Interview with Steph & Tammy {Luminosity Photography}

We are so happy to welcome two photographers, Steph & Tammy from Luminosity Photography and Design, as our Guest Photographer Judges this week!

About Luminosity Photography

We are sisters…7 years apart. We never would have dreamed as young girls that we would end up living 2 doors away from each other and working together in ministry and a photography business every day! We are blessed with amazing husbands and children. Tammy has 3 gorgeous kids and I (Stephanie) have 2 beautiful blue-eyed girls.

There is NEVER a dull moment between the 2 houses and we have often likened our two families to a traveling circus! We wouldn’t trade a minute of it.

Photography Journey

We have both traveled all over the world on mission endeavors. We found ourselves falling in love with photography while on these many trips. On one particular trip to India, we were able to photograph children in an orphanage. They loved it when we would come around with our cameras. They would shout to us “Photo! Photo!” We came back with images not only on film but also burned in our hearts. And our love for photography grew.

Shortly after getting SLR cameras as a Christmas gift from our father we found ourselves seeking out learning opportunities and growing in knowledge of photography. We loved taking photos of friends and their children. We are together a lot so we would do a lot of these fun shoots together. In doing so, we found that we really worked well together. This quickly turned into a small business that has seemed to grow quickly over the last few years.

Meeting so many great people and hearing their stories we’ve realized that we want our photography business to be more than a photo opportunity for families. We hope to enrich the lives of those we come in contact with. We are always looking for opportunities to do this!

Fun Q&A

• What was your favorite photography moment from this past year?  Our favorite photography moment of this year was probably our first shoot in our brand new studio! We almost had to pinch ourselves to make sure this dream was actually a reality!
• Where do you find inspiration to keep your photography creative and unique?  We truly believe that God is the author of any inspiration within us! He has opened our eyes to so much of the beauty of His creation. Whether it be in the beauty of the outdoors or the intricate details of a tiny newborn, we are always in awe of His design!  Our children are also a great source of inspiration for us. Watching them grow as fast as they do, we are constantly reminded that life is fleeting and it’s so important to really focus on beautiful moments. We always desire to catch that with families and children as well.
• Do you have a “most embarrassing” moment you can share?  We’ve been told more than once that we are the real life Lucy & Ethel. That being said, we have PLENTY of embarrassing moments we could share. We have to agree that the most embarrassing moment wasn’t that long ago. There was a miscommunication between us, our scheduling coordinator, and a client. We thought that a shoot had been rescheduled but the client had not been informed. So on a sunny Tuesday morning, I sat down in my robe with my coffee and got ready to catch up on emails. I was surprised by a call from our friend and owner of our studio property. He informed me that the “R” Family was ready & waiting for their shoot. From that point on I have no idea what I said! I just hung up on him and called Tammy running around like a mad woman screaming into the phone! She was pretty sure someone died. Tammy, who was frying some eggs when I called, had to keep telling me to calm down because she couldn’t understand me. Once the message sank in for her she also started running around, throwing on clothes, and brushing down her “bedhead” in a panic too. Needless to say, we got there as fast as we could, tried to look professional and not sound so out of breath. We did end up explaining to them what had happened and had a great shoot, but we were completely embarrassed!
• Favorite quote?  “Enjoy the Journey.” There are SO many great quotes out there that have spoken to us both. All in all, the thing that we seem to go back to is to just “enjoy the journey.” We are on a journey and things will come and go and change around us. These things will be out of our control. We need to choose to enjoy it!
• What is the best photography advice you have ever been given?  We have been blessed to get a lot of great advice over the years! A pivotal point for us was when we met with Zach & Jody Gray. They told us how important it is to have balance in our art and our business. Basically, you can’t have one without the other. We were spending SO much time on editing that we found ourselves getting a little burned out and dreading the next session. In fact, our dread for the editing process was overshadowing the fun & joy of the actual shoot. We were also dropping the ball in the area of sales. We have implemented the great ideas from them and other successful photographers and seen our business grow. Finding balance is so key.
• Are there any photographers in particular who inspire you?  There are so many! It can be overwhelming to try and list them all. If we could just list two we would have to say Amy Wenzel and Zach and Jody Gray.

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Tagged as: Guest Photographer Judge, luminosity photography