Life & Work with Candace Weir

Today we’d like to introduce you to Candace Weir.

Hi Candace, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I have been a photographer for 17 years. I didn’t go full-time until 2020. I always had other photography jobs working for other companies. When you take that kind of job, the pay isn’t the greatest, but they were safe jobs.

They were guaranteed hours and guaranteed income. At the end of 2019, I had just taken a job with a sports photography company to manage other photographers at sporting events. I was traveling a lot between Arizona, California, and Nevada. Everything was going great and for once, I was making pretty good money at what I did. I loved the job.

With my photography business, I have always just scheduled sessions around my jobs working for other companies.

So Memories by Candace was always part-time for me…when I had the time or when I had customers come to me.

When the 202o pandemic hit, sports was one of the first things to shut down. So I had nothing – it was a scary time.

No work. I realized that it was beyond my control. Playing it safe all these years, and relying on another employer to put me to work, all to be put out of work anyway.

So pay or not, I realized I had to do something. Others were sewing masks to help people, more people were donating to food banks. I decided to do the #FrontPorchProject. While photos, were not necessarily a need like masks or food…it was a way to tell our story for our children in the future and a way for families to step out of the house and have something to look forward to when we were on lockdown. With that, I stepped out into my community and I met people, socially distanced of course…tons of people. I have never been one to just go out and meet new people.

So it was a personal risk for me, to step out of my comfort zone. I was getting easily 20-30 appointments a week just driving to people’s homes and photographing them on their front porches during the lockdown. It was actually a lot of fun for families. Some were even having toilet paper wars in front of their homes. I wasn’t even charging a regular session fee. I was just charging $20 to make sure they were serious about me coming! That $20 for each family ended up saving my own family with me being out of sports photography. It added up quickly when I lost my job.

The families that I met were so wonderful. We would get a little time to talk and I truly would realize how this even helped me in understanding that we were all in this together. There were so many people that weren’t working, scared that income wasn’t coming in, etc. There was a comfort in that, knowing we weren’t alone.

I started to grasp during this time, I am in control of my work. From there, business took off. I was being shared on social media communities like crazy. I eventually stopped the #FrontPorchProject by the summer and all of a sudden my business was still booming from word of mouth from all these people I met in taking photos on their doorstep. I was so surprised because usually in the Arizona summers, photography slows down anyways due to the heat.

However, I think people were ready to get out of their homes. More people were at home and not traveling for work.

So getting photos and this time with their families was important.

In November 2020, the sports company that I worked for managing photographers was ready to get back to work. While there would be limitations on where we could go, they were begging me to get back to work. I started to struggle internally with what to do because I did actually love my job working for them, but my dream job of working on my own as a full-time photographer was coming to fruition. My calendar had filled up. I recognized I didn’t have time to work for the sports company anymore. I was busy doing Memories by Candace every weekend. I remember being concerned that maybe this was just temporary. What if I needed that income? But now here I am and I have now hired two associate photographers to work for me because I have been that busy. So not only am I a full-time photographer, but I was able to put other local people to work. I love that.

That risk of getting out of my comfort zone during the Pandemic, going to people’s front doors, and putting smiles on their faces led me to where I am today. I am living my dream. I am finally a successful photographer contributing to the income of my family.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Growth was the biggest struggle. As I said, I have since hired 2 other photographers that photograph for me. I still edit with my style of work on the final portraits, but they are behind the camera. This allows me not to have to say no when my own calendar is booked. So trusting other photographers to go behind the camera, and give my clients the same experience as me was really difficult.

The photographers that work with me and photograph for me had to sort of intern with me first before I would just let them take on any of my clients. With my business, it’s more than about skills behind the camera – those can be taught, but if you can’t love people and work with people well, you won’t work for me. So releasing that control was really difficult. I think that is a struggle that a lot of business owners can relate to.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in family and wedding photography. Other professionals have niched down, but that’s truly something I haven’t done. I love it all. I can capture it all and I would be bored otherwise if I were photographing the same story every time. Everyone has a unique story.

I think what sets me apart from other photographers is that for my full sessions, I include all the digital images that we get during our time together. A lot of creatives will disagree that I do this. They will say I am selling myself short. But a lot of other creatives offer only a specific number of images. I don’t do this. I want my clients to see my work edited. I edit each photo, so for me, I feel like why not give them each photo? The only time I do not do this is when doing mini-events.

I also don’t want to take advantage of people. I want to work for the everyday family or person. Some people think they can’t afford a photographer and so they go to these big-name storefront shops to be another number rushed in and out for photos. I want it to be affordable for families. I don’t aim to just photograph families that have money. I want to photograph the families that think they can’t afford a professional photographer. Usually, with my pricing, they will pay about the same for going to one of those big-name storefront shops and buying all the digital images there. The families that I get as clients are usually surprised at how affordable I am. Those families actually end up being the best clients. They are always so grateful and easy to work with. I think everyone should be able to afford a great photographer. So I try not to raise my pricing too high. I do have to make a living, and sometimes that includes getting new equipment. But I really have a goal of staying affordable. Freezing time is priceless, I just want to make it attainable.

I’m also told that I have a bubbly personality and am energetic. This may also set me apart. So yeah, that may be it.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Oh, dear…I think I just always enjoyed summer days.

I loved being in a pool. But as a child, those times in a pool were pretending I was a Baywatch lifeguard and I was definitely a girl playing in the mud making mud pies with the pool water with my childhood best friend. I still love summer, even in this Arizona heat. Just put me by a pool.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://candaceweir.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoriesbycandace

Image Credits
Memories by Candace – Candace Weir