The Face Behind Nichole Storey Photography- Kansas City Wedding Photographer
I don't know about you, but when it comes to supporting small businesses, I always love getting to know the heart behind the brand and the "why" behind the business. So hey! I'm Nichole and I'm so happy you took the time to click on this blog post!
For as long as I can remember I've been creative, I love taking something in front of me and making it beautiful and pulling out the full potential of things. Once Pinterest came in to my life, holy cow, you better believe I spent the majority of my free time remaking everything I found on that site that even slightly resonated with me. From embroidery to quilting, to Cricut, I've dabbled in it all.
Photography though, never seemed like a real possibility to me even though I LOVED taking pictures. I got a digital camera for Christmas one year when I was still in high school and I was hooked. That thing went everywhere with me and I took pictures of EVERYTHING. There's still an album on my Facebook of a zoo trip we took in Denver, and I'm pretty sure I snapped every animal that crossed my path. That same year though, I took an art class and within that class was a photography portion, our teacher handed us each a camera and told us to go take pictures of whatever we wanted and to bring them back the following Monday. I excitedly went out to my grandparents farm and snapped pictures of tractors, old equipment, anything and everything out there that I loved. I knew the pictures I took weren't the best per se, but I also didn't think they were bad. WRONG. That Monday, my teacher scrolled through my camera history and very bluntly told me they weren't very good. I was bummed, beyond bummed. I wanted to be good at it so bad, but obviously I wasn't. I need to clarify that my teacher wasn't being mean or rude, he was just being honest. They weren't very good pictures... but he also didn't quite see my vision and the importance behind those photos and that's totally okay. Because of that experience though, I put down the camera and didn't pick one back up for 10+ years.
Fast forward to 2023, I'm sitting on the couch with my 4 week old son, crying. Sobbing actually. I still had 2 months left of maternity leave but just the thought of spending a whole 12 hour day, working as an respiratory therapist, away from my son made me feel like I was suffocating. I was already burnt out on working in healthcare from being on the frontlines during the COVD pandemic, my mental health was an absolute wreck, and I needed a change...BAD. I had watched one of my nursing friends start a photography business and become very successful with it, every time I saw one of her posts, I would think to myself, "I'd love to do something like that." We had also recently done a newborn session for my son, and the entire time I found myself in awe of our photographer and how awesome it was that she did this as her job. So while crying, I looked up at my husband and said, "I think I want to buy a camera and start a photography business...I think I could be really good at this." He looked back at me and simply said, "Okay, I think you could be too." So I bought a camera, purchased my website domain, and starting researching anything and everything I could about photography.
Doubt set in pretty quickly on whether or not I could actually start a business. I literally had no idea what I was doing. I played around with my camera quite a bit but was nervous to actually ask people to model for me. One afternoon, I was talking with a friend, who was recently engaged, about my dreams to become a photographer but not knowing where to start. She graciously offered to let me shoot her engagement session and to this day those are some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. That shoot gave me the confidence to reach out to other friends to offer a free session if they'd model for me. I quickly realized I not only loved this, but that I was pretty dang good and was only going to get better with time and experience. From there I went full throttle on learning and building.
I started second shooting for photographers in the area (realized I LOVE shooting weddings), I signed up for styled shoots to build my portfolio, and attended networking events to meet other vendors in the industry. I had to really put myself out there if I wanted this thing to thrive, which is NOT an easy thing for me to do. Every time something new starts to feel overwhelming or nerve wracking, I remind myself that totally normal, everyday people like me have done this and were successful, so why can't I be to? I also started taking social media seriously and posting as much content as I possibly could. I put meaningful thought into how I wanted my clients to feel when they booked with me, after all, this whole thing would never work without them! Doing all of these things opened a whole new world of possibilities to me and brought so many new clients that I'm basically booked up for 2025! It's truly a dream that my business has grown to this scale, and for everyone that has ever taken a chance on me, I'm truly eternally grateful.
For this dream though, I have my husband and my son to thank. Wholeheartedly, my husband has been in my corner every single second of this journey. He has remained encouraging when imposter syndrome sinks in, a listening ear when frustrations arise, and an amazing Dad to our son in the times I'm off doing sessions and weddings. Everything I have needed in this season of life and then some. Easton, my son, is my driving force every day. Not only does this job let me stay home with him and soak in every second of his little years, but it also allows me to show him that he can have it all. It just takes some creative thinking to make it work, and for him and my husband I will continue to grind.
If you read this far into this post, THANK YOU! Truly, it means the world to have so many people rooting for me in this endeavor. I hope to make EVERY SINGLE PERSON who believed in me, proud. All I want it to serve my clients my clients to the best of my ability, and continue to build this dream of mine not only for my family, but for 16 year old Nichole who thought she was no good with a camera.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Love,
Nichole
