How to:run a photography business And Be a Full Time Mum

Emily Quinton is a wedding photographer who recently moved to London. Influenced by her background in fine art photography with closeups of beautiful delicate flowers, Emily’s wedding portfolio is feminine and elegant. Along with her fiance Stef, she has two lovely young children. We talked to her about how to create a work/life balance when being a full time mum and full time photographer!
How long have you been a full time photographer?
I have been full-time since the beginning of 2007. My daughter was born in December 2006 and during my pregnancy I had been asked to photograph a couple of weddings for friends. At first I thought this was a crazy idea. I was a fine-art photographer, not a wedding photographer! But I agreed and within the first 10 minutes of the first wedding I saw my future. I had fallen in love with wedding photography and I also quickly realised that if I could make this work I could design a business that would fit around children in a way that my current academic work wasn’t going to so easily do.

When you first became pregnant, did you have any worries or concerns about how to continue working during your pregnancy?
When I was pregnant the first time I was only just starting to photograph weddings, so I didn’t worry. The second time was perhaps a little more challenging as I had a full quota of weddings that year but I wasn’t worried about it. I just had to make sure my assistants knew they would have to carry extra kit!

Bearing in mind you were self employed, how much support was available to you?
I didn’t have any support for maternity leave. I am not sure if I could have claimed anything but if I could it certainly wasn’t obvious. I had to financially plan for it as part of my business planning for that year.

How long did you keep working before you took maternity leave and what were the challenges?
For my first baby I stopped a few weeks before my baby was due but for the second I was seeing clients for consultations on my due date! And I shot my last wedding at 37 weeks. Crazy when I think about it but it was an intimate wedding for someone I knew quite well. It was also nice and close to home and the hospital! The challenges were being tired and the fact that I make large babies and huge bumps for someone who is quite small!


As wedding photographers, we often get booked more than 12 months in advance. Did finding out you were pregnant affect any existing bookings, and if so how did you handle those?
This was only an issue for my second child. We had carefully planned the second pregnancy, so that I was due in my off-season. And I was incredibly lucky that this all went to plan. I can remember turning down weddings before I was even pregnant in the hope that I would be! I only had to cancel one and I gave the couple plenty of notice so they were very understanding.

Did being pregnant have any physical affect on your shooting?
I have been lucky in that I’ve two easy pregnancies and been physically fit throughout both of them, so it hasn’t affected my shooting. I would highly recommend yoga and swimming before, during and after pregnancy!

When you were pregnant the second time, did you do anything differently based on your first experience?
I took less maternity leave! If we have anymore children I certainly won’t be doing that again! It was exhausting. Not at first but it hit me about 6 months later when my body had clearly had enough of my crazy ways!

Now with two lovely children, what are the main challenges of being a full time Mum and full time photographer?
I am constantly trying to balance time with my children and time for my clients. This year I made a new year’s resolution to seriously address my work/life balance. My children are growing up so fast and I don’t want to miss it. I am lucky and get to spend at least 4 days a week with them but this does mean that I am working most evenings, which can be hard going. So, I have started to adjust my business and now outsource a lot more work. I have my albums designed for me and I now have a digital editor who does the majority of my editing. Next on my list is a cleaner, so that we can spend our summer enjoying the garden and having plenty of fun!

What tactics or ways of working have been the things that have helped the most?
As I have just mentioned outsourcing has definitely helped the most. I cannot recommend it enough. It doesn’t mean losing creative control over your work, as I feared it might. It just means getting someone else to help you to fulfill your vision. And I also couldn’t do what I do without our super nanny! She looks after the children for a day in the week (and two days once a month) and then for all the weddings that I shoot. I often have to be away over night for weddings, as I still travel across the UK (although I’m going to be strictly limiting that to just 5 weddings from 2011 onwards), and having a nanny that I can rely on 100% makes leaving the children so much easier. Yes I miss them a lot but I don’t have to worry about them.

What advice would you give to other female wedding photographers who might be expecting their first child or wanting to conceive soon?
Go for it! But seriously think about your financial planning so that you can take as much maternity leave as you need to. And also think about ways in which you can start working now to enable you to spend as much time with your baby as you want to. If you get used to being more disciplined with your time before your baby arrives it will make life a lot easier. Look at outsourcing whatever you can. Find people you can work with now when the pressure is off. That way you can test things out but know that if it doesn’t work you can still do it yourself. This might not be the case if you are trying to outsource work when you have a 6 week old baby on your lap!
I also cannot rate highly enough making sure that in all the juggling of being a mum and a photographer, that you make sure you have some time for yourself each week, date nights with your husband/partner each month and definitely the occasional night away from home for the two of you without your child(ren). I didn’t think that I’d ever need that as I have always wanted and adored children. They are quite simply exhausting though. And so of course is running your own business. If you take time out for yourself, you will be a better mum and a better photographer.

Thank you very much to Emily for sharing this real insight into the triumphs and difficulties facing new mums who are running a photography business!
Check out more of Emily’s lovely work at www.emilyquinton.com   http://www.thephotographyparlour.com/2010/04/how-to-run-a-business-and-be-a-full-time-mum-by-emily-quinton/840