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Episode 64: Learning That It’s Never Too Late To Follow Your Dreams With Portrait Photographer June K. Collins
Katie: 00:00 Hi everybody, and thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics Podcast. I’m your host, Katie, and today I am so excited to be talking with June K Collins. She is a couture portrait photographer and the owner of June K Collins portraits. So June, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
June: 00:14 Thank you for having me, Katie.
Katie: 00:16 Absolutely. So do you mind telling us a little bit more about yourself and everything that you do?
June: 00:20 Sure. Right now, I am originally from Broward County, Florida. I am living in Hahira, Georgia. And right now, I am a portrait photographer, and I specialize in children, pets and teens, and tweens.
Katie: 00:35 Awesome. So we kind of chat about this a little bit before we jumped on, but you have a really interesting background and in everything that you’ve worked in and all the different industries. So do you mind telling us a little bit about your background?
June: 00:47 When I got out of school when I got out of high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I started in college, not knowing what I wanted to do, and I went into law enforcement. I ended up taking some criminal justice classes, went into law enforcement. So I’ve actually been in law enforcement since 2005. I didn’t get into photography until I had my first son or excuse me when I had my first child. I had my son in 2009, and when I had him, I was doing like a mini photoshoot, and you know, dressing him up and stuff like that. And when I was doing these shoots, I was finding that these pictures were better. I had gotten pictures from his daycare. He, my son actually had special needs, and so they would have photographers come in there, and when they would have the photographers come in there, the pictures weren’t great, and it’s nothing towards that photographer or anything like that.
June: 01:45 It was just, he was special needs. So I would do all these little mini sessions with him and I, and I enjoyed it, but I never thought of it as a career path because I was in law enforcement. And so in 2012, my son ended up passing away. And obviously, that’s a rough time and everything like that. And I, the only thing I had was those pictures. I had pictures and video, though. Those were the two things that helped me get through it. And I just appreciated those pictures even more. You know, I’m, I don’t know, just dealing with it. And so I had those pictures. And then in 2014, I had a little girl, and I had obviously I did a little photo shoot with her and everything like that, and everybody was telling me, wow, you have you take great pictures.
June: 02:40 And I was, I, it still didn’t click in my head, you know, it was just kind of like, thank you, you know, and everything like that. And then, you know, finally, it hit me. It was like, you know, I want to give people these pictures, so they have them forever, you know, because they’re so important and, and I want to teach people that they’re important. Not that you can teach anybody that they’re important, but I just wanted them to have it. So, you know, I started a photography business in 2014 with a newborn. And I started from there. I have my bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice, my master’s degrees in forensic psychology. But what I ended up doing was I went to the New York Institute of photography, took some courses there. Then I found some great mentors I like and got on there, started mentoring it, looking at different photographers that I like and was mentored by them.
June: 03:32 And I’m still mentored by some of them. And then I just fell in love with children and teens in tweens cause that’s such a; I remember when I was a teen and tween, you know, you, it’s a funny age. You don’t like anything about yourself. You know, how that is, you know and just giving them these beautiful images. And then I took my first pictures of pets, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, you know, so I, I love that too. So that’s when I finally found my niche. I was like, I want children, tweens, teens, and pets. I love pets. And obviously mixing them all together is fun and it’s stressful sometimes, but it’s, it’s fun. And then I was like, I want to take it up the next step. And I decided to enter like contests, you know, competitions and I’m still doing that. I enjoy doing that, you know, and I’ve married so far, and bronze and silver in my photography, and I’ve actually placed 12th this last time I placed 12th in the pet category. So I was pretty excited about that.
Katie: 04:41 That’s amazing. Yeah. Your work is so unique, and your style is so unique, and I absolutely want to talk about that a little bit later, but if you don’t mind, if we could go back a little bit to when you decided to leave law enforcement and going to photography. So what was that journey for you? Did you have a great support system around you saying, yeah, go for it? Follow your dreams, or were some people a little bit confused? What was that like for you?
June: 05:03 Well, I think confusion was a little bit, and the confusion is a little bit of it. You start off in one career field, and you think that you know, that’s the path you’re going to go down, you’re going to retire, you’re going to do it until you’re done. But sometimes I’ve found that sometimes your passion as you get older goes from one thing to another. You know and I, and I love law enforcement, and I think that it’s a very rewarding job. But after my kids were born, I’ve found that this is more precious to me. You know, that photography is, and sometimes some people are like, well, you don’t want to do that. And then other times people are like, yeah, sure, go for it. And it’s, it’s a hard transition, and it’s hard, I’ve noticed to look at it and say, you know, do I really want to do this?
