Photo Credit : Alberta Henry Photography
Today I am featuring Alberta Henry of Alberta HenryPhotography in St Lucia. If a picture is
worth a thousand words, Alberta’s photos tell beautiful stories of love and joy
and family and togetherness. Alberta who runs the business with her husband, is making quite a name for herself with her
uber creative, themed photo shoots. Her baby photography
completely slayed me with cuteness. But, get this...Alberta is not only an extraordinary photographer, she is also a trained Chemist who lectures at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College . I
asked Alberta to share a little about her business and her Art:
What prompted you to
start Alberta Henry Photography?
I love to do
portraits and I used to take so many photos of my friends they called me "Paparazzi". My friends liked the photographs I took and they encouraged me to do
it professionally. My husband also encouraged me to buy a professional camera,
I did that and the photography took off from there.
What did you do before
starting Alberta Henry Photography?
When I started I was studying at UWI, because of all the free time I had, I tried
it out.
What do you love more Chemistry or Photography?
I love them both. I
really love to teach, I love to teach Chemistry and I love my students, I give my
students 100% during the week and on weekends and vacations I give my
photography 100%. They are both rewarding. The photography keeps me sane but I still
love teaching.
Were you afraid when you
launched this business?
Not really. I am
only afraid when I get too much business. I fear that it’s going to cut into my
work schedule and I won’t be able to juggle them both. I would love to do
photography full time, but I’m not sure that I would be able to do it full time
in St. Lucia. I don’t know if I would have steady clients to sustain the business. With
my current job I have the benefit of a fixed salary.
How has your
University education prepared you for managing this business?
I have a BSc. in
Chemistry and Mathemathics and a MSc. in Theoretical Chemistry. I don’t think doing Chemistry has prepared me for managing this business. I use my Chemistry
degrees in my day job but not in the photography per se because I do digital
photography. To do photography you have to be creative and think outside the
box, Chemistry is more analytical and more rigid. With Chemistry there is less
room for mistakes, a mistake can be fatal. Photography on the other hand is
art, there are no mistakes with art.
Do you like being
photographed?
How did you break into
the market, did you have a defined strategy or did you just wing it and learn
as you went along.
I only use Facebook
to market the business. I did my first shoot, I posted photos on Facebook and
the business took off from there. I would have to say word of mouth and Facebook.
I did a baby shoot for the editor of SHE Magazine, but I haven’t done any
television ads or other promotions because I worry that I may get too much
business to juggle both the photography and my day job.
What type of session
do you look forward to the most (maternity, newborn, child, weddings,
engagement shoots) and why?
My husband loves
the wedding and engagement shoots, but I prefer the baby shoots. A shoot
generally takes about 5-6 hours. Baby shoots are not as easy as they look. People
look at the photos and they think it is easy, they say wow the baby is sleeping
so soundly, it’s not until they’re in the session sweating they realize how hard
it is. I have to try a lot of things to get the best shots; if one thing
doesn’t work I move onto the next thing, it takes a lot of time.
I love to get those
newborn photographs of the babies in their natural state. I don’t really try to
pose them because they always slip off the poses. Believe it or not at that
stage they have their own personalities, they’re unique, some babies smile and
co-operate other babies struggle and fight. Ten days after birth they change,
their skin is different even their hair is different. I love to capture those
newborn moments forever so the parents can look back and see their child at
that stage. If it’s so special to me, imagine how special it is to the parents.
How do you
conceptualise the shoots?
I collect props to
use in my photo shoots, when I see things I like I collect them, right now I
have my eye on 3 stools and a bench. I try to get boxes, baskets, antique chairs, baby
beds, anything a child can sit on. I also make headbands for the babies. I used
to make roses from scratch, but the easiest way is to get headbands with
different designs and stitch pre-made flowers to the headbands. The day before
a shoot I chose about 5 of the props, and co-ordinate the headbands and other
accessories to go along with the shot, so even with the same props, no two
shoots are alike.
What do you think
makes a memorable photo shoot?
