For Photographers: Lightroom Zen Interview

So, this is a first! I was asked by David Childers (of David Childers Photography and owner of Lightroom Zen) if I would be interested in answering some questions in a video interview on his Youtube channel. If you check Lightroom Zen’s older videos, he shares a lot of tips and tricks for Lightroom and editing. I was honored to kick off his new venture of photographer interviews and am looking forward to seeing what others have to share!

I learned why I’m usually behind the camera (I froze up about five times in the beginning of this interview and David had to start over again), but once the initial jitters wore off, I think I strung together some cohesive sentences :)

I’ll make a few notes under the video about some of my thoughts, in case you missed something!

What’s in my bag

• Nikon D750
• 35mm f/1.4
• 50mm f/1.8
• Sigma 85mm f/1.4
• 70-200mm f/2.8
• 60mm macro*

Editing

• Photo Mechanic for culling images
• VSCO for Lightroom (I currently use VSCO 5)

Philosophy

I know I didn’t go into this very much, but I did want to give a shoutout to some really helpful and nice photographers who are definitely worth looking up to.

Mark from LeahAndMark — was one of my mentors when I first started in my business. As a fellow A Practical Wedding vendor (at the time), he dished out a lot of practical advice, like how to blog, how to market, and how to think when you’re a business owner.

Jamie from The Modern Tog — also a wedding photographer, Jamie has built an incredible business in helping photographers, and in a very genuine way. She uses a foundation of good customer service to ensure that her clients refer her to newly engaged friends. If you are a newer photographer and haven’t read through her vast resources, go now, because she helps with everything: pricing, troubleshooting emails, budgeting, everything. 

And though I didn’t mention him in the video, I did want to add Ryan Brenizer in this list. He’s a very successful New York City wedding photographer. As I told David after he’d stopped recording, I drank from the fountain of Brenizer’s customer service well. He is an amazing photographer and approaches his job with joy and humility. I was lucky enough to attend a workshop of his a few years back and he mentioned that while some photographers may have egos about being on a “best wedding photographers” list, etc., no one outside of our industry really knows who they are. I think that’s a healthy perspective.

In short…

I really hope that this was somewhat interesting to you, and if you have any questions, please leave a comment below! *Disclosure: the links to Amazon are affiliate links.