Lens on Success: The Art of Adaptive Marketing with Birch Blaze Studios

Anna-Lynn: Welcome to the Free Dive podcast on today’s episode we have a very special guest with us we have Kerry Strubel from Birch Blaze Studios. We are so excited to have you here and to have a conversation with you.

Kerry: Thanks for having me, excited to be here.

Anna-Lynn: So um, let’s start off by talking about what your business is.

Kerry: Yeah so um my wife and I have a portrait photography business Birch Blaze Studios and we specialize in several different types of portraiture, family portraiture um we also do head shots and branding portraiture uh so more planted toward towards business um we used to photograph a lot more weddings I take a handful of weddings still um that tend to be more local and maybe smaller um and dabble in video a little bit as well lately.

Anna-Lynn: So you do it all.

Kerry: Yeah, well try to.

Anna-Lynn: So when you started out so how many years have you been in business.

Kerry: So I so going way back in the- in the 2000s 90s and the 2000s I was a graphic designer and um in the 2000s I and I’ve always loved photography um photograph the kids and all of that um but later on doing the um graphic design I started doing photography for some of the clients like very boring like product photography and things like that uh and so when Taylor and I met she was interested in photography so we decided to start something along those lines and we tried some different things we tried some photography in the hospitality industry uh food photography and then we finally settled on wedding photography and at first neither of us I think was super interested in that um but then we realized especially with wedding photography going into the digital age um a little bit before that there was a lot of creativity that could be had with
weddings and so so we started doing shooting weddings and you know back in those days you could just put up a website and you would start you know if your work was okay you would start
booking weddings um we also did family portraiture at that same time most of it outdoors and then um I’d say two or three years ago we started transitioning uh from weddings and portraiture to just portraiture.

Anna-Lynn: Nice, so you built your own website so you’ve been basically um handling your own marketing throughout the years too.

Kerry: Yes.

Anna-Lynn: As you’ve gone into different forms of your business as well um so you’ve been really I- I think that’s a really important skill especially when you are taking on the marketing aspect of your business and the behind-the-scenes kind of stuff um is having that flexibility
to pivot your business and go in a different direction if you’re finding that um it’s an area that there’s an opportunity um to be had um to reach another audience um and also if you
just want to try something new and so that ability to be flexible and to kind of rebrand yourself for a different audience is a really cool skill.

Kerry: Yeah, I mean I- I’ve been fortunate in that I started off with doing graphic design and you know back in the 2000s uh there weren’t as many resources for you know having someone design your logo or you know now there’s any number of websites that you can go and have…

Anna-Lynn: You could get somebody on Fiverr.

Kerry: Exactly exactly. Um so yeah so back then uh I did you know all the graphic design work I still do uh but it was nice to be able to have you know that made it easier to pivot because you could come up with a new logo and uh throw up a new website things like that so- so yeah that’s been it’s been nice to have that background for sure.

Anna-Lynn: Now have you ever done any um as far as marketing have you ever done any like print campaigns or any print marketing or have you found that digital has been the best way to market yourself?

Kerry: So when we when we started out doing weddings um and you still find wedding publications like regionally based uh wedding magazines um and so we did some print advertising in the beginning uh but we never really found a lot of success uh in the wedding photography industry using print advertising um you know these would be the types of publications that would be left uh with wedding planners and at Bridal you know wedding dress shops and things like that and so couples or Brides would pick the magazines up and whatnot so yeah we never had a lot of success with that and then I would say that that’s been even more so as we’ve gone along and print like magazines and whatnot is I think seen more and more of a decline…

Anna-Lynn: Yeah.

Kerry: And so um so we’ve we did more things like meeting people like networking um connecting with other uh businesses in the in the wedding industry like wedding planers and you know floral designers and things like that seem to work really well.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah it seems like it would be hard to really encapsulate your work into print you know because you can only you’re probably limited in how many examples of your work you could add to something like a print campaign and it can be tricky I think to really show the full scope of what you do in print form so it does make sense that digital would be a better medium for you to use.

