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Welcome to a new episode of the OpenFrame podcast! Our guest is the wonderful wedding photographer and educator Lauren Chambers, who lives in beautiful Northern Ireland.
Even though Lauren started doing photography over three years ago, her rhythm and integrity significantly accelerated her growth. When many professionals struggle with building up a sustainable business, she succeeded in maturing one pretty fast. The pandemic did not slow Lauren down, nor it influenced her creative approach. In fact, it surfaced the qualities that helped her navigate through it. She knows her values inside-out and stays true to them. This level of clarity allows her to save time and energy in order to focus on things that matter and make a difference.
In this interview, Lauren comes with a fresh perspective on the known buzzword "authenticity". She shares her thoughts on money making, and why she thinks that wedding photographers are not artists. Her honesty and transparency guide her through everything in life.
Here are some of our favorite highlights from our conversation with Lauren Chambers:
- During the short wedding season of 2020, Lauren noticed that people were more thankful than she had previously experienced, because they genuinely wanted to get married.
- "Authenticity" has become a trend lately, but following trends is the opposite of being and acting authentically. Many photographers use "authenticity" to describe their style, so much so that the word started diluting and now lacks meaning. For Lauren, being authentic is a choice you make every day, and it starts with looking inwards.
- Embracing "authenticity" does not imply being harsh or cutthroat. Unfortunately, many women in the industry are still judged if they speak honestly about specific issues.
- Putting clear values at the forefront of your decisions helps you live in harmony and run a sustainable business.
- Whenever you are not true to yourself or you photograph weddings for the wrong reasons, people will feel it. On top of that, it will make you unhappy and confused in the long run.
- Lauren has an unpopular yet challenging opinion: do you care more about your work than providing a good service? Because if that's the case, you shouldn’t get into the wedding photography niche.
During this conversation, Lauren takes us all back to the basics and sheds light concerning many things that are easy to be taken for granted in time. Whether it's about the role of the wedding photographer, the importance of talking about money and how it helps us reach bigger goals outside of our jobs, or why knowing ourselves on a deeper level influences our decisions.
This conversation left us with so many things to think about and discuss. It's always great to get a new perspective, see how it challenges us and makes us grow. Building your business on your core values makes you question all your decisions based on what matters most to you. Have you tried it? Do you find that hard to do when very loud trends and industry rules go a completely opposite direction? Let's have a conversation about it!
You can follow Lauren Chambers on Instagram and see more of her beautiful work on litphotographyni.com. Thank you to Nadia Meli for hosting this inspiring conversation. You can find her work here and on nadiameli.com.
Show some love for this episode on social media and leave a review if you took value from this conversation. Don't forget to subscribe to OpenFrame on your preferred streaming platform (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, YouTube, etc.) and share it with a friend who needs to hear this!
