We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Waesche recently and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My Mom and Dad without a doubt. From my father, the true meaning of doing hard work, picking yourself up when you fall, not being afraid to learn something new even if it’s hard, and pushing through when you want to give up. From my mother, compassion, attention to details, and the undying love of staying true to yourself.
With these foundation fundimentals they raised me into the woman I am, with a determination for working as hard as you can and to not be afraid of failure.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the youngest of 7 siblings, along with my parents, all of whom have their own sucessful careers or bussiness. Throughout years each of them have been great examples to me of what exactly goes into being a business owner. For myself, as a child I always dreamed of bieng a photographer, and in my senior year of home-school highschool I got my GED and decided I wanted to further my education in photography at Daytona State College. At college I learned to true meaning of self motivation, I wanted that “A” in each class and had to work hard for it. Through those years I worked sometimes 2 jobs, to save for the next semester since I was paying for it all myself out of pocket. And in the fall of 2021, I can not tell you the amount of pride and joy I felt holding my graduation certificate.
After about 5 years of professional photography and now my college education done, In May of 2022 I decided to start my own business, Raelynn Captures LLC, a wedding and portrait photography company. It was a very scary step forward, with many opsticals and learning curves buiness wise, and if I’m being completly honest still can be! But each month I’ve leaned so many new things and am growing stronger in my business sense as well as self-confidence in my photography abilities.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Without a doubt I would say to anyone wanting to get into photography, SHOOT, a lot! Take pictures of everything, try each area. Take the nature photos, dabble in food photography, do photoshoots for your friends. I can not say how thankful I am for the years of experience I had doing second shooting for a wedding photographer. It gave me such an inside look at what really goes on, as well as taught me so much in field experience without all the pressure of being a main photographer. In that experience I gained so much helpful constructive criticism, thinking on my feet, and most of all experience using my camera to put my artful skills to use.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Having my work stand out in this competitive field. It’s somthing I continually work on for myself, because as a photographer it’s easy to get lost in the pool of thousands of others. I have finally come to the conclusion that I AM my brand, and when people see my work, they will see me.
Contact Info:
- Website: raelynncaptures.com
- Instagram: raelynn_captures
- Facebook: raelynncapturesllc
