Dena Howard Interview 2012

I enjoyed the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Dena about her photography business.

At the start of the interview, I pulled out a video camera and before I could even turn it on, she said, "You are not going to videotape this interview. No way. I'm not even wearing makeup!"

I assured her that I would use it only to record the interview and the video would not end up on YouTube. Even then, she would not let me point it at her while we talked. (grin)

Dena started her photography business in her home and, for several months, had a small studio at Rumors Clothing. She opened her own studio in downtown Murphy, NC in late 2010 and after a few months moved to the present location, above Parker's Drugs in the heart of downtown Murphy.

An Interview with Dena Howard, owner of Images By Courtnie Photography

Dena Howard: Yes. I think it's given me more credibility with people, having an onsite studio as opposed to having to do location stuff.

Plus I can can do studio work where I didn't have room to do it, before, anywhere else.

With the studio, I have both summer and winter work, where before it was seasonal.

Murphy Gold: I don't just mean the money making part of your business; I'm talking about the artistic and creative sides of it, too.

Dena Howard: Yes, I like it, because I'm getting to where I'm making enough money to actually be doing what I want to be doing, which is the more artistic work instead of just doing "pictures" for people.

Murphy Gold: That's a pretty big step forward. And the quality of your work is better than it was even a year ago.

Murphy Gold: Are you finding that what you did in the last year matches the plans you made a year ago or are you seeing significant differences between the plans and what you are doing, currently?

Dena Howard: Actually, I'm a lot busier than I thought I would be. The goals I set a year ago, I have exceeded, which is a good thing and I haven't sat down and set goals for this year (2012) yet. I've probably doubled what I wanted to do, what I projected to do for last year (2011). So, I've at least doubled it.

Murphy Gold: What kind of photography are you doing now? You specialize in baby photography, right?

(Here is a selection of Maternity and Babies photos that Dena posted to Facebook.)

Dena Howard: I don't know; I just like it better than anything else. I'm a perfectionist; that's why I like it.

(laugh) Seriously, I like the fact that I can put them exactly where I want them and that's where they stay.

Murphy Gold: Well... after you get past all the yelling, screaming, sleeping and all the other things that are part of it.

Dena Howard: Yeah, but they really don't cry much. I mean, if you pat 'em and shush 'em, they don't cry that much.

Murphy Gold: And also, you like kids and have a real affection for them, so you spend time with them and put them at ease. I think that a lot of photographers don't do that.

Dena Howard: I do, because I don't want to rush through a session. I think it's going to be a more successful session if they feel like I'm a playmate with them, instead of somebody just telling them what to do. So, I usually get down on the floor and play with them, and that's how I photograph them. Kids and babies.

Murphy Gold: Which is a big difference from another adult telling them what to do...

And, actually, I never tell them, "no." And I tell parents not to tell them no. (laughs)

Dena Howard: I don't want there to be any negativity in the session, because I want them to be excited when they come back. And they are.

There are kids who want to go see Ms. Dena. That's a good thing. They wouldn't be like that if they came and it was a negative experience.

Murphy Gold: How old are they when they start remembering who you are and wanting to come back to see you?

Murphy Gold: So, how about your photography work that you do with high school seniors and teenagers and...

Dena Howard: I love seniors and I decided -- you know I like newborn photography -- but it's not just newborn photography. I just think that I like kids, 'cause, even up to seniors, I've discovered something about all ages that I really, really enjoy.

So, I think the best thing about photographing seniors is they do exactly what I tell them to do. (laughs) ...and, they like it!

And, that's a good thing, because most teenagers are, well, I wouldn't say most, but a lot of teenagers are typical teenagers and want to rebel, to an extent. Not as much as being disrespectful, but as far as thinking that something might not be cool -- the way I pose them might not be cool -- it feels funny, so it might not be cool.

And, I like the fact that I can get them feeling enough at ease by telling them before hand that, "this is not gonna feel cool," they're okay with doing it. If that makes any sense.

(Here is a selection of photos of Teens and Seniors that Dena shared on Facebook.)

Dena Howard: Exactly. If it feels funny then it's probably going to look good in my camera. (laughs)

That's my rule of thumb: if it feels funny, it's probably going to look good. (laughs)

Dena Howard: Yes and no. Girls want to look pretty; guys want to look buff or cool, so they're alike in that sense.

Actually, I think guys are easier than girls -- they're every bit as self-conscious, but they're more likely to do what I tell them to do. They're more likely to believe me when I say that they don't look awkward, whereas, with a girl, you can tell her a hundred times she doesn't look awkward and it takes that whole 100 times of telling her before she's going to believe it. (laughs)

Murphy Gold: Well, I can almost remember what it was like when I was a teenager. I probably wasn't your typical teenager, but I still remember I didn't want things to be stupid.

