catastrophic, happened to her plumbing. And she said, Well, I know you can’t hold on to my photos. And and that breaks my heart. And so I said, Well, you know what? I’m happy to do a payment plan for you. And we can start over this day. And we say, if that works for you. She said, Thank you so much. Yeah. And that way it doesn’t draw it out. And it’s, you know, she understood the rules already. Yeah, she understood the boundaries already within my business. And so that made me feel like I was not being taken advantage of, but that I was actually in control of the situation and make an exception for them. Whereas the rest of my clients are already following those policies and procedures so that I can make one exception over here. You know, I mean. 

[00:22:59] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I love that. One thing that comes to mind is something that I’ve heard from a number of our IPS students is they run into the situation where it’s like, you have everything ready, you’ve got the client there, you’ve got they’re starting to pick the package. But then it’s like, I have to go talk to my husband. Right? And so how do you deal with that or just ease it? So it’s it’s an easy process for you. 

[00:23:22] Ambreia Turner So for me, when it comes to the actual IPS meeting, my clients know that all decision makers need to be present. I think that helps clients to understand that this is a decision that is going to be made. Payments will be made at the meeting and that this is that final step. You can also set boundaries that if they need more of your time or a second meeting, then there is a fee for that and that allows for your client to say we’re going to plan to make payment and decisions at that meeting. That’s what it’s for. I have an amazing template that goes out to all of my clients the same day as their session that allows for them to set up their viewing and ordering appointment on my calendar so it’s on their time. I use Sprout Studio, so I just set it up on a three week rolling basis. They can pick a date and time that aligns with my availability, but also outlines those policies. Yeah, and it gives some details about the types of products that they are purchasing as far as like the canvas, how long they last, archival quality, U.V. field and things like that, so that they already have some knowledge coming in to it that I don’t have to necessarily explain to build that confidence, that confidence already built throughout the process. 

[00:24:58] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, what I love and what I’m really hearing is you’re so clear with your clients about the experience, what they’re getting, what they pay, that there’s no like surprise, like what This package is going to cost us $3,000. Like, there’s no, like, big surprises, which is something that you quite often hear with IPS in sales. Right. And I think that’s because you’re so great at communicating with your clients on how things are going to go. 

[00:25:24] Ambreia Turner Yes. And communication being that a lot of my communication is automated for my clients, I’m able to deliver a consistent experience over and over again without overexerting myself. I find that as photographers, we often want to be so creative that we’re reinventing and tailoring our messaging every single time to every client. But if you’re talking to one client in your your target avatar, then that person is the person that you’re attracting over and over. And so the messaging will be very clear to him or her that, oh, this is the experience. Well, that’s the experience that I’m looking for. This is the day of my session. Oh, well, that’s exactly what I was looking for. These are the products you offer. Well, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. We don’t have to continue to be chameleons and think that we have to morph into the ideal photographer for five different people. You already are the ideal photographer for probably 500 or 5000 clients. But if you are not revealing your consistency and you’re not speaking to them consistently, you’re attracting probably a lot of problems. Yeah, so true. 

[00:26:46] Lisa DiGeso So many nuggets in this interview. I really hope all our listeners have notebooks today. So Good. So let’s talk a little bit about discovering your zone of genius and what advice do you have for those that might not even know what it is or even how to start pruning things away to create a life and business where you actually get to be in it? 

[00:27:06] Ambreia Turner Well, I love that zone of genius is something that I refer to, even when it comes to my children and their talents, the things that they’re interested in. And I’ll use my son for example, our 14 year old, he started playing football, American football, when he was like six, and my husband had the opportunity to coach him for two years. They won a championship and everything. And of course my husband beamed with pride. Yeah, my son could go a week without picking up a football if he had the opportunity. He also eventually picked up soccer, loved soccer, won a championship with that. But most recently, in the past two years since we’ve lived in Virginia, my son has joined band and he plays this instrument and practices instrument daily. Without a saying practice, you need to learn your music. And he’s even been able to inhibit from that instrument into picking a secondary instrument within the same section. So he’s a woodwind player, and I say this because if it’s something that you would do without someone having to say, you know, you’re really good at headshots, you’re really good at senior portraits, then that’s probably your sign of genius. Yeah, same thing about for, you know, people that are night owls versus people that are early birds and really love to knock out their work and be done with it by the afternoon. Work in your time of genius when you are at your peak performance, you know, I don’t shoot a lot of evening sessions because it’s not really my zone of genius. By the evening I want to be home, cooking dinner, putting people to bed and going to bed myself. So I’m typically not the person that burns the late night oil. And I think that died with my four year old. Yeah, he was a baby. My husband was deployed to Africa and he was gone for 11 months. So I had to hold the fort down with four kids. But our baby boy really wanted to be very close to me. He co-slept. So 9 p.m., he was like, okay, mom, we’re going to bed. Let’s go to bed. 

