We were lucky to catch up with Natalie Moore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Natalie , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I keep my creativity alive by keeping up with my self-care. My self-care comes in the form of promoting a lasting healthy & happy mental and physical lifestyle. To do this, I eat nutritiously and limit processed foods, industrial seed oils, and alcohol. I try to move my body every day, even if it’s just to walk my dog or do a 20-minute workout. I wake up & go to bed with the sun and try to minimize my time in artificial light. I minimize my time on social media- which also majorly helps with my imposter syndrome. I go on adventures, hike & travel as much as I possibly can. I spend time with the people and animals I love and who share the same love for adventures and others humans and animals as me. I don’t take on too much work so that I can leave time open for living and for other personal creative projects
I have developed these habits over time with lots of trial and error. I’ve been on many hikes where I felt like crap because I didn’t get the right fuel in my body. And after fueling the right way a few times and feeling wonderful, you start to realize how to prep. I’ve also spent dozens of nights tossing and turning in bed because I drank alcohol. After eliminating bad foods and alcohol from my life for an extended period. I felt the effects of them when I have even just a little bit now. I’ve learned from experience that eating nutritiously helps my mental health and my physical health, ensuring my creativity stays in tip-top shape, too.
The wedding photography industry has a term called “wedding hangovers” and a lot of us think they are just due to the crazy nature of weddings for photographers. But after studying nutrition more and learning to read ingredient labels, I started to realize that I wasn’t fueling myself for those hard wedding days.
I want to provide the same level of expertise, creativity, and experience for all of my clients. That meant that I had to fuel my body and mind right. I had to protect my time and not give attention to things that would pull me away from my healthy lifestyle. It’s a lot of learning as you grow. But also a lot of self awareness to realize you are only hindering yourself when you give into all the things. I used to enjoy junk food. Now I enjoy making healthy food from scratch with ingredients I can pronounce. Just knowing I’m taking care of my body and mind the best way I can and having healthy habits, really sparks my creativity and gives me the brain power to be my best most creative self.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m an adventure elopement and lifestyle photographer who helps people craft incredible adventures in epic places. These are not photoshoots. They’re experiences and uniquely crafted around their personalities, interests, love languages, and relationship. The focus remains on their experience and creating adventure bonds.
It is so special to not only help people create memories and have photos to go with those memories and their stories. But also to help them craft an experience that celebrates their life and love and helps them have amazing adventure bonds with the people they love in places they’ll never forget.
I recently launched adventure content creation for my clients. So I now offer, video clips from their experience on the newest iPhone and on an insta360. Giving them more ways to tell their adventure stories without having to hire a videographer.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think marketing, SEO, and creating a unique and epic client experience are the most important parts of the business side of things. Being a great photographer is wonderful, but you don’t have to be the best photographer to have a successful photo business. You do need to be a good marketer and know how to write content so that it performs on Google search. And you want to provide a client experience that gives value far beyond what you charge.
My biggest advice for newer photographers who want to grow their own business are to read Building a Storybrand and build yourself as an expert by giving free value to your ideal client and market before they ever even inquire. The more you show yourself as an expert and give free value the more they will trust you with their money and their memories.
And just as important as those business things above are taking care of your mind and body by fueling it with food that will make being a photographer easier. Especially for those folks seeking the adventure side of things. It’s hard to hike in the mountains. It’s even harder to hike in the mountains with camera gear.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
My ideal clients are humans, couples, and families who love the mountains and outdoor recreation. They’re laid back and fun-loving. They love to experience life to the fullest and have lots of adventures. They want photographs to represent real life and real moments, not to be posed, perfect, or represent something that isn’t real. They don’t want a traditional photo shoot. They want images that will bring them back into each moment. And photos that show off the mountains and their surroundings. They want photographs that tell their real stories.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.natmoorephotography.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/natmoorephotography
- Facebook: facebook.com/natmoorephotography
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/natmoorephotography
- Youtube: youtube.com/natmoorephotography
Image Credits
personal image taken by Blue Flame Studio Co
