Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Kathan.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
For several years I was a writer, mostly for online and corporate marketing. I really enjoyed it, but as companies were cutting their marketing departments, continuing in that field was difficult. In 2013, I’d been working for a company that cut all its writers, and after that, along with a couple other significant losses in my life, I became very depressed. I had lots of time to kill, so my husband encouraged me to take a class at College of Lake County and I picked a darkroom photography class; then another and another, until I ran out of classes! I met some incredible, inspiring people, and absolutely fell in love with photography. So in a sense, photography “saved” me. It wasn’t anything I ever planned as a career, and if I had been doing anything else in my life at the time, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to start a business.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t think anyone who starts a small business would say it’s a smooth road! Finding new ways to set myself apart from the sea of other photographers in Chicago, and communicating that to couples who need to find me, is an ongoing challenge. Even with a marketing background, it’s a constant struggle for me.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lisa Kathan Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I swore I would never be a wedding photographer, because I’d been a wedding planner in the past, and while I loved weddings, I knew full-well how much went into working with wedding couples. But after shooting my first wedding in 2016 I had so much fun, I completely switched my business from family photography to weddings and couples!
My specialty is intimate weddings, from 0 to 150 guests (I do take on a couple larger weddings a year if they’re a good fit). I absolutely love connecting with my couples, and also capturing their connection, and I find I can do that more successfully when there are fewer moving parts than an enormous affair.
The fact that I easily connect with all kinds of people is super important to me, and something that makes me different from other photographers; taking good photos is great, but if you’re miserable while I’m doing it, it pretty much ruins the entire experience. If you’re getting married, you’re spending more time with me than anyone else on your wedding day, so it’s super important to me that my photographic style and the way we work together can capture the vision you have for your day.
Do you feel like our city is a good place for businesses like yours? If someone was just starting out, would you recommend them starting out here? If not, what can our city do to improve?
Chicago is a great wedding city! There are so many amazing places to get married, from city hall elopements for $10 with tons of great architecture as the backdrop for photos; to amazing venues from lofts to historic buildings, to business and public use spaces that host events. And since I photograph intimate weddings, I get to capture them in some of the most interesting, quirky architectural spaces that Chicagoland has to offer!
As more and more people are starting photography businesses, being a photographer in the Chicago area is increasingly competitive. You have to find ways to be unique and set yourself apart…it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
But the Chicago photographer community is extremely supportive…I haven’t experienced any of the backstabbing and claws-out competitiveness I hear about elsewhere. I am often up against my friends when meeting with a potential wedding client, and when I lose the opportunity to photograph a wedding to someone else, it’s usually to someone I know and admire!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lisakathan.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisakathanphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisakathanphotography/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/lisakathanphoto/
Image Credit:
Lisa Kathan Photography
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