Dena Howard: Right. And that's just it, they're trying to be an adult, so they don't want to do anything that's kinda going to put them in the position of being a child. And, somebody telling them what to do, I think, in their mind puts them in the position of being a child.

So, it's easier if you can talk to them. Tell them what looks cool, tell them what doesn't look cool, tell 'em, you know, if they're awkward, acknowledge that they're awkward.

Murphy Gold: And, also, you're taking a lot of photos so that, even if some don't turn out well, you'll still have a good selection.

Dena Howard: Yes, but I've actually gotten to where I don't take...(pauses)...

I did that at one time, when I started...(pause)...one thing, one big thing that has changed with my photography over the past year -- probably over a year ago, in my fall sessions, for example, I probably took 200-300 shots per family, and showed around 30 images to them, out of those hundreds.

This year, I averaged 60-70 shots and showed about half of that. Because I want to make sure I've got the shot before I actually mash my finger down on the shutter.

Murphy Gold: And with the additional experience, I assume, even when you take fewer shots that you're capturing better photographs than you used to.

I didn't want to have to sit down and weed through images just to find a good one.

I wanted all of the images coming out of my camera to be good. Not saying, for example, "I can't show this one because the exposure's off on it."

Now, it's more that I look at my images and, even though I have two that are similar, there might be something that I like more about one than the other.

So, I'm deleting images, now, based on what I like, personally, and don't like -- as opposed to "I have to delete this because, technically, it's a bad picture."

Murphy Gold: When you're showing the photos for your clients to buy, do you indicate the ones you like the best, or do you just let them choose the ones they like the best?

Dena Howard: I always tell them which ones I like the best, and I designate those images as "artist's choice."

Dena Howard: It differs, with the session. Sometimes it's two and sometimes if it's a session that I've really, really, really enjoyed, it might be ten.

Murphy Gold: When you're dealing with the kids, do you see any real gender differentiation with the really young kids or is that something you mostly see with high school students?

If you play with them and let them get comfortable with you, they're all the same, you know, whether it's little girls or little boys.

I mean, you relate to them differently. Most little boys, you make car sounds and airplane sounds, and, little girls, you talk about princesses and fairies. (laughs)

Dena Howard: Right. I mean, the things I talk about with them are different, but, as far as I interact with them, it's the same.

Murphy Gold: You've talked about children and teenagers, what are you doing with adults? Have you taken a different approach, there?

Dena Howard: I think I'm doing more head shots for adults. That's about all I'm doing with adults other than family portraits, which, nine times out of ten, include kids. So, I'm not doing a whole lot with adults.

We've started doing some head shots, this year, and that's actually a market I'd like to open up, just a little bit.

Murphy Gold: Let's go back to talking about your studio versus location sessions...

What kind of mix are you seeing now? I know you've only had your studio for about a year. Are you seeing more studio work now than you were a year ago, or more location work?

Dena Howard: I'm doing more studio work now, but I think that's just because...it's not just because I had a lack of clients wanting studio images, because I had clients wanting them at the time, but it was more me not being comfortable enough with my lighting and working in the studio. I mean, that had more of an effect on my studio work than my clients actually preferring images taken in the studio.

Now, I'm more comfortable with my lighting, and I can pretty much get the look I want -- that I've envisioned in my head -- and so, I'm doing quite a bit of studio work, now.

Murphy Gold: Now and then, you do what you call your Limited Edition Sessions. In January, 2012, you're doing something called The Enchanted Forest.

Murphy Gold: I understand that you still have a few more sessions available. Is that correct?

Dena Howard: Yes. We're doing The Enchanted Forest sessions only during the month of January and we're setting appointments between January 9-27, 2012.

Dena Howard: I posted information about it on my blog and also on my Facebook page. I can be reached by phone at 828-361-3877.

Murphy Gold: How did you come up with this idea or what were you envisioning when you decided to do this?

Dena Howard: I was actually inspired by another photographer who does fairy portraits.

I think the main reason I wanted to do it was because (laughs) it's glowy and blingy and I'm a girl and that's what I like. (laughs)

I mean, really, I think every girl has dreams of being a fairy or a princess and it kind of, I don't know, struck something...

And there was a specific look I wanted to get with it. I didn't want to do something that was going to look like that they had gone to the local discount store and bought a fairy costume and I snapped a picture of that.

I wanted it to be very ethereal and fantasy-like and I wanted it to be more of an art piece, I think, than a studio shot, and actually, I'm envisioning it more with story boards and canvases -- wall art as opposed to wallets that people will exchange.