[00:29:27] Lisa DiGeso The day’s over. 

[00:29:29] Ambreia Turner I found that I could not get back up to do more work. No matter how pressing the deadline, no matter how how much I desire to watch the video, you know, go in this course, write the blog or deliver the gallery. I just couldn’t. So I decided I’m going to operate within my zone of genius. I’m going to operate within the time that fits me. And I think the same thing is true for our 14 year old. He is so passionate about music. It’s the thing that he researches. He finds sheet music to play. He learns it his music based on memory. And so for me, I actually started off as a lifestyle photographer, which I think is so cool. I still love documentary photography. It’s just not my every day, but every day is girlfriend, we’re going to get in here. We’re going to get glam, that we’re going to dress you up. I’m going to pose you in the most fabulous way, and we’re going to create some dramatic, beautiful portraits. That’s what pumps my blood. And so that’s what I do every day. That’s what I want to do every day. And, you know, I say try the things, do all the things. And as you critique your own work or as you enter competitions to get that feedback of what areas of your work really seem to shine, embrace it and go after it. Learn that client, find out what makes them tick, what are their pain points so that you can be fully immersed in that genre for yourself and you’re going to build a profitable business and a great life. 

[00:31:13] Lisa DiGeso I love that. It’s such great advice. It’s funny because there’s so many things I do not like to do and I have weeded them all out. Before we started filming, I was like, Honestly, like I love my life so much. Like I just get to do what I want to do, so I get to be in my zone of genius daily. 

[00:31:30] Ambreia Turner I love that for you. And I really think that that speaks very highly to going after the things that you really love. Because anything that doesn’t serve you should really be off your plate. I mean, there are so many people that are not fulfilled and you realize that life is so short that doing anything that doesn’t fulfill you really should be the last thing on your list. Yeah. 

[00:31:56] Lisa DiGeso It’s so true. Love that. So you do you only shoot in the studio? I was wondering about that. 

[00:32:01] Ambreia Turner Well, it’s funny. In the past two years, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve shot on location. Yeah, most of my inquiries are for in studio because I put this on my website. Every once in a while, maybe during the spring or during the fall, I do some work outside, but otherwise I have control over all of the things that are here because I work with pregnant women. I don’t want to take them out into extreme heat or extreme cold. I find that we don’t have a lot of opportunity for reshoots, so if the weather is crazy and their hair is blowing everywhere and it’s not the look that they’re really going for, we don’t have much of an opportunity to improve that or to make it right. So we want to get it right and nail it the first time, and that usually happens in studio. Yeah, I’m not opposed now. Yeah. If that client wants to take me to the Brooklyn Bridge or to the Bahamas or the tower. Oh, okay. You’re like, I’m game. I shoot anywhere. I mean, it’s funny because last summer, I actually had my own portraits taken in Santorini. Oh, lovely. The photos are amazing. The experience wasn’t. You know, it wasn’t bad either. It’s just that you realize, man, there are a lot of people now we have to get right. Have to wait for all of these people to get out of our way. Yeah, well, I’m changing in a tent. I have that same tent for my fiance if I need to. But ultimately, it depends. Like, if you really, really want that scenery. Go for it. If you want to be the focal point and it’s not about the scenery, go in studio. Yeah, I love that. 

[00:33:59] Lisa DiGeso Well, it’s so funny because you also hit it on the head is like we often forget what it feels like to be the client. And so doing that, you know, every few years, just to give that reminder of like, how does it feel to be the client is such a good experience. Which is funny because I haven’t done it since 2013, so I know I haven’t had any photos since 2013. I’ll just add up my camera now. I’m like, okay, family, let’s go. 

[00:34:21] Ambreia Turner Right. So that’s funny actually. So we take photos pretty often. So our last family session was in August of last year, and then I did some glitter sessions for my little girl and I always do photos for them for their birthdays at the shop. Shot senior photos for my daughter. But the funny thing is, from my daughter’s graduation, my mother in law, my father in law, my brother, my sister, my mom and my nephew were all here. And I told them, Look, we have to take one photo. I promise I will be very, very fast, will be in and out in 10 minutes. And I do not care what you wear. So we did the Self-timer thing, and I have a photo, a current photo of everyone in my family that was taken. Oh, my gosh, probably June the seventh or eighth. But sometimes if you don’t do it quick like that, then it just. 

