Meet Ivy B. French

We were lucky to catch up with Ivy B. French recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ivy B., thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. My mother was a single mom & my dad passed away from pancreatic cancer when I was 10. My mom did the best she could but with 2 small kids, a house note, car notes (as we could drive), etc. she made the best of it & managed our tight budget. Because we didn’t have a lot of money, my mom supported me as best she could & I realized that if I wanted to do this, I needed to work hard to get where I want to get in this career that I love so much & pay for the equipment, website, programs, etc. So, I started playing with my dad’s film cameras when I was 15 and I just fell in love with photography. From there, I just kept practicing, learning on my own with YouTube (don’t worry kids, that’s all we had back in my day hah), learning from photographers I looked up to, and eventually went to art school. I LOVE photography and when you love your job, you don’t feel like you’re working even on the worst days. If you can monetize what you love as your career, you should. It takes massive amounts of tenacity, perseverance, continuing ed on this career you’ve chosen because you need and want to stay relevant, & lots of hard work and time until you begin to turn a profit. I am a bit of a workaholic but I’m working on that. 😉

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’ve owned Ivy B Photography for just over 10 years now. We started out with portrait photography only (ie: Family Photos, Senior Photos, Boudoir Photos, Newborn Photos, Etc.) and as I became more confident in my craft and career, I began to try to my hand at Branding/Commercial Photography, Food Photography, Product Photography. Listen, I. fell. in. love. with it! I am ADHD & have a hard time sitting still. With Branding, Commercial, Food, & Product Photography, it is extremely fast paced and all clients need their photos yesterday. It’s also a really cool thing to get to play a small part in helping a business grow & capturing these really special moments for families, seniors, newborns, & boudoir. I know, I know! Boudoir is controversial. Some love it and some hate it. But let me tell you what I’ve learned from offering Boudoir Photography: Boudoir photography is not about porn, being vain, or even for your partner. I just THOUGHT that was what Boudoir was about. As I began to offer these shoots, I quickly realized it’s such a special moment for the client (& myself to be able to watch this happen) realize how incredibly gorgeous they are. Especially, us ladies. We are so hard on ourselves but Boudoirs FORCE us to see ourselves as the incredibly stunning women that we are and as our partners see us. We should be appreciating our bodies and all they do for us and go through and I am ALWAYS here for empowering people to embrace who they truly are and literally SEE how amazing they look! As a photographer, my goal with each and every one of these sessions is to capture you & yours being YOU in the most fun, real, and out of the box ways. I’ve gotten to meet some extremely talented and business minded people and have learned so much from them!

Eventually, I opened RAW thestudio. RAW came about because I would rent studios for shoots when I was in larger cities but we had nothing here in Shreveport, Louisiana. So, photographer friends began to ask if they could borrow the studio for a shoot. The studio began to get borrowed a lot and I loved it! It just made sense to start RAW at that point so here I find myself not only owning the largest studio rental in my area but I have been so inspired by watching all of these creatives come in and use the space in their own, unique way. We get photographers that are very green and we get photographers that are very seasoned, like myself. It’s led to a community of creatives that love to support & encourage each other.

It’s been a journey to get here and there have been times it was scary…but it is SO worth it!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I love this question. You’ve got to have the drive to ask these questions and so many times I see new creatives scared to ask questions out of fear, embarrassment, or both. Let that s**t go, y’all! Be bold, be brave and ASK question!

I would also say these other 4 things are key:

1) DO the work to learn, grow your craft, meet other creatives (community is key), & put the time in to grow your new business. If you don’t take the time to do this, you will have a very hard time making it.
2) PRACTICE, practice, practice! I cannot stress this one enough! Shoot everything so you can know what you actually want to specialize in. What shoots give you joy and what shoots are not for you? it’ll also make you a better photographer. For me? I did weddings for years but I honestly don’t enjoy them since it takes my weekends, they are long hours of work, and hard on the body, so I only take 5-7 a year. The rest of my business is sustained with portrait photography and commercial/branding photography.
3) START WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT! It’s so easy to fall in to the trap of “needing” the best of the best equipment. Guess what? That’s not true. Start with what you’ve got and as the money rolls in, save to get the better gear.
4) GET CONTRACTS! Listen, y’all, people are crazy and this is just some CYA for YOU. Trust me on this.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I have to give credit to my husband and some other dear family (Aunt Hope) & family friends (Dr. Basinger of Basinger Family Dental & Dr. Palmer-Family Medicine to name a couple) who took the time to mentor me and teach me business. I’m an artist to the core. I’m all over the place and have ADHD #jesustakethewheel I grew IBP on my own for a long time and then I met my husband at 28 & he is a data guy & salesman with a marketing degree. He was so patient with me as he taught even more about business and put it in a way that my brain would understand. From there, I also did my own learning & research. THIS is why I say to ask questions. To be humble enough to ask for advice and then actually learn from the people you know and trust who have succeeded. You’ll learn a lot when you push that nervousness and embarrassment aside. I also have processes in place to help with my ADHD and that is a huge help.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ivybphotography.com
• Instagram: @ivybphotography, @ivybphotography_boudoir, @rawthestudio
• Facebook: @ivybphotography, @ivybphotography-boudoir, @rawthestudio
• Twitter: @ivybphotography
• Other: TikTok: @ivybphotography, @rawthestudio

Image Credits

All photos by myself except my headshot. That is done by the amazing J Michael Photography Co.