Check Out Joshua Holderness’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Holderness. 

Hi Joshua, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Well, it’s certainly been an interesting ride. 

While my main business is photography, my passion when I first started out was filmmaking. Since I was little, I loved making videos. Growing up with YouTube most of my life had a big influence on me and making videos was how I would spend nearly all of my free time through elementary and middle school. In high school, I started to get more serious about it, so I decided to take some filmmaking, photography, and graphic design classes. My teacher in those classes was amazing and encouraged me to take my hobby further, and practice excellence in order to begin to make a career out of it. 

When I graduated high school I was offered a job doing Business Portrait Photography at a company that specialized in working with real estate professionals. It offered a generous hourly and opportunity to travel the country taking photos, so I gladly accepted. I worked for them for about a year before they sadly closed their doors unexpectedly in 2019. Suddenly out of a job, I began taking more freelance video and photo work. During this time, I learned a lot, having the privilege of working with different companies and brands, as well as individuals and couples who called on my services. Later that year I also got a job with a widely-known photography studio that specializes in family portraits and got the chance to shoot thousands of families, couples, graduates, newborns, and all sorts of in-betweens. 

I feel as though I’ve been lucky enough to experience a wide range of the professional photography spectrum, and it’s with that experience and knowledge that I am now working to build a new photography business with my good friend, John Chihoski. Together we are working to build a company that can provide a heightened level of professional photography, using our combined experience and the cutting edge of photo and video technology. I think we are going to be able to do something truly unique! 

So that’s where I am right now. This company is in its infancy, doesn’t even have a name yet, but we’ve already been able to produce stunning results for our first set of clients, and I can’t wait to bring it to the wider public when it’s ready. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’d say I’ve definitely been blessed, both with opportunities and privileges afforded to me by my status as a white American, as someone born into a middle-class home, and as luck would have it, knowing the right people at the right time, but I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s all been easy. Mental health has definitely been a dark shadow at certain times in my life, and many in my family have struggled with it as well. My family has been split for most of my life and it’s definitely created rifts in those relationships. It can be really hard to find your place in the world when your parents have their own major struggles going on. 

Creatively, the shift from a passion in video to an understanding of photography was a fairly smooth transition, but a day doesn’t pass by when I don’t think about how much I’d like to make another film. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve spent more time doing portraits than just about anything else, and I think I’ve created some excellent portraits for business professionals in particular. It is with that understanding that John and I have decided to focus our new company towards the direction of business professionals and corporate photography. We provide clean, sharp portraits for professionals who want to look their best, and show their clients that they understand how to market themselves well. We also provide services like retouching and graphic design, in order to create a complete marketing toolkit perfect for anyone; including business cards, email signatures, social media banners, and more! 

We also take work in the realm of product photography, video advertisements, general portrait and lifestyle photography, and drone photography/video. 

John’s philosophy has always been to never cut corners when it comes to gear, and that is an attitude we have carried into our new business with pride. Our cameras, lenses, lighting equipment, and our software and approach to post-processing is on the leading edge of technology in this field, including exciting new developments in AI processing, and we plan to continue to keep it up to date as long as we’re in business to make sure we’re offering a higher standard of photo and video work. 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I’d say that while it can also be a hindrance at times, an important characteristic that has aided my creative work has been my standard of excellence, or what some might call perfectionism. It’s a two-edged sword to be sure. It creates an ever-present pressure to do everything with excellence, which naturally pushes me to deliver great results every time. However, it has also caused a great deal of procrastination and self-doubt, which has been the source of some of my greatest regrets and cost me greater success at some points. One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in this field is that “Done is better than perfect” – a quote by influencer Peter Mckinnon. 

Pricing:

• My pricing is highly dependent on the nature and scope of the project, and I’m always willing to work with any client’s budget within a reasonable range.
• Photo work ranges $100-$1,000 on average
• Video work ranges $1,000-$10,000 on average
• Graphic Design work is highly dependent on the nature of the job

Contact Info:

• Email: joshuagrapher@gmail.com
• Website: https://joshuagrapher.weebly.com/my-story
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/joshuagrapher
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/joshuagrapher
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC4Zrl1LKMjrueXIu6z463eA
• Other: https://facebook.com/JohnChihoskiPhotography (temporary home of the new company)

Image Credits
Joshua Holderness