I think it's the first artistic endeavor I've taken on -- as far as building the set and getting everything exactly as I wanted it, because it's taken a year to get everything that I was satisfied with to do the type of portraits I wanted to do.

I mean, I could have built a set a year ago, using cheaper materials, I guess, but I decided to wait until I could get exactly what I wanted -- the look that I wanted -- and be comfortable enough with my lighting in studio to get the look that I wanted.

Murphy Gold: Last year, when you were doing your Limited Editions, you did one with little boys and fishing, with overalls and things like that...

Murphy Gold: Do you see that most of your Limited Editions will be studio sessions now, or are you still going to do location sessions, or a combination?

Dena Howard: Actually, I think that the majority will be location, still, because we have two different limited edition sessions for families and that's always a big thing. One in the spring and one in the fall, and I still want to do the little boy fishing and I prefer doing it outside, I think -- just because it's more realistic.

Now, fairy portraits, there's no way to make them realistic without doing it in the studio.

I'm not going to find the perfect enchanted forest in Murphy, so I had to make it. (laughs)

Murphy Gold: Well, we don't know for sure that there's not an enchanted forest in Murphy, but we don't know where it is.

So, you've taken some shots, your first fantasy-like portraits, of The Enchanted Forest and who's the girl?

Dena Howard: Well, actually, the shots that I took -- and this is kind of funny -- because I had two models scheduled to come in next week who were going to be my first girls who were going to be fairies.

I was setting up for the fairy portraits and my niece, Eve Steele, was in the studio, yesterday, and she decided she wanted to help make the rocks for the fairy portraits, and she's so pretty that I decided to dress her up as a fairy and just test the lighting.

Of course, when I got started, I couldn't stop and neither could she, so we just did the whole session. (laughs)

Murphy Gold: You started with three shots from The Enchanted Forest that you published on Facebook.

Dena Howard: Yes. I posted three, at first, into my album The Enchanted Forest on Facebook, but I'm adding more on a regular basis.

The first is a shot with the fairy standing up, just sticking her toe in the water, and I really like that one. I like the sun rays coming through the trees.

And then, I have what I would call a typical fairy pose, where she's holding her hands up and she has a glowing orb in her hands. And that, to me, just speaks fairy.

In the third one, she's falling asleep on a bench by the pond, and I like it, because it's peaceful and there's fairy dust floating around.

Murphy Gold: So, did you have a story in your mind when you were coming up with these poses, or just a feeling that you wanted to achieve?

Dena Howard: Yes, I wanted them to be graceful. I didn't want any of the shots with them actually looking at the camera. I wanted it to be a little more -- this probably isn't the right word (laughs), but "voyeuristic" -- in a good way. (laughs again)

You know, kind of like you're just, I don't know, looking into this little world. You're an observer, but not a part of it.

That's what I envisioned when I saw the fairy portraits. It's like nobody else was a part of it. It was the fairy in the enchanted forest. It was all about the fairy.

Murphy Gold: Do you think you'll be doing any more of these fantasy-type limited edition sessions?

Dena Howard: I don't know. I've had some older girls wanting some elfin princess pictures. (laughs)

So, that's one thing that we may experiment with. With the fairy portraits in the enchanted forest, we may have a few elvin princesses. They're quite a bit older than the normal three- to eight-year-old recommendation for the fairy portraits. So, we'll see how that goes.

Murphy Gold: The girls are enjoying fairies and elves, so when are you going to start fighting dragons or having knights in shining armor?

But, I do want to do elves for the boys in the same type setting, you know, have that as part of the enchanted forest and that's probably going to be my goal for next year -- to incorporate elves and fairies into The Enchanted Forest.

Murphy Gold: Is there anything else about anything you'd like to experiment with this year that you've not done before?

Dena Howard: Yes. I want to buy that building across the road. (laughs) I don't see it happening, but I like it.

Seriously, eventually, I do want to expand out of where I'm at. I want to not be able to fit in that building.

Murphy Gold: How picky will you be when it comes to choosing who gets to work with you?

Dena Howard: Number one, I know "people person" is kind of a generic term, but they would really have to be comfortable with people and with kids. I mean people of all ages. You have to be able to relate to newborns, to two-year-olds, to ten-year-olds, to high school seniors, and the elderly. We do generational portraits sometimes, so you have to be familiar with all that. And be comfortable with people.

Murphy Gold: So you definitely want to stick with more portrait photography than anything else.

Dena Howard: Yes. I don't really have any interest in landscape photography, wedding photography...

Dena Howard: I don't know. I like my pets, but I've never really done pet photography, so I don't know if I'd like it, or not.

