Today we’d like to introduce you to Keira Hand.
Hi Keira, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began my photography journey early in life, getting a 35mm film camera during my freshman year of high school. Throughout my life, I knew I wanted to go into the arts. However, I primarily focused on painting and illustration in high school and didn’t truly immerse myself in photography until college. I went to UT Austin for a degree in Studio Art and discovered my love for photography during my introductory course where we shot, developed, and printed our own 35mm black and white film. I went on to use most of my time in school, exploring various concepts shot on medium and large format film, but the underlying theme to all of them was emotion. As someone who has always been a hopeless romantic, I knew wedding photography would be a perfect career path after graduating. The powerful emotions felt during the day and my tendency to live off the highs of high-stress situations appealed to me greatly.
In my post grad years, I did what many art school grads did – worked countless restaurant and retail jobs until I could build my business up enough to go full time. About a year after graduating, I finally got my break into weddings thanks to a now good friend, Aubre, who let me come 2nd shoot a wedding with her and get some experience under my belt. From there, I worked under other photographers, companies and periodically taking my own weddings to build my portfolio and develop my style. At the beginning of my business, I focused exclusively on my first love of capturing emotion – working hard to make my clients super comfortable and able to be vulnerable with me, and recently have been able to mesh that side of my photography loves with a more editorial/stylized style of photography that I’ve loved since my early days shooting fashion collaborations with other creative, so I’m so happy to have gotten to a point where I can give the best of both worlds to my clients!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Getting into the wedding industry was such a struggle. It was one of those catch 22’s where you need a portfolio to get experience but need the experience to get a portfolio. I ran into several photographers that were very discouraging to me, essentially talking down to me over the course of our interview for me to 2nd shoot with them and insulting me for thinking my event experience would translate to weddings. While, yes, weddings are a much different beast than general event work as the primary photographer, they are not too dissimilar as a 2nd photographer. The other struggle has been learning the accounting/taxes/marketing side of things! As someone who went to school for fine arts, I was taught next to none of the technical sides to running a business and had largely self-taught/gotten advice from friends on those fronts to learn.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I adore capturing emotion. All of my works through college centered on the expression of emotion and the minute facial changes that accompany it. This has always been a cornerstone of my work, and I pride myself on making my clients comfortable, relaxed and open with me through our session so my photos can transport them back to that exact moment when they see them. In addition to this, I am a serious nerd about lighting, composition and bringing something a little bit different to the table. As a lifelong artist, I am always trying to push the boundaries with my work and create something new and different, so in addition to the beautifully candid photos mentioned above, I always want to give my clients that “wow” photo that leaves everyone that sees it in awe of how it was done and how unique and different it is. I’m basically always playing with new techniques with my photography to come up with new concepts. I also am a lover of all things print. Putting work up on the walls and in albums is a major passion of mine. I love to work with my clients to design albums of their weddings to tell their story and create wall art displays to show off in their homes!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
I love to work with other creatives on projects! I am a huge believer in showing off the kind of work you want to book, so working with florists/makeup artists/coordinators on badass styled shoots that speak to our interests is always something I’m up for. Plus, shooting rad stuff together is always a great way to make new industry friends!
Pricing:
- Portrait sessions start at $400 (pricing varies slightly by session type)
- General event coverage is $125/hr
- Wedding package starts at $2,500 for full day coverage
Contact Info:
- Email: Hello@keirahand.com
- Website: Www.keirahand.com
- Instagram: @keirahandphotography
- Facebook: Facebook.com/keirahandphotography
Image Credits
Keira Hand Photography
