August 8, 2018

Meet Tara Swain of Tara Swain Photography

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Swain.

Tara, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I established my business in January of 2008 so I am celebrating my 10th year in business this year. Photography was a hobby of mine that quickly turned into a part time business. I started my business at age 20 and within 8 months, I was having to leave my full time job to accommodate my Photography business schedule. My business seemed to grow quickly from word of mouth and client referrals alone. I have met and worked with some amazing people whom I still photograph 10 years later.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With any business I have had “growing pains” mainly because I don’t outsource any of the work, but I also love handling every aspect of the business I built myself. At times I just have a hard time saying no, but I’ve come a long way.

Tara Swain Photography – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I have never been able to limit myself to 1 genre. In my earlier years, before my husband and I had children, I took on a lot more weddings. I traveled constantly and was always away from home. Now that we have 2 children at home, I have cut my traveling down quite a bit and only accept a few weddings a year. I do travel for sessions as well but I also limit that so that I’m not away from home as much as I used to. I do still love wedding but I also love child photography. We built a large, custom, natural light studio on our property back in 2012 and now that I have that to offer clients, as well as large outdoor shooting space, a lot of my client base with children will travel to me. I have a large collection or props that we can utilize on my property and clients like having a set location they can come to where everything is convenient and right here. One thing I seem to be known for as my elaborate concept mini sessions that I offer throughout the year. Those typically take place on my property as well. These are not just holiday themed minis, but different concepts that I work on set for and plan throughout the year. I have been asked and spoken at several workshops and photography conventions on styling and specifically my child mini sessions.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I can’t really say if there is 1 moment that stands out as my proudest. I’ve been blessed to have a very fun, exciting career. I branched out and offered mentoring several years ago and have had photographers from all over the United States, travel to me for mentoring and workshops. My proudest moment of the mentoring side of my business was having a photographer who traveled from Brazil to work with me. My photography business, studio and tons of images have been featured or published in numerous online and print publications all over the globe which have also been very proud moments for me and this year I celebrated 9 years of being voted Best Photographer in Paris for our local Paris News Reader’s Choice Awards.

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