We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Price. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.
Chris, we sincerely appreciate you joining us today and agreeing to talk about some very personal topics. So, to kick things off, let’s talk about a tough one – divorce. Can you talk to us about how you overcame divorce?
My wife of 16 years left me in 2012, I claimed I was over it for many years, but I realize that I wasn’t really. I honestly didn’t start getting over it till February of 2020. That’s when I purchased my first real camera. I had just started hiking to try to get my weight under control, and saw all the wonders of nature that I wanted to share with others. My phone’s camera was fine, but the pictures weren’t right to me. So I bought a little cheap point and shoot camera, it did fine, but I wanted more.
Then I got my Sony a6000 and that’s when I fell in love with photography and truly started healing. I started learning everything I could. Taking online classes, watching YouTube videos, and going out taking pictures around downtown of the city I live in. I built my 1st online portfolio to show people what I was doing, when I got stopped by people when taking pictures of the buildings. It had pictures of some of the buildings from around town and some from my hikes.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but all of that got me excited about life again. It was like this cloud that I had hanging over me had finally moved away. It came back for a short while when I fell and twisted my ankle during a hike. I put the camera down during that, but only 6 months. I picked back up, started shooting again, and it was like the winds blew the clouds away.
I had tried dating on and off over the years, but that cloud was always there, getting in the way of my self-esteem or letting me really trust anyone. Once I started throwing myself in to trying to get a photography business going and I met this special lady, that has gone on a few “adventures’ with me and has helped me see shots that I might have missed. I’m finally in a place where I feel like I have gotten over it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Over the last few years of my hobby of taking pictures around town and during hikes. I’ve had friends mention that I needed to try and sell some of my pictures at a couple of the art festivals around the state. That’s how I got started down the path of starting Bama Price Photography
I went with that name because I have been using Bamaprice as a user on X (twitter), and Instagram for years. I had a small audience built already, so it made since to build off that.
I’ve attended a few art festival this year and have signed up for several more. I love getting out to meet people and see what draws their attention when they are walking by. But as much as I enjoy the shows, I can’t wait to get out to Nature, to find the next waterfall, or the sky being painted as the sun sets for the day. To see this world and bring it back or just share a picture online so that someone that may not be able to get out, can enjoy the beauty of this world and even the hidden gems that Alabama, the state I live in, has to offer.
I changed my online portfolio to an ecommerce website, bamaprice.com, and found an amazing printer that does excellent work. I’m constantly add more pictures on it and uploading to Facebook, Instagram, X, & Threads.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
First as Skills you need learn the basics of photography or the industry you are going in. For me, this was ISO, aperture, composition, and how to edit the pictures when you get home. Also I had to learn, I can take 100 pictures and only one or two will be worth showing to the public.
Second, never stop educating yourself about the field you are in, marketing, or how to sell yourself and your work. Just because you create something and put it out for the public to purchase or enjoy, doesn’t mean that it will be seen/heard by them. You can’t expect something to go viral, you have to work at it. Get your friends to help repost your business/art pictures/songs, that way word of mouth will spread.
Finally, if you are doing something you love, it truly is not work. Be patient, and keep at it, If you’re an artist, whether a painter, a singer, a baker, a chef, or an old guy that likes to get out and go around taking pictures, enjoy the things you do, the other stuff will come. If you don’t enjoy the creative parts, it’s not worth doing the other.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
This is going to sound cliche, but my friends and family have been the most help at different times and in different ways. Mostly by helping me get out of my own way. I have a bad habit of not thinking a picture is good enough or falling in to a funk and not thinking that what I’m doing is worth spending the money on to get things going.
But it never fails one of them has been there. Most of the time they didn’t realizing they were helping, just with words of encouragement or helping me set up my booth in their driveway before I had to go set it up at an event for the first time. Without their support, I would have never kept at it and gave up along time ago.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Bamaprice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bamaprice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BamaPricePhotography/
- Twitter: https://x.com/BamaPrice
Image Credits
Bama Price Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
