Editorial with Small Business

Starting out, I heard a lot of photographers explain how they set up their own styled shoots. “Think of what you want to photograph, and put it together on whatever scale you can.” Now a lot of them were talking about couples sessions, and getting their engaged friends to model for them, but I took it in a different direction. I was going to photograph some jewelry. It was a way to dip my toes in product photography, exercise my creativity, get some editorial content, and maybe help out another small business.

The whole time, I knew exactly who I wanted to collaborate with. Amanda is the owner of Gorka and Co and an old friend from college. She's also a mama and entrepreneur who makes and sells jewelry and works her ass off to grow her business. It took me a while to reach out to her (because nerves), but I'm so glad I did!

We talked about her brand, her goals for her business, and what we both wanted out of the shoot. Using the vivid colors and youthful look of Gorka and Co’s jewelry as inspiration, I designed I came up with a simple concept to style the shoot around. I put out some feelers for models who could use portfolio shots and kept my fingers crossed for a month! We got so freakin lucky when Hanna found us! Not only was she the perfect model, but she’s a fantastic photographer as well!

The morning of the shoot, I was nervous. I won't lie, there was a bunch of negative self-talk. "What the hell are you trying to pull? You invited people for a photoshoot in your garage! This is not gonna work."

But then Hanna and Amanda showed up, and we got to WORK. These girls made me feel so capable, and I could not have had a better time. Working on this project was such a creative and rewarding experience, and I’m excited to get to work on all the other concepts bouncing around in my head!