Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Leitzinger.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nicholas. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My great-grandmother was my earliest memory of appreciating photography. Even in her late 90s, she was known for her love of Polaroid photos. For years, she documented her daily life in Polaroids despite being blind in one eye. Her local pharmacy had to make sure they always had enough film since she was constantly depleting their stock. She would capture entire sequences of sunsets, people, bugs, flowers, and anything that caught her eye (her one good eye) or told a story.
In one instance, she even enjoyed documenting the aftermath of a crime scene outside her apartment building where she interviewed witnesses, police officers, and photographed and documented the blood trail where the suspect had been shot. She was ready to dive in and document whatever came her way, whether it was a shootout or a flower. Her photos are something that she has left behind that our family is now able to cherish. I love telling this story because I believe I have inherited my love of photography from her. I love setting up dramatic portraits and attempting to make photos that are visually striking but nothing stands the test of time as much as capturing moments big or small and telling stories that are such sentimental and valuable parts of being alive.
When I first started getting into photography, I never wanted to shoot weddings. I felt like weddings were overly traditional, predictable, and restrictive. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a wedding blog that was the opposite of everything I had thought wedding photography was that I thought about being a wedding photographer. It was non-traditional, not overly-posed and full of feeling and emotion and for the first time, I was completely inspired to pursue this as a profession. I started off shooting for friends and friends of friends and eventually started branching out to more couples outside of my circle. At the time, I was a musician, graphic designer, and real estate agent but as I gradually started shooting more weddings throughout the year I decided to go full time and haven’t looked back. Being a wedding photographer has allowed me to live a lifestyle that lets me travel and spend time with my wife. I’m very happy to say that I’ve been shooting weddings for close to a decade.
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?
I feel like the wedding photography business was over-saturated with photographers even back when I started taking photos in 2008 which definitely lead to some low morale about any hope for doing this for a living. Getting traction and finding people to trust a budding photographer was challenging most of the time. Especially for someone who isn’t all that comfortable networking and drumming up business on their own. Fortunately, though, being a musician, I was part of some church communities that trusted me to capture their weddings or portraits and those weddings ended up helping me establish my style as a photographer and set me on the course I’m on now. With the help and trust of my friends and clients early on, I was able to quit my other part-time job and focus solely on photography.
Being a wedding photographer definitely still has its ups and downs. The fact that you can randomly think of a made up name, put photography at the end of it, search that in google and find someones photography portfolio lets you know how saturated this profession is. However, I vowed to push through that and to just keep shooting. I’ve had great months and I’ve had terrible months but I’m still completely passionate about photography and don’t plan to quit anytime soon. Some advice of a photographer mentor of mine also helped me have a clear picture for what to expect in a career in photography. He told me that some of the most of the amazing photographers are the worst at business and the worst photographers are amazing at business.
Of course, most photographers are somewhere in the middle of that but that gave me a very useful heads-up to not be lax on the business side of things which is still my biggest challenge. I’ve realized that there are people who treat you like a rock star in this profession and others you have to constantly defend your value to and you can’t let either of those get to you. Not everyone is going to like what you do but as long as the people who choose you to shoot their wedding love your work and you treat them right, you have a good shot at being successful.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Nicholas Leitzinger Photography – what should we know?
In my opinion, being a wedding photographer is an odd mixture of creativity and business. I tend to want to live on the right side of my brain and not have to deal with all the logistics and practicalities of the business side of things. I’ve gotten much better at it over the years since I realized that if I wait to be inspired to get back with emails or do my taxes, I won’t be in business for very long. As compared to most occupations, it’s unique in that sense, but among the photography community, there are quite a few of us photographers in the world. However, I feel like my strength lies in valuing people and the human experience and being able to capture people I may have never met before at an important cross-section of their lives and translating that into photos. I think there is an art form in not intervening too much and making someone’s wedding about me and my photos and letting the event play out naturally and honestly. I don’t want people to feel like they are on an editorial shoot where they have to perform. I want them to trust me and to enjoy their day and I hope/feel like that is a strength of mine as a photographer and that’s what I’m most proud of.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
When I was discouraged starting off as a photographer and still working a part-time job I didn’t like, the concepts of transcendence and perseverance encouraged me greatly. I would get really stressed at work and I would picture myself standing where I was on a map and then scaling it back further and further and just focusing on how insignificant whatever I was stressing out about was in the context of geography and time and it helped transcend and recalibrate and see past the stress and temporary nature of things. Also, just sticking to what I loved doing and not giving up has gotten me to where I am more than anything. Sometimes, things take time and you have to make a hundred mistakes before you can really start creating some quality work.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5826 Oram Street
Dallas, Tx 75206 - Website: nicholasleitzinger.com
- Phone: 8176897823
- Email: nicholas@nicholasl.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nicholasleitzinger
Image Credit:
Nicholas Leitzinger Photography
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