Meet Emily Denny | Photograher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emily Denny and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
Running a business comes with so many joys, blessings, and beautiful moments, but it also comes with so many challenges, hardships, confusion and ultimately getting to a place where you feel like just giving up is the only solution. I have had my fair share of times where I wanted to give up, and I don’t blame myself for feeling this way. This feeling often came after having sever burn out after doing way “too much”. It also came in a time after I felt like I really messed up, hurt a client or in other words did something “wrong”. Sometimes it came after I had a difficult financial month and wondered if the stability of a corporate job would ease the stress. All together the feeling of wanting to give up came after some kind of challenge in my business that I haven’t learned to overcome quite yet. However, at the time, I saw one of these things as someway I had “failed”. I went on with this “I failed” mindset, ultimately beating myself down, until recently. Instead of looking at these things as “failures” or reasons to give up, I try and view them as “opportunities” and ways to grow. Now when I struggle with something or make a mistake, I think how I can learn from this and make it better for my business. You’re going to experience mistakes, things you wish you did better, or situation you would have liked to handle with more ease, but you can’t improve your business until you know what to improve. And you know what to improve when something goes “wrong”. The biggest example I have of this is during a wedding one of my SD card corrupted. I ended up losing a few photos and blamed myself for days. At the time I thought how I was a terrible photographer and thought I should quit. Instead of quitting, I decided to implement back-up devices, keep track of SD cards by organizing them, have a routine for storing photos, always have two devices, and more. Now I am confident this “mistake” would never happen again and am better for it. Overall, when things get hard, instead of giving up, improve your business! This is what will make you stronger and your business better.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a full time wedding and brand photographer located in NYC. The journey to becoming full-time was not easy but SO worth it! I graduated college in May of 2020. As you already know this was the beginning of covid when the world shut down. I was already so lost on what to do after college and this did not make it easier. There was no jobs, no where to move and nothing to do. What a great way to kick start my young adult career path (not, haha). So I took my losses and became a nanny and not long after this I reached out to my favorite shop in Arkansas, Maude, asking them if they ever needed a photographer I would love to work with them. I honestly didn’t think I would hear back but a few months later they reached out wanting an interview. A few weeks later I was their full time photographer and marketing director. WHAT A DREAM. I learned so much in this job and continued to create my own photography business on the side. After my 9-5 work with Maude I would either go on a shoot or improve my business in someway. Soon I began to get more and more shoots on my own all while using the money I made working at Maude for my daily life and saving the money from my own shoots to go full time one day. Well “one day” was right around the corner. As covid cleared up a little and my personal business grew I decided to move to New York City with no plans on getting a job outside of my own photography business. Before I moved I made lots of connection in the city, set up styled shoots, got confirmation to second shoot for other photographer and started grinding to get my marketing and social media growing quickly. It was a lot of late nights, sobbing in my small nyc apartment, working endless hours and learning something new every two seconds. I am thankful for my passion and strength to get through that first year because today I am running and operating Emily Denny Photography, a six figure, full time business. I have learned a lot along the way but the biggest thing was along this journey my biggest strength was always choosing to serve my client first. Even if it meant going the extra mile, putting a smile on when it was the hardest day and always showing up with intent to do my best! This is what will make you stand out, create a business that thrives and ultimately making you proud of what you created.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My absolutely favorite thing to do is grabbing a bagel and coffee and walking around central park. You cant miss out on grabbing brunch at Sunflower cafe and heading over the Urban Jungle for some thrifting. if its a nice day you need to hop on the $2,75 ferry rides for a good view. The perfect way to end the night is grabbing dinner in hells kitchen at OBAO and going to see a broadways show (my favorite is always wicked).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Yes! My parents have always been huge supporters in my career. Leaving college I didn’t have any faith in my “side hustle”, which was photography. My dad was actually the one who said “i think you should pursue photography as your full time career”. Still to this day they are my biggest supporters and have encouraged me though the little and big accomplishments.

During my journey to become full time I listened to the “heart and hustle” podcast a lot! They helped me have confidence to go full-time.

After college I worked for a boutique in Fayetteville, Arkansas called “Maude”. The owner, Becca, fully believed in me as a photographer and let me have complete control of the stores photography vision. Her belief in me and support in what I did impacted me more than she knows.

Website: https://www.emilydennyphoto.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilydennyphoto/