attention to the details
This blog post is going to come off more like a diary entry than anything else, but that's what we do on New Year's Eve and New Years Day; we reflect on all of the things...big and small. Milestones are so much fun to celebrate, but I want to take some time to talk about some of the smaller details from this year, especially from the perspective of being an underwater photographer in a small, Indiana town. XA is still just a baby of a business and there are so many things to be so proud of. Even if some numbers don't seem big compared to businesses that have been around for a while, as a seasonal niche service, plenty of these details are very exciting for me and I want to celebrate them.
For so long, underwater photography was something I only got to do from June - August, and I was working with the same small group of amazing friends year after year. After a decade of learning about movement, light, color, safety, and the importance of water clarity, I registered XA and opened for business in April of 2021. By the time pools closed in Indiana that summer I had worked with 26 different people underwater, which blew my mind. I realized that this might be something I could actually pull off and focused all winter long on preparing to get the most out of the next (very short) midwest summer. I watched countless educational videos about color grading and photographing underwater from experts all over the world, and every studio session during the winter and spring allowed me to invest more in my summer. When 2022 summer closed, I had worked in swimming pools in three different states, with 47 different people underwater, and for the first time, I got to experience what it was like to have multiple people drive over 8 hours to be photographed by me in Bedford, Indiana. It was a year of many firsts and breaking a few of my own records, but there are a few specific moments from the summer that I want to highlight...mostly so I can look back at this one day and be thankful for even more growth. There are plenty of things that I wish I would've written down or kept track of over the years, so I don't want to let this year go without sharing some of these details.
My very first underwater job for 2022 took place in Houston, Texas where I ended up photographing a dozen people underwater in less than 48 hours...which is kind of insane. I traveled down there with my entire wardrobe to share my entire process with another studio to help them get started on their own underwater path. I had photographed one of their students the summer before, but outside of that, these girls had never done anything like this before. Working with that many new people back to back was an incredible way for me to brush up on my posing scripts and prompts right out the gate, and I had updated my equipment too, which made my pictures even more colorful and clear. It was very exciting to see how beautiful everything was already just straight off of the camera. A few days later when I made it back to Indiana, I applied the editing skills I developed over the winter and excitedly realized that I had more control over color tones and light than I've ever had before. In turn, I was able to deliver a massive collection of gorgeous imagery to that studio and their clients. One of my long standing friends and supporters is a professional retoucher, and I asked him for his opinion on my new color work, and the compliment he gave me was simply stated but so impactful that I screenshot his text and printed it out for my desk. I'm no longer an imposter. I'm doing the damn thing, for real.
And that was just how my season began. It only went up from there.
A few weeks later, I was able to photograph a very special client to me during her first pregnancy, and that in itself was an incredible experience and we overcame so much to make it happen. With the baby due in mid-June, we had been trying to figure out all winter how we were going to make this underwater maternity session happen. Pools in Indiana are typically too cold for what I do until about June; yes, our kids might not have a problem jumping in and playing, but posing for photography in the water is quite different than splashing around and having fun. On my set, a photography session in a swimming pool is a very patient experience, with lots of communication and the need to apply and adapt on both sides of the camera. Not only do I need to coach my person what to do once they're underwater, but the client has be able to communicate back to me what they're experiencing and how their bodies are reacting to the water and poses. Imagine a ballroom dance where you have to stop to take notes and make changes, maybe even find a new pair of shoes if those aren't working out. Water that's even just a little bit chilly is NOT pleasant to work in, and it's unsafe. I am so incredibly supported by my friends, that one opened her pool an entire month early so that it would warm up faster, which meant we could get in comfortably by mid-May.