Kerry: Yeah that’s true um that is something that I always had thought about whether whatever print form you’re talking about usually you only are able to put one image in a- on a card I mean you can put multiple images but you run the risk of diluting your message a little bit too uh but especially in a print magazine or something like that um and you’re targeting more of a specific audience you’re limed to one image and people tend to be very visual so um in other words they have a hard time imagining something so but if they see it that helps them imagine it so an example of that would be um in New Hampshire and- and Maine um barn weddings have been very popular and so starting out shooting weddings you’re probably going to do a lot of barn weddings but maybe someone in Portsmouth or Boston doesn’t want a barn wedding right they go to your website and all they see is barn weddings they’re going to be like…

Anna-Lynn: They’re not for me.

Kerry: Yeah they’re not for me um and fortunately so I don’t know if you want to hear the story but when we first started out um we shot uh a wedding of Taylor’s cousin and they were doing a of all things a Valentine’s Day themed wedding and…

Anna-Lynn: How romantic.

Kerry: Everything was red hearts and…

Anna-Lynn: Oh wow.

Kerry: And so it was definitely not our style.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah.

Kerry: Uh but it was the only wedding that we had to you know put anywhere post anywhere so we put it on our website and someone who’s kind of doing pulling together a last minute wedding fortunately could see through the them to the quality of our work oh that’s and that person that couple they were doing a a beautiful lake wedding on Lake Winnipesaukee and…

Anna-Lynn: Totally different.

Kerry: Totally different vibe. So it was it was awesome we’re so thankful that they could see through what we were posting that you know they that we would be able to document their day in- in an Artful way.

Anna-Lynn: well it speaks a lot to your skill.

Kerry: Well thank you, thank you. So yeah those those are things you don’t always think about you know um not everyone is going to have that vision that they can say oh well this is not my style of wedding but I love the style of photography and I want them to do it for me.

Anna-Lynn: Right, right so have you found um besides using a website um are there other platforms that you feel have worked really well to market your business.

Kerry: so we’ve done a fair amount on Facebook uh we’ve done Facebook ads uh Facebook ads can be fairly tricky um so there is some experimentation involved and of course probably like most businesses we follow like um industry pages you know uh photography business pages on Facebook that talk where people can come and talk about their business their photography business with other photographers and so you know you pick up tips and things like that um but yeah Facebook marketing has worked well for us.

Anna-Lynn: Nice.

Kerry: Um you know we’ve had some swings and misses but we’ve had some- some good responses as well um and obviously with meta you know kind of as an umbrella over Facebook and Instagram when you run a Facebook ad you have the choice of allowing that campaign to run on Instagram as well um so yeah we’ve done I guess you could say both of those things.

Anna-Lynn: Have you ever done like a particular promotion or uh marketing effort that you feel was particularly successful um whether it was um when you were maybe rebranding for a new audience or um promoting it to an audience that you already have established and that you’re already speaking to uh was there anything that you that was a particularly successful marketing effort.

Kerry: Yeah so I mean we- we’ve done um you know similar types of promotions um that some were successful and some weren’t as successful so I don’t always know like what what the mystery element was…

Anna-Lynn: The secret sauce.

Kerry: Um I can say that um you know people often when it comes to portraiture as as opposed to weddings you when someone’s getting married pretty much everyone wants a wedding photographer um and so in those early days of photographing weddings pretty much you just needed to put up a website and you would start getting you know booked um with portraits they’re a little bit different because people tend to feel like they need a reason to have a portrait taken um especially when it comes to studio portraiture people aren’t necessarily thinking hey you know what let’s go down to the studio and get a family studio portrait.

Anna-Lynn: It’s true.

Kerry: Um we live in a very beautiful area so lots of people are coming up for vacation and they want to document those times um but some of the off seasons can be a little bit more challenging for a portrait photographer um because most not a ton
of people want snow pictures.
Anna-Lynn: Right.

Kerry: Um you know it’s funny about that cause you- you can take a picture in the summer and it it doesn’t scream that it’s summer yeah people that’s not something that’s registering with people if you if you’re taking a portrait in the winter time and there is snow all over the ground that screams it’s Winter time um similar with you know Autumn with the colors.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah.