[00:35:17] Lisa DiGeso It doesn’t happen. Exactly last summer because we we rent a lake with my husband’s family every summer. And so I brought my camera out and I was like, we’re doing family photos. Like none of you. I know none of you have had your family photos done in like, since I did them, like five years ago. So I’m doing all your family photos. We’re going to take 20 minutes. We’re gonna get them all done. And so we did that. And then I realize there’s not a single photo of me. 

[00:35:40] Ambreia Turner Yeah, that is the best and worst thing about being the photographer. It’s like, you don’t have to be camera ready. You just have to have your camera. Yeah, but oftentimes you are not in the photo. And I am not a self portrait master at all by any means. So being able to set a timer, I get into the group and everybody look, it’s not a blink ten times, you know? And whatever we have is what we have. Yeah. So yeah. Doing things like that, I need to do more often. Yeah. What if we hadn’t done it then we would have not had the opportunity again. Right. Yeah. 

[00:36:22] Lisa DiGeso It’s so true. I bought something recently because I love doing that was my project This year is I’m doing self-portraits and yeah, I bought something called the Cam Ranger. And so what it does is it plugs into your camera and then you can see and control your camera with your phone and so you can see everything. So if you need like change, exposures are a focus point or anything. And then I just put like the timer on and like put my phone down is like, you know, my posing. 

[00:36:48] Ambreia Turner I’m going to. It’s so great that one. Yeah. 

[00:36:51] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. It’s like it makes it so much easier than running back and forth. So try the Cam Ranger. 

[00:36:56] Ambreia Turner Yeah. And so I’m actually still shooting on a DSLR and near possibly I’m probably going to upgrade some mirrorless. My plate camera is a mirrorless camera and my actual like business camera that I don’t travel with that I know have to say, here is my idea. So ah. 

[00:37:22] Lisa DiGeso I’m Sam. Are you Nikon stuff? 

[00:37:24] Ambreia Turner Yeah. Yeah, me too. 

[00:37:26] Lisa DiGeso Is the D5. 

[00:37:27] Ambreia Turner I really want. So I’m at 600 right now, but I really want this Z8. It’s so yeah, it has all the things that I feel like I want in my life. I like the video and want to grow in being able to capture video content for my clients, but also from just that, your unadulterated lighter camera mirrorless. Yeah, so that’s what I. 

[00:37:59] Lisa DiGeso I got the what is it, the z72 a few years ago and it took me like two years to actually pull it out of the box. And now it’s now I’m using it as my play camera. So that is like I will take that to go because D5 is my workhorse and I really have my heart set on the Z9 and I’m just like, But I’m not shooting this here. So I’m like okay, um, do I do it on the remote shooting or do I just wait? 

[00:38:27] Ambreia Turner I simply think of the tax write offs you need, right?

[00:38:33] Lisa DiGeso I was like, maybe I’ll wait till next year. 

[00:38:35] Ambreia Turner I don’t say absolutely not this say, yeah, it’s amazing if I in September I. 

[00:38:44] Lisa DiGeso Yeah Thanksgiving Day sales. 

[00:38:46] Ambreia Turner Day. I need something else to write off by. Yeah, totally. All right. 

[00:38:51] Lisa DiGeso Are you ready for our lightning round? 

[00:38:53] Ambreia Turner Yes, I am. 

[00:38:54] Lisa DiGeso So if you like to cook, what do you like to cook the most? 

[00:38:58] Ambreia Turner Oh, if I cook, I’m probably making chicken Florentine is a dish that all of my family loves to eat. So it’s a chicken that you can just saute in the skillet. A little spinach, a little mushrooms, alfredo sauce with some ravioli. And it’s really good. And it tastes great as leftovers, too. 

[00:39:20] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Okay. I think I’m going to eat that for dinner. What’s your favorite movie? 

[00:39:25] Ambreia Turner Oh, my gosh. My favorite movie. Oh, there’s so many. I would probably say Aladdin. So I can recite Aladdin from beginning to end. It was the movie that was on repeat when I was a kid, and my children have embraced it so well that it plays constantly in my house. That’s cool. I love that. 

[00:39:48] Lisa DiGeso What did you want to be when you grew up as a kid? 

[00:39:50] Ambreia Turner So, I wanted to be a librarian. Completely a shocker, but I love books. I tend to always spend time in the bookstore, grabbing magazines, grabbing new books to read. As a mom of four, I don’t have a lot of time to sit down to read physical books, so I’m an Audible girl like I wanted to be a librarian. Now I love that. 

[00:40:18] Lisa DiGeso What’s the go to song that lifts you up when you’re down? 