June: 05:53 Is this what I was supposed to do? But I’ve followed my heart far in what I think I should be doing. And so I just took a big leap. And I think it’s hard for anybody to take that big leap. They’re just, they’re scared. It’s so unknown, you know because basically, it’s all on you. I think one that’s going to make it or break it. And I guess for me, and my story is like, I, I really want people to know that you can change. You don’t have to stay in something that doesn’t make you happy anymore or doesn’t. And I don’t say I’m saying that, but law enforcement, you know, makes me happy. But you know, if it’s not the number one anymore, maybe it is time to change and don’t fear the change.
Katie: 06:34, Hmm. Yeah. I think a lot of people feel guilty about changing when we look at others and see that they evolve, and we don’t think twice about it. But when it happens to ourselves, we start to feel guilty that we’re making the wrong decisions. So I love that message, that it’s okay and that it’s normal and that you should go for it and trust your gut. I liked that a lot. And so a lot of people I’ve talked to who are photographers, they have started out taking photos of their kids and their own pets and their own family. And then they decided, wow, I love this. And so they decided they wanted to start branching out. So how did you start branching out outside of your own family and getting clients that were for your business and not just family, friends, or family members?
June: 07:10 The first thing I did when I came into photography, I came in as like kind of a general photographer because I thought that’s what you do. You know, you take pictures of maybe one day, a newborn, maybe a wedding. And I tried everything, and I was taking pictures of obviously my family, the ones that would let me take pictures of them and then friends of the family. And then people would contact me, and I would say, Hey, I’ll do your wedding, or I’ll take family pictures, whatever it was. And that’s how I started with the branch. And then it was just kind of word of mouth. I think my first client I ever had was actually on Facebook ads, and I am horrible at Facebook ads and Instagram ads. But for some, somehow, I got that person to come, and she was my first client, her and her family.
June: 08:01 And then she would just give my name out, and I would keep producing stuff, and people liked it. And that’s how it happens. Usually, now Facebook, Instagram, and those are my two, two that I usually go back and forth on and just try, try to get people in. But word of mouth is usually a lot. Some people don’t like talking about it, some people do. But the lucky thing I, I’ve had really, really good clients and I, and I’ve always had really good clients and I think that if you give them what they want and you give them the special attention because, and I’m going to say customer service and that’s really not the word that I’m looking for. But if you give them what they are looking for, you give them that time, and you actually are interested in, you actually appreciate them. You don’t, you can’t go wrong, and they will talk about you in the end.
Katie: 08:48 I’ve found that with when photographing kids and pets and stuff like that, its word of mouth is like a 100% how it gets around because you know, people are like, wow, she was great with my kids, or you know, my dog really trusted her and felt comfortable. And that word of mouth is golden. Yeah.
June: 09:03 Most people think that, Oh my kid will not sit still or Oh my dog won’t sit still. Or you know, my cat. I mean whenever pet it is, but I have, my daughter is so all over the place all the time and I always tell my clients, don’t worry, I will. I promise you just relax. We will get good pictures. And like I said, I’ve been so blessed with the clients that I’ve had. I’ve been so lucky.
Katie: 09:27 All that sweet. I’m sure they feel the same about you. And your style is so unique. You work with some composites, and you have a very, you know, unique editing style. So I’d love to talk about that. But first I’d like to go back to kind of like the basics. It looks like you work in a studio and out of studio, right?
June: 09:42 Correct. Correct. That I really love in studio, I love dealing with the lighting and just all the aspects of not so much props, but I do with like my pet, I have like William Wagman, you know, put the clothes on the pits and the hats, and you know, I like doing that but I’m not like a huge prop person. But yeah, I love the indoor lighting and just making it different. Something that you don’t see every day. And then outdoors, I like the rich textures and the rich tones. And then for my composites I just, it’s up to my client, like one of a, a good friend of mine, she was like, my element is fire, let’s do something with fire. And I’m like fire. And she’s like, yeah. And I’m like, okay. So I did or some images, but it’s that those are more on what the client is thinking. And then if I have a vision of, Hey, I want to do something, you know, I’ll do it with my daughter usually.