Kerry: But um back to what the original topic at hand um so yeah so some of the campaigns that we’ve done have been based on sort of giving people a reason to have a portrait.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah, I love that.

Kerry: So families might think you know we want to do a family portrait and that’s really the only reason we would go and have a portrait done but we have had a lot of wonderful sessions with for instance mothers and daughters and so um maybe it’s a new mother uh it could even be a maternity session um but it could also be uh a brand new mother a mother of a toddler you know each age range is a good reason to capture that um we all know how as parents we know how fast it goes by right.

Anna-Lynn: Yes.

Kerry: And so um and we all have cell phones of course and we probably have hundreds if not thousands of pictures of our family and kids on cell phones the problem is- is that often times as a parent you’re the one taking the picture.

Anna-Lynn: Oh you’re speaking to my soul Kerry.

Kerry: And if it’s a you know selfies are cool but it’s not quite the same…

Anna-Lynn: Yeah, it’s not the same.

Kerry: As you know because you’re obviously you’re worried about you know getting in frame and all of that so there’s a lot of good reasons to have portraits done and you know among them making sure that you’re capturing those fleeting moments as your kids are- are going through different stages.

Anna-Lynn: And you can’t always depend on your spouse speaking as a mom. You know like when you’re doing things you’re out doing things as a family and you’re like hey take a picture of me so people know I was here too you know the undocumented invisible mom and then your spouse will take the picture and it’s the most horrible picture of you that you’ve ever seen and you’re like wow yep we we can delete that one yeah so I- I just love how true it is like it’s so important I think especially for mom so I can see why that campaign would be so good for you because you’re tapping into a market where moms definitely don’t get enough pictures with their kids where they actually like themselves in the shot so it’s I- I love that you recognize that and you went after it and it was a great and it worked out it was great.

Kerry: And- and I think too you know the age-old thing of kids responding to people that aren’t their parents..

Anna-Lynn: Yes. Yeah.

Kerry: Maybe a little bit better like if moms and dads are trying to get the kids together for a photo it’s it’s it’s a struggle right um but with Taylor and I we pride ourselves on being very laidback and easy to work with we like to have fun we like to laugh so it’s very important to us to make sure that it’s a relax- as a relaxing an experience as possible and picture day probably is
stressful for a lot of people but if you can find a photographer that you feel comfortable with um and kind of puts you at ease. Um and also has that effect on your kids so you know we understand that kids hit a wall um sometimes they need a few minutes to just shake it out and run around and we’re totally cool with that. So um and then bringing it back to like the actual campaign again you know we’ll do a campaign for mothers and daughters and people will see that picture on Facebook and they’ll say oh this is cool I hadn’t thought of you know that I could do a photo of just my daughter and me or what have you so those are the kinds of uh portrait sessions that people don’t necessarily think of but it kind of gives them a reason or at least a desire to- to want to do a portrait so those kinds of um you know uh promotions well not always completely successful um but they generally have done well.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah and you must have people that come back to you year after year and you become their go-to photographer like if they’ve got a moment they want to capture then they come to you so uh are referrals do you find that referrals and repeat customers based on you know campaigns that you’ve run that have been successful do you find that that has been a good source of marketing for you as well.

Kerry: Yeah, yeah definitely uh I think back to when we were doing more weddings and we would photograph a couple and when you think about being a wedding photographer on someone’s wedding day that’s a pretty special thing to be able to do because someone essentially is welcoming you into their lives for that day.

Anna-Lynn: Right at the beginning.

Kerry: Right at the beginning and you are spending more time with them than like their family is because you’re following them around all day you know doing their- their photos and so you know a lot of times we we will have done a uh an engagement session prior to the wedding and we’ve met with them either in person or online so we’ve developed a rapport with those people and then on the wedding day it just kind of that relationships kind of get cemented even more. Um especially at the end of the day after they’ve had a few drinks we we’re like their best friends.
Anna-Lynn: You’ve made them look good all day.

Kerry: But- but seriously so yeah so those some of those um you know families or couples get married and then a year or two down the road we you know kept in touch on usually on social media a little bit and they’ve had their first child now and a second child comes along and we see their families growing so we we’ve watched families that we’ve or couples that we photographed you know 10 – 12 years ago and their kids are in the Little League now and all these things so it’s always really cool when- when we get to photograph a family that you know we photograph their parent’s wedding and now we’re kind of documenting the growth of their family through the years. So yeah.

Anna-Lynn: That’s so cool. You get to be a little historian.

Kerry: Yeah.

Anna-Lynn: A personal historian for the family.

Kerry: And of course it- it makes us you know always a little too aware of how fast time is going by and we’re like whoa that was 10 years ago you know so but it’s it’s cool.

Anna-Lynn: That’s so cool um so do you have any promotions that you’re doing right now?

Kerry: So um not- not specifically uh I’m pivoting a little bit in that um getting into some different aspects more I guess Niche aspects of portraits uh one thing that I’ve started is sort of a satellite brand uh for Sports Photography or Sports media um so I had the idea a couple of years ago and we have a studio space in Wakefield New Hampshire um and I wanted to do like very stylized sports portraits um particularly of young people so something that you might see on a Sports Broadcast like a a Bruins game or a Celtics game where they introduce the players and they’re up on screen and be able to offer that to kids you know in the area.

Anna-Lynn: How cool.

Kerry: Um that maybe typically wouldn’t have that kind of a portrait they would have access to that- that kind of um you know um someone doing portraits so uh so we- I’ve worked with um lacrosse players football excuse me uh hockey um you know volleyball several different uh genres of sports and that’s been a lot of fun to- it’s been very fulfilling creatively and then
to you know see the kids when they view the image and they oh that’s really cool and they’ve probably some of them never have never had a portrait like that.

Anna-Lynn: I love that.

Kerry: So um so that’s kind of an area that I’m sort of like I said pivoting to a little bit uh getting more involved um or targeting like sports teams and leagues and things like that. So that’s something that I’m working on uh also I mentioned video earlier it kind of goes hand in hand with that in terms of sports I’m working with a- a hockey league in Wolfeboro.

Anna-Lynn: Nice.

Kerry: Uh Back Bay hockey and um a a nonprofit called The Friends of Pop Whalen which is a uh hockey arena up there.

Anna-Lynn: Oh nice.

Kerry: And so they had an award show recently and we did a series of interviews of kids
that are now adults but had- had gone through the um you know through that funnel.

Anna-Lynn: Oh cool.

Kerry: Of being coached from a very young age and then uh you know going through the different levels of hockey some of them actually were drafted by NHL teams.

Anna-Lynn: Wow.

Kerry: They started in- in you know the little Wolfeboro Hockey uh association and they’ve played on a national stage um some women’s professional hockey so I we did a series of interviews with um those uh individuals and so those are the types of things that were kind of you know spreading out in- in you know getting involved in now.

Anna-Lynn: That’s so cool. Um have you ever had an experience- I’m sure I’m sure it’s
come up I’m sure it’s happened because you probably go into a session with kind of a vision for how the session will go um kind of an idea of what you want to do and where you want to go with it um what have what do you do if your client just has a completely different direction that they want to go in how do you marry your vision with theirs.

Kerry: Sure yeah it’s a great question so ultimately we view our role as we are here for the client so we want to them to be very happy. Happy with the results and whether even in the case
of a wedding or you know portraits that we’re doing more of now um one of the questions I will ask ahead of time and that’s something that’s key is we do like a consultation or a planning appointment before the actual session so that we can understand you know what they’re envisioning what- what’s their expectation and so I’ll ask when we’re done with the session and you’re holding the prints in your hands you’re looking at the images what would you be thrilled
about like what what would you love to see in those images and that’s a great opportunity for them to express kind of you know maybe what they had been envisioning or sometimes it’s not even necessarily something that’s very stylistic in nature but it might be more like oh I just you know my daughter looks at me a certain way or we- we laugh with each other and that’s what I want captured you know I just want the closeness captured between my daughter and I or my son and so with our photography we’re always trying to reflect emotion so that even if a stranger looked at a portrait that we’ve taken in other words they don’t know the person in the photo we our hope would be that that photo that portrait would tell the viewer something about that person.

Anna-Lynn: I love that.

Kerry: Some little- even if it’s on something intangible it would they would learn something about the essence or the personality of that person and um we do get good feedback in terms of our our portraits being like people connecting on an emotional level like um so you know and that’s kind of has to do with um either the person connecting with the camera or as a photographer you in a portrait session maybe you’re building a rapport on a much smaller level or a shorter amount of time than say with a wedding client that I was talking about earlier.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah, you have to get there quicker.

Kerry: Right. Yeah so being a people person in a way and you know like I love people and- and talking with people and connecting and so that connection becomes important when you’re photographing someone because I can learn something about you um leading up to the point where I’m actually starting to take the photos and then you know hopefully I can direct you and maybe even start a conversation during the session that is bringing out something that I’ve seen or something that I know you want me to bring out great um and so often times the discussions tend to be more about that than the styling yeah um you know our website shows a lot of our work so typically people that come to us for a portrait have already seen our work they know what it is um so they’re coming to us and saying essentially we love your style. We want you to do that for us like we want you to make us look that way or whatever and so and then within that there’s obviously there are stylistic considerations. So people might you know like I don’t want someone to come into my studio and dress completely differently and- and then or get maybe
they don’t normally wear a lot of makeup and- and some of our sessions we offer professional hair and makeup.

Anna-Lynn: Oh that’s cool.

Kerry: So we don’t- and it’s generally just about getting someone camera ready you know even evening out skin tones.

Anna-Lynn: Not making them look like they don’t.

Kerry: Right if someone doesn’t wear much makeup or no makeup we don’t want to like all of a
sudden do this gland makeover on that so that they or their friends and family don’t recognize them like who’s this person with the picture so we want people to be true to themselves we want
their wardrobe or outfit um their styling to be representative of who they are and um you know maybe they’ll kick it up a notch or two um style-wise for the portrait um but we can also do
like someone comes in we’ll do a more glammed-up version or a dressier shot and then we’ll do jeans and t-shirt in the same session so…
Anna-Lynn: That’s cool.

Kerry: Just so that they can have a variety and we can cover a lot of ground stylistically.

Anna-Lynn: One thing that I love that you do and you touched on it a little bit earlier. You were
talking about your branding photos or portraits that you do and I think it’s so cool that you’re part of how you market yourself is to help other people market themselves so can you tell us a little bit more about what’s involved when you do like branding portraiture for people.

Kerry: Yeah absolutely so often times people when they come in for a headshot or a branding shot they’ll know you know what they’re trying to convey but really with- with any kind of a headshot or branding shot that’s the point you are trying to convey something often times uh a headshot will be the first time someone sees what you look like because we do so much interaction online these days so when you’re looking for a therapist or a- an attorney real estate agent you’re you know Googling for who’s available in your area and…

Anna-Lynn: Do I like their face?

Kerry: Yeah sometimes you know you like to think…

Anna-Lynn: Do they look trustworthy?

Kerry: Right, I mean there’s a obviously there’s other factors that come into play but um…

Anna-Lynn: But we’re visual people like you say so we want to see.

Kerry: Exactly, so you know part of the planning process is who is your target market um. What do you want what kind of communication or what do you want to convey to them do you want to come across as very professional um and- and maybe more a little more serious do you want to come across as very friendly and approachable um you know like a therapist might probably would want to be approachable and friendly and welcoming and warm. So you know having those conversations will help us to be able to um get them where they need to be in that regard.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah. Oh that is so cool. So one last question for you and this one is kind of for Bill okay uh because he’s our AI nerd. Do you see any aspect of your business where AI might contribute to um any kind of success you might have either in marketing yourself or um in what you do?

Kerry: It actually already has.

Anna-Lynn: Oooh. He’s going to love that.

Kerry: It’s it’s a really interesting question you know artificial intelligence when it comes to the Arts, photography.
Anna-Lynn: Yeah, we’ve had a lot of discussion about it in the office.

Kerry: Yeah, yeah, yeah and I mean obviously the film industry it’s a very controversial thing and rightly so you know people are concerned about their how their likeness is going to be used in the future and things like that, and then there’s the whole thing about writers and all of that right you know what I’m talking about um so as far as photography goes I mean there’s some great AI tools that have already been released within Photoshop you know as a photographer I use Photoshop a lot yeah and um you know there used to be let’s say there’s a a reflection in- in
someone’s glasses uh as a very simple example yeah uh it used to be that and I still try and be very careful about avoiding that during a session but sometimes it’s unavoidable and so you can actually you know mask out a little reflection in in some eyeglasses and there’s a function in Photoshop called generative- generative fill and so I will mask that reflection out and hit generative fill in it will give me three choices of replacing that reflection with whatever.

Anna-Lynn: Oh my goodness. Wow.

Kerry: And you can even get specific about it um you know like you can you can include prompts like word prompts and phrases.

Anna-Lynn: Very cool.

Kerry: Which is is been very very helpful you can actually mask out a person so isolate a subject and completely replace the background so maybe I photograph them on a on a field or on on the beach in Rye and now I want to place them on a Parisian- in a Parisian cafe or something like that I can do that.

Anna-Lynn: With AI, because of Ai tools. Wow.

Kerry: I don’t normally want to go that far but it’s it’s fun to play with and if you need to like with some of the sports um photographs um you could you know I photograph typically in- in a studio um and then maybe I photograph a hockey player and now I can put them in a hockey Arena with Stadium lights behind them and things like that so that’s been awesome very cool um, on the other hand, um there are apps where you can have a headshot done um using AI yeah
and so.

Anna-Lynn: I’ve seen a lot of that on Linked In like people talking about it.

Kerry: So that would obviously completely negate what I do um you know I mean there’s some inevitability with any kind of Technology you know robots whatever it might be people get replaced and they get you know um things like that as far as like AI headshots let’s let’s say
usually, it’s you know you find a good picture of your of your face.

Anna-Lynn: And which somebody else already had to take.

Kerry: That’s true, that’s true.

Anna-Lynn: Either even if it’s a selfie someone else had to take it.

Kerry: Right um and then you know AI creates this style um you know image from it I find that a lot of them are a little bit cartoony.

Anna-Lynn: Yes I’ve noticed that.

Kerry: Um which can be cool that could be cool.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah, if that’s your vibe.

Kerry: Yeah uh maybe you’re an animator and right up your alley but um I think just you know hiring a professional photographer. Some of the things we’ve already talked about like that connection like I my goal is to bring something out of you…

Anna-Lynn: Exactly.

Kerry: Which you’re not going to get that with with AI so um I think there are pros and cons it’s going to be very interesting to uh you know follow along and see where it goes and where the
photography or the um creative Industries go as a result of AI for sure.

Anna-Lynn: Yeah. Well thank you so much for coming here and talking to us with- about all of
this it’s I love what you do I love what you guys are putting out there in the world and it’s so – everybody Birch Blaze Studios. Kerry and Taylor Strubel. Look them up find them on Instagram find them on Facebook and check out their website.

Kerry: Thank you.

Anna-Lynn: So people can find you because you do beautiful work we- we’ve had you come in and shoot for us a couple times and uh for our website photos and uh it’s been great so.

Kerry: Well thanks so much or having me, really enjoyed it.

Anna-Lynn: It’s great to hear about how you’re marketing yourself and how what you do is is a
link and a piece of what other people use to market themselves as well and so I just think it’s an interest interesting perspective and um a great example of how marketing um can be successful in ways that people might not think of or…

Kerry: Yeah I appreciate…

Anna-Lynn: Associate.

Kerry: Thank you I appreciate you having me and I love what you guys are doing um and I love the podcast so far so I’m happy to be a part of it.

Anna-Lynn: We’ll probably have you back I have a feeling this won’t be the last time you’re on.

Kerry: Thank you.

Anna-Lynn: Well and we’ll see you guys next time.