046: Find Your Niche & Instagram Hacks with Benj Haisch

Episodes The Bearded Tog

June 13, 2018

Find Your Niche (and Build Your Instagram, too!)

In your photography journey, you eventually find your niche. It’s the thing or concept that you are passionate about, that you love taking pictures of, and inspires you. Once you find that niche, it can be easy to fall into the idea that all of your pictures must now look like that, and you can only accept clients that fit your ideal.

In this episode of The Bearded Tog, I talk with wedding and elopement photographer Benj Haisch about finding the heart and meaning behind your niche, how to smoothly go through all the crazy hiccups that can happen at weddings, and the importance of capturing photos for multiple generations.

Benj’s Takeaways to Find your Niche

When he was younger, Benj used to spend his summers going camping and spending time in the forest. As a wedding photographer, he found himself shooting a lot of urban environment weddings during the summer and missing the outdoors life. He changed his social media posting to talk about his love of the mountains and woods, and how he’d love to photograph more weddings in those locations. Eventually, he started attracting clients with similar values who were having the types of weddings he was excited to photograph.
Most weddings are going to have hiccups. You are working with a bunch of people you have never worked with before on a day that’s emotionally charged for the clients. At the end of the day though, remember that a lot of these setbacks are minor things, and no one is going to remember them. Just be on the same page as the bride and groom and help them have a great day.
There’s a false idea in the industry that finding your ideal client means there will be no problems or hiccups.
It doesn’t matter what location the couple’s wedding is in as long as the couple is in love and having a great time. You could be in an amazing location, but have people fighting with each other and not having a good day. People matter more than location and aesthetics.

In the wedding industry, you are in the people business. Hiccups will happen, and your job is to be empathetic and care about the people you are serving and working with.

Sometimes, things happen at a wedding that you have no control of, and the client might be upset at you only because you are the last point of contact from that wedding when you deliver the photos.

About Benj’s Motivation

After his grandmother passed, Benj became more aware of the dynamic of family at the weddings and capturing all of the generations present. Becoming a father had a similar effect on him, and now he makes a point to photograph his weddings not just to capture a pretty couple, but to capture legacy and relationships for the couple, their entire family, and their future generations.
Instagram is a scrolling billboard. Benj puts images up that he knows will capture people’s attention. If they follow and start reading the captions, eventually they get to know about him and his values. If they feel a connection, they will inquire.
Benj explains to his inquiries that while they will have those cool epic photos to share with their friends that look cool, they will also get the rest of the day and relationships as they happen, and years down the road, they will treasure these photos as well.