Katie: 10:34 Right. That makes sense. And so I’ve actually never had a studio photographer on the show before. And I know a lot of people, including myself, who have never worked in a studio before, have tons of questions about what goes into that because you see a beautiful image. Still, you don’t necessarily know what is going on in the background. Right. Or all the work that it takes to make that image happen. So do you actually have a home studio? Do you rent a studio? How does that work to get your space?
June: 10:58 Right now I have a home studio, probably about five, 600 square feet and I’m, it’s kind of, I’m going to call it like a loft. You go up the stairs, and it’s a loft, and I have huge windows with sheers on them, and the light shines through there. And then I also have reflectors, and then I also have studio lighting on it. And then obviously have my backdrops on. You know the backdrop stands and stuff like that. So there’s a lot that goes into it. It just depends. But now that I’ve been working in there for about a year and a half, so I know when the best lighting is when the best lighting is for what I want, what I want those images to look for. I know between one and three o’clock is going to be my best lighting coming in that window where it’s my reflector perfectly to bounce off of the reflector and back onto my client though it’s kind of like touching go. It’s like okay, I didn’t like the way that looks, let me move this here, you know? Okay. Like the way that that looked, but this light needs to go here. It’s a process of learning your set up, your studio, your lighting. Cause everybody’s lighting’s different.
Katie: 12:01, Yeah. I’m sure it, for me it would totally be a trial and error. Just you know, just seeing what works. How did you kind of learn and figure out the equipment that you needed? Did you go to a specific place or anything like that where you found you really liked their equipment?
June: 12:15 So when I started, I didn’t know much about photography. I just knew if I looked at an image, I liked it, and that’s what I wanted. And I found mentors that I like different aspects of their photography. One of the mentors, and I, and I still, she’s still my mentor today is Sue Bryce. I loved her photography, and I love the way it looks. So I studied, studied onto her, she has videos, she has anything you could possibly think of, how to make dresses, how to do, you know, just tons of things. And I studied it, and I learned. And then another one for outdoors, I, you know, I like Meg Bitton the way it’s so deep and rich. So I studied what I like and then I basically took all of that, all of that I learned and took the pieces that I liked from everybody and put it together to make it for my own style. And that’s where you’re getting, when you look at my images, you’ll see, Oh, maybe that’s that person. Maybe that’s that person. No, that’s actually June K Collins because no one does it like her. But I, I just studied. I just studied and learned everything I possibly could.
Katie: 13:20, Yup. That’s the way to go about it. Absolutely. And so I’d love to jump into your composite work because it’s stunning and magical, and it’s just something that I don’t get to see every day, and I’m mesmerized by it. So what made you want to get into doing the composite work?
June: 13:35 I like taking something that you don’t see in reality and doing it. Kids are the best with this because I can say, Bella, Bella is my daughter. What kind of picture do you want? I want a turtle picture, and there’s one on my website where she’s on a ladder looking in the ocean where a bunch of turtles is. There’s another one that I thought it would be cute to have her hold on a Teddy bear in this forest where there’s no one there but her and it’s dark. And then there’s this, you know, just spare of sitting right there and all the special things that sparrows in crows stand for and everything. And just stuff that maybe I’m thinking of in my mind. And I’m like, let’s make that a reality. You know, why not? Why does everything have to be just black and white with the picture? And that’s where I get it from. And then a lot of times, you know, just like my friend earlier Jen, she just wanted something with elements. I’m like, okay, let’s make something, you know? And it’s just fun, and it’s different, and it’s, it’s more of like an art versus just the picture. A portrait. It’s something different. You’ll have it forever, and you can put it anywhere in your house, and it’s a piece of art in your house.
Katie: 14:40 Yes. And I have to imagine when kids see these photos; it’s just the most magical experience for them. I bet. That’s so fun. Action on their faces.
June: 14:48 Yeah. I’m, I’m thinking about working on one now. My daughter is into Muppet babies like big time. So I’m trying to get something in my mind cause it is a process sometimes of thinking about how you can do it. Okay. I want to do it with this client, and I want to do it with this thing, but how can I do it where it doesn’t look bad? I guess you could say like I have more, I think I have one on there now where they had like a, a client came to me, and she was doing it for a magazine for like tattoos, but she, it was like a princess thing, and she wanted to do snow-white, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, how is this going to look? But it turned out really well, but it’s just planning and thinking about it and then just going and doing it.
Katie: 15:30, Yeah. It’s so fun to look through all of your photos, and I’m just curious. A lot of people can dream up these, you know, these scenes and these ideas and themes, but not everybody knows how actually to make it a reality. So can you walk me through that process of, you know, you get the photo and then you do some editing? What’s that process of creating those beautiful scenes?
June: 15:51 My daughter, a client, comes to me and says, my daughter loves Skye from Papa troll. Okay. Do you want it as more of an outdoor theme or an indoor thing, and you know, they’ll tell me outdoor. It’s usually like an outdoor type sane. Okay. Do you want it like in a city or, or a forest and they’ll tell me one way or the other? What do they like to? Do they like to carry around holding it in the hand or are they like to do something specifically with the doll, and then I take all that, and it usually takes me a few days to kinds of process everything. And then once I, once I process everything, I’ll come back with kind of an idea in my head. And most of the time the clients, they like the idea, but they don’t really understand it like I do because I can see it.
June: 16:40 An example, I actually had a little boy that likes science, and the mom was like, let’s do something with science. And I’m like, okay, well, I thought about it for a while, and I thought about kind of like the mad scientist where they had the old vintage-looking goggles. They’re like the vintage metal looking goggles with a white jacket on behind a desk with, you know, beakers and smoke coming out. And he’d be like a normal kid, but he’s like in the, you know, mad scientist, vintage-looking, I’m going to say facility, but that’s not the word. But like shop now he’s mixing stuff together, and she liked that. But obviously, I see it more than she can see it. But that’s how I think of it. I, that’s kinda crazy. I’m going to, you know, like yeah, I’m just thinking up all this stuff, but it’s just, it just interests me, and I can think of it fast.
Katie: 17:30 And so when you go into the editing process, are you using Photoshop, or where do you get your images to create the composite? Other than the actual photograph of the kid?
June: 17:39 It’s all done in Photoshop. I do all mine in Photoshop. I’m not a big library person. So I do all the images. Sometimes I buy backgrounds, and then sometimes I take individual pictures of everything I’m going to use. I have one that I have in my mind right now. I’m going to do a dog one with the, a bomber jacket in like a plane he’s going to look like in a vintage plane. But the vintage plane is a toy. A little child’s like, I’m going to call it a matchbox car, matchbox type car, but it’s a vintage-looking plane. And I’ll take pictures of that, and I’ll cut it out, cut it out from the background, and place that in there. And then, you know, I’m, I’ll place the picture in there, and then I have a lot of pictures of skies, and I’ll put the skies in there and then maybe a mountain or, you know, it’s just a bunch of little pictures from all over the place.
Katie: 18:30 Right. And so you build it up until you see the final product. And how did you learn how to do all those tricks in Photoshop? Did you take a course? Did you YouTube and teach yourself?
June: 18:39 I did both. When I thought that I wanted to do it, I looked at all the videos you possibly look on because even though I composite, there are different kinds of composites, it’s weird how people do it. Some people put images within images, some people, you know, you’ll have like, a face and then there’s like a force in their face, you know, there are so many different images. So I look to see which ones I liked. And then I watched any YouTube video I could think of. And then I, there are different people, and I think to learn one of them. He learns or something like that. I took, you know, I watched some of his to see how do you cut him out? How do you make it, you know, when you take pictures of the lighting in one area, it might be different than the other one. How do I change the lighting and him and me? I learned how to do that. It’s just trial. I hate saying that, but it’s trial and error because you have to make sure that the lighting matches with each specific thing that you’re putting in the image.
Katie: 19:34 Right? Right. Yeah, definitely. If you YouTube it, there’s a video out there to teach you how to do it.
June: 19:39 Yeah. YouTube is like the best. If you are starting out and you don’t know what you want to do, you don’t know if you want to do composites, you’re just so lost. Youtube is the place to start, and then once you get into it, you’ll learn about the photographers, and you’ll learn, okay, well, I like the way they do it, or I like the way they do it. I don’t like this. I like that, you know, and you get, you get your style. I didn’t understand that at first, but you do, you get your style because there are things that one mentor does that I don’t like and another one I like. And you mold yourself into how you want, want your photography to look.
Katie: 20:16, Yeah. And speaking of people heard, just starting out, do you have any advice for somebody who maybe is in the position that you were in a while ago before you left your law enforcement job where they feel like maybe there’s something more out there that they want to do. Still, they don’t know if they have the confidence to make that leap like you did? Is there anything that you would say to them to bolster them up and help give them the confidence to move forward and follow their right dreams?