[00:40:20] Ambreia Turner Oh, my gosh. So my six year old makes me listen to Break My Soul in the Mornings by Beyonce. And so you will belted out in the car you won’t break my soul and that get both going I love that you love that. 

[00:40:36] Lisa DiGeso Favorite guilty or not so guilty pleasure. 

[00:40:39] Ambreia Turner And chocolate turtles. Hmm? Oh, yeah, absolutely. 

[00:40:44] Lisa DiGeso Oceans or mountains. And why? 

[00:40:47] Ambreia Turner I can have both. So it’s funny because I’m from an area that is located in the Tennessee Valley. I’m from Huntsville, Alabama, and so we have beautiful mountain ranges around us. I absolutely love the Phoenix and Scottsdale area because of the mountains. The Shenandoahs is are not too too far from where I live now. But I also absolutely love the ocean. There’s nothing that brings more peace than like hearing the waves that night, the waves crashing in. It’s definitely kind of one of our happy places. So. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:41:23] Lisa DiGeso I know, right? Me, too. What is something you’ve accomplished as an adult that your younger self would be proud of? 

[00:41:29] Ambreia Turner Oh, my gosh. So I would say becoming an entrepreneur and following my dream, I was always raised to be so practical and go to school, get a good job, and that’s fine. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor or, you know, any one of those high powered professions. But being that I’ve been able to follow my dream and enjoy my artistry full time, I am I’m super proud of that. And I think my younger self would love that, too. Totally. I love that. 

[00:42:08] Lisa DiGeso Where do you feel most centered and happy? 

[00:42:11] Ambreia Turner At home, in my bed. You know. 

[00:42:17] Lisa DiGeso Like you’re feeling when you’ve just change like your bedding and it’s just like, oh, like the best feeling. 

[00:42:23] Ambreia Turner And I’m a pajama girl. I love my pajamas to, you know, my kids still love to cuddle. So once in a while there, they’ll come and they’ll jump in my bed with me and cuddle. And we might turn on a movie or we will just go into, you know, more deep chatter. And those are some moments that I won’t forget as far as, like things that they say, and tickling their feet. And my four year old now, he tries to like, pinch me on the cheeks, you know, sometimes that I feel very sincere, very. He’s just very like normal. Yeah. Happy and love that. 

[00:43:05] Lisa DiGeso If you had advice for a photographer who was just starting out, what would it be? 

[00:43:11] Ambreia Turner My advice to them would be to zig when everyone else zags. And I say that because if you’re looking at your peers that are just starting out, it’s a race to the bottom. What no one realizes is that those photographers burn out within the first two years of starting their business. So go the other way. Swimming upstream, it may be harder. You may face a little bit more rejection, but you’ll last longer. You’ll outlast them, work on your craft and price yourself within the realm of a professional photographer and not an amateur photographer, because they will burn out. They won’t be around when you’re three or four years in business. Yeah. 

[00:43:59] Lisa DiGeso So true. So where can our listeners learn more about you? 

[00:44:04] Ambreia Turner Well, I would love to connect with our listeners over on Instagram. That’s where I spend the majority of my social presence. I also have a budding YouTube channel, ambreia_artistry is the handle on both of those, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more people on the conference circuit in 2023 or 2024. 

[00:44:28] Lisa DiGeso I love that. Well, I love to end my interviews just with this last question. And it is what are you currently curious about or artistically curious about? 

[00:44:39] Ambreia Turner I am artistically curious about video. Mm hmm. I am artistically curious about video. I think that I’ve dabbled, but I haven’t perfected it. And I want the voice of my clients, the voice of their children, and the love that they can articulate in words to come across more in my artistry. And that’s what I’m looking to explore this year. I love that. 

[00:45:08] Lisa DiGeso So. Great. Well, Ambreia, thank you so much for joining me today. 

[00:45:12] Ambreia Turner Thank you, Lisa. I have had an amazing time. I love your work and I cannot wait to continue to work together and I’ll see everybody over on the ‘gram. 

[00:45:25] Lisa DiGeso All my beautiful friends, I hope you’ve loved this conversation just as much as I have. I am sending you so much of my light and my love today and every single day. We’ll see you next time. Hey, friend. You know what the worst is? Just being mid-session and completely freezing. You start to feel awkward, your clients start looking at you for direction, and your brain feels like you just hit a wall. Now, believe me, you are not alone. And that’s why we created the Storytellers Toolkit. It’s an emotive prompt guide to help sessions stay free flowing and fun. And best of all right now, it’s totally free. It’s full of prompts for parents, motherhood, family, siblings and couples, and even a sure fire smile prompt. We put together over 200 prompts for you. You’ll never be at a loss for an idea again. Grab your copy at themilkyway.ca/toolkit.