Dena Howard: Actually, we started with a wedding. I think the very first shoot we ever did was an engagement session for a wedding. (laughs)

Which is exactly backwards. I don't think you should ever start anything with a wedding.

Dena Howard: Yes, a life would be a good thing to start with a wedding. (laughs)

But, a photography business? I definitely would not recommend starting with a wedding. But, I learned a lot. I also learned I don't like weddings. (laughs)

I think I just did it to begin with, because I thought, if you were a photographer, you had to do weddings. I don't know why I thought that.

Murphy Gold: Most of the professional photographers talk about doing weddings.

Dena Howard: Yes. And I think people look at it as such a big money maker in photography that your main goal is to be a wedding photographer, if you're a photographer

Murphy Gold: It sounds like it's a high-stress "gotta get it right first time, every time" thing.

Dena Howard: It is. It's very high stress and I just prefer being in the floor with the kid, (laughs), rather than running around a wedding, darting through aisles, and dodging people to try to snag the shot.

Murphy Gold: I'm a betting guy on some things. I try not to bet on anything I don't know about, but if I had to bet, I'd bet that people are probably going to look at the photos of their children a lot more than they're going to look at their wedding photos.

Dena Howard: I think they're going to display them more. I think a wedding is more intimately personal and so it means more to the bride and groom than it's ever going to mean to anybody else. And, you know, after the first six to eight months, you may still be excited about it, but everyone else has gone on with their life.

I know with my kids, I can look at pictures I have of them from when they were two and I love them every bit as much now as I did when I took them.

And, I guess it's easier to see the growth and the change in your kids than it is to see the growth and the change in you and your marriage. You know what I'm saying?

Even though, hopefully, in a marriage, you're going to grow and mature, like my husband and I have, but with your kids, I don't know, there's just so much more of a change, it seems like. It's a change from a brand newness to to still more brand newness.

It's like everything is new with your children. No matter how old they get, there's always going to be something that is new with them.

Murphy Gold: A lot of the changes in an adult happen internally and you can't see them in the camera...

Murphy Gold: Children, they grow and develop. Their personality changes and there's just a lot you can see.

Dena Howard: Yeah, and not even just that. Their interests and everything change so drastically. You know, most adults are interested in what they're interested in. You may gain a few new interests over your lifetime, but it's not continually changing.

With most kids, it's a constant change. If you ask a child at three, "what do you want to be when you grow up?," they're going to say a nurse or a policeman, and then the very next year, they might say they want to be a fairy when they grow up. You know -- it's just continuous change.

Murphy Gold: I was watching a video on YouTube today about a dad who was talking about his five-year-old son. He said the boy, with no prompting, came up to him and said, "Dad, I want to be a doctor..." The dad was all proud and puffed out his chest and was happy because his boy was already seeing a direction for his life. Then, his son continued, "...or a dinosaur." (laughs)

Murphy Gold: Is this anything like you envisioned it, when you first had the idea of becoming a professional photographer?

Dena Howard: No. I don't think anybody can envision being a full-time photographer, because it's so different for each individual person, just based on what your goals and interests are.

Murphy Gold: You spend probably more time on the computer than you do behind the camera.

Now, I'm making sure I get it right in the camera, so all I have to do on the computer is do a little dodge and burn and if I want to do any special effects, I do that, but I want it to be good enough right out of the camera that I can show that to a client and they can see what their image is going to look like, without spending 30 minutes on it in Photoshop.

Dena Howard: I spend ten minutes tops on an image. I never go over ten minutes on an image. Even when I'm Photoshopping in fairy wings, ten minutes is kind of my limit on an image.

Murphy Gold: You try to stress the natural look rather than the... (pauses) I've seen a lot of post-processing where it starts to look really artificial.

Dena Howard: Right. And, I guess that's the fine line with these fairy portraits. I want it to look a little artificial, without looking just totally fake. I want it to look almost like it could be real, but it's just not real. The intersection between reality and fantasy.

Dena Howard: You're welcome. Thanks for not publishing the video tape of this interview. (laughs)

Legal Notice: All photographs on this page are copyright © by Dena Howard. All rights are reserved, worldwide. These photos may not be used without prior written permission. Copying and redistribution are strictly prohibited.

What Next?

Return to Murphy Gold home page or select your choice from the menu in the left column.

New! Comments

Copyright © 2009-2012 by John L. Dilbeck. All rights reserved worldwide.
Do not republish without prior written permission.

"Murphy Gold", "Murphy Gold Business", and "Murphy Gold Marketing Alliance"
are trademarks of Dilbeck Marketing.

Dena Howard - Interview - 2012

An Interview with Dena Howard, owner of Images By Courtnie Photography

What Next?

New! Comments

Subscribe to Images By Courtnie Photography Newsletter