April 17, 2017

Meet Leslie Walker of Walker Family Portraits in North Atlanta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Walker.

Leslie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My passion for photography started when I had children. The little moments with them that I could capture with a single click just amazed me, and encouraged me to finally purchase a “real” camera and retire my little Canon point-and-shoot. From there the love of capturing in the moment images grew and grew. Friends and family started asking me to take their families photos, and from those first few sessions a business began to grow. It was slow to start and I can remember feeling like I was crazy for doing this and pouring so much time and energy into something for such little profit, but it always seemed worth it to me. Even in the beginning when I was doing sessions for free just to build a portfolio, I enjoyed the work. The old saying that if you love your work, you’ll never really work a day in your life rings so true to me. Today the business has grown into something I feel I can be proud of and something I can honestly say has taught me so much. When I first realized I could maybe turn this hobby into a career, I really had no idea what I was doing in a business sense. I knew how to do the work, but advertising, website maintenance, and handling the financial aspects were all brand new to me. Not only was I still learning about my craft, but I was also getting a real-life crash course on owning a small business. It was a lot to juggle, but in the end I am so pleased at where we are and the direction we’re going.

I truly love being able to capture genuine moments of happiness for my clients. Whether it’s for a wedding, a family, or even a pet session, I know that my clients will take these images and cherish them just like I cherish the photos of my loved ones. It’s truly the best job I’ve ever had.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely not been as smooth a road as some. When I decided to really do this a career, it was really difficult learning not only new techniques as an artist to enhance my images, but also how to build a website, how to advertise, and how to keep up with expenses and financial records. It was a daunting task, but I had such an amazing support system. My best friend is a business owner and has ran two extremely successful business now for many years and although our trades differed, she was extremely helpful in shaping the way I run things at Walker Family Portraits. My mom, husband, and children have all been extremely supportive as well and we’ve all sacrificed to make it into what it is today.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Walker Family Portraits story. Tell us more about the business.
Walker Family Portraits is a locally owned and operated photography business. We specialize in capturing memories for families of all shapes and sizes in every stage of life. Whether you’re expecting your first baby and want to highlight that beautiful glow you’ve been sporting or you’re marrying the love of your life at 65, we’re here for you.

Some of my favorite moments of this job are not only bearing witness to huge moments in people’s lives such as the marriage of two high school sweethearts and the births of children who doctors said might never happen, but also the little everyday giggles of a 3-year-old and the sweet way a couple holds hands while we are talking details about their upcoming big day. All of these things add up to a job that makes me smile every single day, and that makes me very proud.

I think the passion that is devoted to each and every image sets us apart from the ordinary. A perfectionist at heart, I want to exceed the expectations of my clients and I’m only happy when they are completely satisfied.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think as far as photography goes, people will always want and love having images of special events in their life. However, a shift has already started to occur where family, newborn, and couple’s sessions are concerned. Lifestyle sessions as they are known are unposed, more real-life images that capture small everyday moments with a family, sometimes in their own home, that are definitely not the usual posed everyone looking and smiling at the camera shots. As an advocate of these real-life moments, even within my normal shoots, I love the emotion that be captured in a tickle fight or the pure joy on the faces of two first-time home buyers walking into the home they will raise their babies in. I definitely think this trend will continue to grow, because it’s just such an honest approach to photographing people.

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