Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Cummings.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kelly. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Five years ago when my oldest son was born, my husband (who now photographs couples and weddings with me) purchased a DSLR camera for me so that I could grow my inherent love for photography by capturing memories of our own family. When I started to share photos of William on social media, friends began to ask if I would take pictures of their kids, too, and then their friends started asking, so it really grew rather organically. And as I received more requests for photo sessions, I pursued more and more education so as to expand my knowledge of the field while living out my true passion for every aspect of it from planning, to photographing to editing.
By the end of the second year, I had booked five weddings in addition to portrait photo shoots, and I was thrilled to be expanding our services. But that growth was quickly halted by pregnancy complications that required a hospital stay of over 10 weeks and resulted in the birth of my second son 9 weeks premature. Needless-to-say, my business had to take a backseat to the care of my son who spent over 5 weeks in the NICU before coming home. I took much of his first year of life off as I needed to bring him to a variety of doctors’ visits every single week.
To say that I missed photographing other families and weddings is a HUGE understatement, but I knew that I had to prioritize being Noah’s caregiver if he was going to be able to overcome the challenges that ensued as a result of my condition and his early birth. And this is perhaps one of the greatest gifts of being a business-owner because I was able to take the time that I and he needed, and the support and encouragement that I received from clients (many of whom had turned into friends) was truly inspiring and helped keep our spirits up.
Now that Noah has grown and continues to successfully navigate the challenges he has, my husband and I are thrilled to be able to tell our couples’ unique loves stories again. We had never imagined working together in this business, but when he needed to fill in as my second shooter for a friend’s wedding, we realized that we couldn’t imagine NOT pursuing this business together because what could be better than capturing love stories with the one you love?! And we are so excited to be expanding our services even more in the near future to better achieve our goal of telling intimate love stories in a way that is truly unique and approachable.
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?
As stated in the previous response, one of our biggest challenges has been finding a way to balance caring for our two young children (and three puppies) with the time and commitment it takes to grow a small business. Couple that with the extra challenges our second son has experienced and the fact that both of us photograph together, and we have had to learn a lot about working efficiently and asking for help and support from friends and family when needed.
But all of these challenges have guided us to seek advice and support from other business owners who experience the very same or similar challenges. Our local photography community (Tuesdays Together – Manchester) has been absolutely amazing, helping us to learn new techniques, connect with other vendors in the wedding industry and grow our business in the company of like-minded, hard-working and compassionate creative.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We pride ourselves in capturing true, natural human connection. Whether it’s a maternity or newborn photo shoot, engagement photo shoot or wedding, our number one goal is to showcase intimacy in its purest form – an unabashed affinity for closeness and warmth and connection. And for each family or couple we photograph, the point at which this connection is experienced and expressed is different. For some couples it is when they look into each other’s eyes. For others it is when they walk hand-in-hand. And for others it is when they laugh together or cuddle or kiss. Just as each client or couple is different, so too is their expression of affection for one another, and by using prompts rather than poses, we are able to bring this out of our clients in order to capture authentic moments that best reflect their unique relationships and love.
With the desire to capture this type of intimacy that is at the very heart of every photo shoot we do, we also bring with us the desire to find unique spaces in which this love can be expressed. We’ve long believed and expressed that a wedding need not require anything but two people madly in love with each other. And with this in mind, we’ve recently embarked on a project in which we’ve been exploring alternative wedding locations to help our couples find the one that best suits their personality and style rather than the societal expectations of where a wedding should take place. In pursuing this project we have further strengthened our belief that it is not the backdrop that matters most but rather the importance of that particular backdrop to the couple being photographed within it. From a brewery to a condo complex to an abandoned fort on the seacoast, the possibilities are endless, and we love exploring new and creative spaces in which to photograph our couples’ individual and intimate love stories.
In addition to figuring out what makes each of our clients connect and the spaces in which that connection is further enhanced, we also take the time to learn about our couples and families — their personalities, their styles, their interests, etc. This knowledge helps to shape how we plan our photo sessions and album designs and is even taken into consideration when giving special gifts. We also let our clients into OUR world. As a married couple ourselves, we find it valuable to share what we’ve learned about marriage and family life with our clients because it helps to bring an even greater comfort level to our photo shoots and weddings. We are real people with real challenges and real love behind these cameras, and we think it’s important that our clients experience our unique and special connection and vulnerability as a couple as well.
What were you like growing up?
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a household full of love and laughter…and lots and lots of photo ops! My grandfather absolutely loved photography, and although he never pursued it professionally, he always had his camera in hand for every moment — the candid, the posed and everything in between.
I was the oldest of 3 children and 14 grandchildren (only ONE boy, my younger brother) on my mother’s side, so needless-to-say, there was never a dull moment in our house. We were all very close (and continue to be), so the value of spending time with family and making this a priority even in the busy season of life is something that has stuck with us all into adulthood.
Because we were a family full of girls, one might assume that our childhood was filled with dress up and Barbie dolls and makeovers, and while these activities did take place from time to time (in which we included my brother as well!), we were also quite athletic and competitive. One year, we all received street hockey sticks for Easter so that we could continue ceaselessly tiring out the men in our family with intense pick-up games in the street in front of my grandparents’ home.
When it came time to choose a career path, I had long thought that I would become a family lawyer, but after spending some time in the law firm in which my aunt has worked for over 20 years, I quickly realized that while working with families and children was important to me, I didn’t think I had the emotional fortitude to witness difficulties in children’s and families’ lives as they played out in the courtroom. So instead I chose to pursue a degree in education, and I taught high school English for 6 years before having children of my own. I loved teaching and interacting with my students, but I also knew in the back of my mind that this wouldn’t be the end of my career path. I knew that I wanted to work with people in an even more intimate capacity, and I will be forever grateful that my photography career came into my life organically and in a time in which I needed it the most.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kellyannephotographynh.com
- Phone: 603-459-4688
- Email: kelly@kellyannephotographynh.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kelly_anne_photo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kellyanneweddingphotographer
Image Credit:
The photo of us jumping was taken by Kristin Hardwick of Kristin Hardwick Photography
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