The day of the session arrived and it was actually a scorcher, especially for May. It was so hot outside that we put all of our phones, personal belongings, and equipment inside to get them out of the sun, and I got into the warm water with my client and her husband...but I conveniently left out the part about how much harder it is to work with two people underwater at the same time instead of one, and I'm glad I did. They did an amazing job communicating with each other and listening to me and they staying focused. I have started saying that enthusiasm is the secret ingredient to great underwater photography, and this session was an excellent case in point. We were just getting started when the skies began to change and the Indiana weather suddenly started getting quite dramatic. The temperature dropped significantly, and when the lightning started we got out of the water. Within a matter of minutes, the largest hail stones I've ever seen began pelting the patio around us. We took shelter in the little room attached to the garage and watched this weather in disbelief (try to find the hilarious BTS picture of all of us huddled up inside together, freezing when it had been incredibly hot just twenty minutes before). My sessions are typically a few hours long, but this entire session was just 28 minutes from the first picture to the last. We were all disappointed that we had to cut things short, but the giant Matte Metal Wall Art that she's got hanging up in her house from that session that tells me that luck favors the prepared, and even though we were so rudely interrupted by a surprise hail storm, my preparedness with poses, wardrobe, lighting and communication combined with their trust in me gave us what we wanted out of that experience.
One of the hardest things about what I'm doing is being really the only one in the Midwest trying to offer a service like this. There's not anyone local I can call up who's done it before me. The world of underwater photography is a small one compared to the world of portrait studio photographers, and the friends I've made in online communities are extremely talented visual artists. As the summer continued and I started working with more people than I ever had before it was tempting at first to compare my style against other very successful artists, and it made me self-conscious for a long time but I stuck with it. My imagery is more natural and stripped back. To this day I can say that I've never changed anyone's body and I've never added hair or fabric to a picture, I've only manipulated colors and light in my work. Everything you see is as captured in camera, and it makes me so happy to be able to show my clients the back of my camera and see their reactions to how they look in real life, without composites, slimming, or trimming. There's nothing wrong with those things, but it's just not been *my* thing, and this year, I was tested on that more than ever. The more I got out of my own way and out of my head, the better my work became, and the more fulfilled I was through my work. Plus, my clients were thrilled. I remind myself that there's no one else in the midwest doing it like this, so I keep going just the way I am.
Once summer started, it never slowed down. Unlike years before, I was able to get into the water just about every single week, creating new content and learning more and more and more. I was consistently investing in education for the business side of things, and last year's top sale became this year's sales average. I delivered a ton gorgeous wall art, velvet albums, and digital files to my clients and I watched the comments and reactions from their friends and families on social media roll in every single week. More and more people were supporting me and this dream of mine, and I took that momentum and worked on not just my camera and computer skills, but also on being more intentional with my brand. I started working with a local print shop to create hats, bags, stickers, and other non-personal items that I could offer to give people a way to support my underwater business even if they didn't need a session for themselves. The first day I launched my XA ballcaps, I sold 17 hats in less than 4 hours. I was having an early dinner at a local restaurant and I started crying right then and there watching it all come in. I was not expecting that, and it was a tremendous boost right in the middle of my season. I cannot describe to you how it feels to see other people wearing XA branded ball caps and to see XA Underwater decals on people's cars and water bottles. I started getting recognized by new people I didn't know, and started heariing things like "I've heard of you! Did you do XYZ's pictures??? Omg, those were so amazing, it's so cool to meet you!" I was even interviewed and published in a magazine for the very first time, and all of my friends went out and grabbed copies. While it's just still the beginning, all of these things are appropriate for a budding business, and they are the early results of really hard work and an intentional commitment to the bigger, long term picture of XA. I resisted many temptations to take on photography jobs that weren't in line with the goal of being a Full Service Underwater Photographer. It's not an easy path, but because I was able to focus and not unafraid to say "no", that path isn't cluttered either.
I closed this season celebrating so many, many things. Below I've put together one image from every single session I was able to photograph this year, along with many behind the scenes pictures of me with my clients, friends, a few precious puppies, and the Valderrama Llama that never leaves my camera bag. The colorful XA blocks included represent clients who had private underwater sessions that I cannot share, and I decided to include images from working with LT Paddlesports at Lake Monroe this summer because it was something else that was new and exciting that I got to add to my list of accomplishments this year, and it was still me working in and around water with my camera. (None of those sessions are being counted as part of the 47 people I worked with this year underwater, which is really cool to me.)
This post is one of reflection on hard work and gratitude, and I can't wait to see what the next season brings. It's going to be beautiful and even more successful, and I'm already almost sold out of my 2023 pre-sale appointments...another first for me to celebrate. It's all because of the clients, friends, and professional peers who gave their continued support and trust to me and my camera.
Thank you for an amazing year....bring it on, 2023!!!