June: 20:41 And my biggest thing that I always tell everybody is always follow your dreams. No matter where it leads you, that’s the only way you’re going to be truly happy. That’s the only way you can make anybody else truly happy. I know making a transition is hard, and obviously, we all have to worry about money. We all have to worry about if you are, if your mamas or daddies, you know, you have to worry about how are we going to afford this? How are we going to, you know, help my child? You know, my child’s much more important than anything else. Everybody knows that. But if you don’t make that little leap, I feel like you’ll always wonder, you’ll wonder what if one day you’re going to look back at yourself and you’re going to go, what if I would have done that? Would I have been truly happy? You can’t fear. You can’t fear what’s being thrown at you because it’s not going to be thrown at you. It’s not meant to be. I guess that’s a big thing. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it my whole life, you know, with law enforcement, I’m small, I’m five foot, you know, they’re like, Oh, you can’t do that. And the thing that I learned was watching me do it. You know, and when you’re transitioning and when you’re going through everything, you need to do it. Just do it.
Katie: 21:48 That, that like life won’t throw something at you unless you can handle it. So if it’s coming into you and you’re thinking about it all the time, then it’s something to pay attention to.
June: 21:56 Yeah. And it, and I’ve done it too. I mean, not everybody is just like, yeah, I’m going to do it right now. But it’s hard. It’s, it’s hard to go from, this is steady in this. I know to something, I don’t know. It is very, if it’s very difficult for anybody to do that or who you are, but I think that in the end, you’ll be happier by doing it.
Katie: 22:18 Right. And that even though you’re scared is that doesn’t make you any less able to do it than somebody who maybe has a little bit more confidence. So I always try to find myself that that fear is not a weakness, that, you know, it can be something that gives you strength.
June: 22:33 Yeah. And I think, I think too, you know, don’t get me wrong, you know, I, in this transition, it wasn’t like, okay, one day I’m in law enforcement. The next day I’m not, you know, it’s something over a period of time, but making steps towards, even if it’s only one thing at a time, okay, well today, you know, I have to go to my regular job. Still, tonight when I get home, and my child sleep or I have 10 minutes, I’m going to do a shout out, or I’m going to contact someone that contacted me on email or called earlier, or I’m going to make a flyer up to, you know, send to a, a business that you might want to work with it, the, you know, little baby steps, but take those steps because we’ll make those steps. You’ll always wonder, you know,
Katie: 23:22, I totally agree. And I think that’s great advice. And you’ve already mentioned a couple of you know, courses or you know, the mentors that you have, but are there any other books or podcasts or anything out there that’s been helpful to you in your personal life or in your photography business that you would recommend to the listeners?
June: 23:38 Yeah, I am a big audiobook driving the car, and let’s get books on tech. Well, I say on tape, it’s not on tape anymore, but I’ve listened to books all the time about business, some of them three simple steps. It’s by Trevor Blake. I really liked that, the pumpkin plan. And he also writes another one called profit first. And I love the pumpkin plan because it kind of speaks about, yes, you’re doing, you’re doing something, but you don’t have to be the same. Like, I am a photographer, but I am, I’m standing out from the rest because I’m doing something different. So I like the one by Gary Keller. I love that book. That was a good book. And Thinking & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Those are, some of them I’ve liked, I’ve listened to a bunch of them, but I love those books.
June: 24:29 And I think the one, the pumpkin plan was the one I started with and I, and I enjoyed that one just because it talks about, yes, you’re going to, you might be doing the same thing, but you can do something, you can stand out. And it talks about standing out when there are so many people. And we find that now with, with everything, with photography, with online businesses, with, you know, podcasts with, you know, clothing stores. There’s so many all over the place. It, it just talks about you have to stand out. And that’s why I liked that book so much.
Katie: 25:00 Awesome. Awesome. Well, I’ll link to that in the show notes. Everybody can check it out from themselves. And also, do you mind telling them listeners how they can find you and take a look at your beautiful work?
June: 25:09 Yes, yes, of course. I, they can find me on Facebook in June, K Collins portraits. And then on Instagram, I am June K Collins portraits. And then my website is www.junekcolinsportraits.com
Katie: 25:26 Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing that, and thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s been such a pleasure to talk to you.
June: 25:32 Thanks so much for having me.
Resource List:
- Sue Bryce Education
- Meg Bitton Live
- Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life
- The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
- The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
- The ONE Thing
