Meet Kamaree Odom of Social Shots Photography in Peachtree Corners

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kamaree Odom.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kamaree. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Well, this journey definitely was unexpected! I always loved to do event planning and had done so for years for close family and friends. During a girls trip to Miami, I decided to purchase my first professional camera to take pictures at the events that I was planning throughout the year. I told myself, if I am going to spend this kind of money on a camera, you can bet that I am going to learn how to use it from A to Z!

Next, I signed up for night classes at Atlanta School of Photography (Showcase Photography) and learned the basics. I watched endless videos and studied online via different photography resources. I invested in several photography workshops and ultimately practiced pretty much daily with anyone who would allow me to take pictures of them and or of their events!

I didn’t charge one dime for the first year of shooting because I felt that I couldn’t “guarantee” any results to the clients! Fairly quickly, I started to receive checks in the mail from those clients and endless inspirational emails, phone calls and texts encouraging me to start my own photography business! Eight years later, I have invested a lot of blood sweat and tears to grow my wedding photography company which is Social Shots Photography!

Has it been a smooth road?
Heck no it was not a smooth road, you may as well call me Rocky Road because that is surely how the journey started!

I took any and all jobs, second shooter jobs with other wedding photographers whether they were established or not! I gave 100% for each job that I took on and of course like any budding photographer, I had to learn some hard lessons along the way. Other photographers taking credit for your work, marketing their business with your art and photos, getting stiffed on payments. I even showed up to a wedding once to be the second shooter and the primary shooter never showed up! I had to shoot the wedding by myself with clients that I never even met before!

I think that’s what gave me the confidence to know that I could handle the pressure because I was always prepared and ready to give my best! Studying and investing also paid off because it helped me to be prepared with the correct knowledge and equipment to handle some tricky situations such as lighting.

Although, those challenges seemed so awful at the time, it really built my muscle and made me a better photographer overall!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Social Shots Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
Social Shots Photography is a multi-cultural wedding boutique photography studio based out of Atlanta, GA. We take pride in documenting all of the special moments that a client experiences from their engagement to their wedding day. We specialize in weddings but also have the pleasure of capturing maternity sessions and special events to include birthdays, anniversaries and corporate events, but we are most known for our dynamic wedding and engagement photography!

Our style of wedding photography is bold! Although, we love the beautiful light and airy styled photos, that is not who we are. We’re like a little “Glam and Bam!” Our clients come to us when their photos needs to have a little glamour, style, fierceness and fun!

Our goal is to provide high end quality photography services to capture our client’s love story and to create a lifetime experience!

We are most proud that we are able to create genuine relationships with our clients based on trust and quality service. We only accept a limited amount of clients per year to ensure that we maintain an invested relationship with them throughout their wedding planning process. We truly care about our clients and love to hear all about their plans for the big day! We probably will never change that about our business, not for more money or anything!

We work and live honestly and incorporate morals and values in how we do business, which I feel sets us apart from others. We have a genuine nature and true dedication to excellence with each session that we are graciously granted to photograph.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Well if these cell phone companies keep making these AMAZING phones with these exceptional cameras, we photographers may be out of work, lol! I think over the next 5-10 years if you don’t adapt to the evolving changes in technology, it will be highly likely that your business will fall behind and or become non-existent!

Also, I believe that we will see a strong trend in social media platforms that utilize photography and video resources such as Instagram and Snap Chat. I wonder what the future “Instagram” and “snap chat” will be and how it will be utilized to market our business.

There will also be continuing challenges with pricing as more consumers have access to purchase pro cameras conveniently at their local stores or online and are quick to start their own businesses with or without the proper knowledge to perform at very low costs. The “hobby” of photography is now the “business” of photography as everyone is striving to be their own business owner, which is a double edge sword of being motivating and degenerating for the industry.

Video and Cinematography is also making big waves right now and I believe will continue to do so over the next few years. With videographers being able to combine stills and video shoots, clients won’t have to rely as much on hiring two different resources, they may be able to get an “all for one” service!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.socialshotsphotos.com
• Email: info@socialshotsphotos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialshotsphotos/

Image Credit:
Social Shots Photography

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