One time we had a
shoot and we went to a location and it was an awful location because there were
a bunch of abandoned buildings. We worked with it and the photos looked
wonderful, it turned out being one of my favorite photo shoots. I guess because
the location was so horrible we had to put everything into the photos and it
worked. For a memorable photo shoot, it’s all about planning. If you just show
up for an engagement shoot, and you’re not dressed well, or not prepared it
just doesn’t work. Sometimes persons
will show me what they’re wearing or what they’re thinking of wearing and I give
feedback or offer ideas about how it would go with the particular type of shoot.
It’s not about just showing up and trying to make things work, planning is very
important.
What do you want
viewers to take away from your work?
I want them to see
love and relationships; the love between a couple, the love for the child. I want
people to see family, love…humanness. That’s what I aim for in my shoots
whether it’s an engagement shoot, a wedding or a baby shoot, I want people to
see love and family. I don’t want to shoot models because when you do that
there’s no sense of community, you don’t get that sense of family and love and
togetherness. With my shoots, I want people to look at the photos and embrace
the persons and share in their joy, even if they don’t know them.
What do you think sets
Alberta Henry Photography apart and makes your business so successful?
I find that people tend
to be more comfortable with women. Most photographers are men, especially for weddings
but men don’t think like women, a woman would see a moment and go awwww and
capture that moment in a photograph but a man might gloss over that. As a woman
I capture those awww moments. I think my personality sets my business apart as
well, when I do the shoot my clients automatically become my friends. I
remember the children’s names. Even if I did a baby, I remember the child years
later when I see them. I love to see how they have grown and changed. I also love to capture people’s personalities.
I like to get persons comfortable and laughing so I get their true personality…when
the person sees the photo they must say "Yes this is me".
What do you love most
about being a photographer?
I love the smiles
from the clients. A lot of people come with
high hopes for their photo shoots and it’s scary, that’s a lot of pressure. One
lady brought her 6 month old baby and she said that the child was friendly and smiles all
the time and the baby did not smile for the photos. When we finally got the baby
to smile she was so excited she was jumping and smiling. I love that. Even on
Facebook when the children’s photos get likes, the parents come back to me and
they know exactly how many likes the child gets. I love when people feel good
about the photos and themselves.
What has been your
biggest challenge?
I am self-taught,
so sometimes I’m doubtful about my ability. The more persons see and like my
work, the greater the pressure to expand and do more, so sometimes I am a bit
apprehensive. When people meet me and
ask are you the photographer, they have high hopes and I’m scared of that, it’s
a lot of pressure. My biggest challenge is to have confidence in myself and my
capabilities.
What is the 1 thing
you wish you knew when you started taking photographs?
I once did an online
workshop and the lady that was doing it advised us not to belittle
our work, if you list a price let the client take it or leave it. If you give
your work away persons will not respect the time and effort you put into it. Photography
is art. Some people think that when they get a photograph they just get an
image, that’s not true, there’s a lot of time and effort and planning that goes
into a shoot. As the photographer you just have to say this is who I am, this
what I can give and this is the price and walk away. There are persons who will understand what it
takes to get there and who will pay to have it. Don’t undervalue yourself, don’t
sell yourself short. I knew this when I started out, I just wasn’t applying it.
How would you like to
see Alberta Henry Photography evolve?
I want a huge
studio , with different aspects and elements, I would love to have a team of
photographers to do the different types of shoots: weddings, newborns etc.
If you could have
lunch with one entrepreneur or inspirational person who would it be and why?
I would love to
meet Yaisa Tangwell, a few years ago I found her page on Facebook and she does
such beautiful wedding photos and portraits. Before I discovered her I did not
know there were any female wedding photographers in the Caribbean. She has won
so many awards internationally and she’s from the Caribbean. She shoots with
her husband but she is the primary photographer. She does high profile
weddings, she knows her value, she doesn’t compromise. She is everything I want to be but with baby
shoots.
What advice do you
have for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Go forward. The
only way to survive in a business is to do what you love. I love photography. If
you love what you do and you do it well your business will not suffer, clients would
pick up on that and your business would grow. If you’re just doing it for the
money it won’t work. When we started it we did not do it for the money, because
we weren’t getting any. We started this
because we thought that everyone would want a special picture of themselves that
they could have forever.
You can check out more
of Alberta’s work here:
