Hi friends! Thank you so much for checking out my first blog! I’m Cassidy Spendlove, the girl behind the lens at Photos by Cassidy. Born and raised in Michigan, I am a cat mom, avid coffee drinker, and my day job is working at a children’s zoo!
I have wanted to be a photographer for as long as I can remember. I received my first DSLR Canon Rebel XS for Christmas about 12 years ago. I used to take pictures of my family all the time, setting up photo shoots with my little sister who wanted to be a popstar at the time, so by doing her headshots I was basically setting her up for some real success. I graduated from SVSU with a Bachelors in Art in photography and graphic design. I loved the artist community at SVSU and am so thankful everyday for those experiences. I have shot sporting events, family sessions, and community events like the Walk to End Alzheimers. Now I mostly shoot weddings and seniors or college graduates. My favorite sessions are engagement sessions because you can really showcase personal stories and the love between two people, and it gets the couple comfortable and excited for me to photograph their wedding day!
During this dreaded beginning of 2020 I have had a lot more time on my hands. I am going on a month of being unemployed from my day job and my photo sessions were rescheduling left and right, so I decided to work on building my business. I think I googled that exact phrase, not even knowing where to start. I stumbled across Joy Michelle’s website and have spent the past week binging her Youtube channel. Joy is a Fine Art Wedding Photography and also educator for other wedding photogs like myself. If you need help with any aspect of running a photo business I would definitely check her stuff out. So anyway, quarantine is when I started to really hone in on my goals for 2020, it's never too late to start right?!
1. Rebrand my business
Yes this is a lot of work and yes it’s scary but I am wanting a new look, rather than what I made for my portfolio class in college. I’ve been looking at so many other photographers in my area, and basically everywhere, seeing their style and their brand. A lot of them are leaning toward that warm, earthy, wind blown hair in front of a mystical mountain type look. That’s not really my style, and I’m not looking to fit into that category, but I wanted to rebrand so I could stand out and have a more sophisticated logo, website, etc.
2. Book five more weddings for 2021
This year with weddings I started out with having about 20 booked for the year. I have successfully covered one so far, in an ice storm might I add. With the current crisis I have worked with my brides to reschedule to later dates in the year and even 2021. On top of the pandemic I would love to book 5 more weddings for next year! It's been a wild ride, but I am always growing and I thank every single client who entrusts me to cover their big day knowing that I am still learning.
3. Start a blog…. check!
After investing some time into researching how to run a truly successful wedding photography business in this day and age I saw a lot of influencers and others in the industry say you need a blog to stay relevant. So here I am probably typing way too much at this point but, welcome to my photog blog! Here I will be sharing mini galleries of recent photo sessions and weddings, some tips I’ve discovered along the way, and some more personal posts like this one as well. Thank you all for reading (or at least skimming through)!
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