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Life and Work with Lucy Schultz

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucy Schultz.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lucy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Being homeschooled allowed me to focus on photography from the age of seven, and I joined a photography club which provided opportunities for critique on my work, which at the time was exclusively photos of my cats. I found photography immensely fulfilling, but I thought being a professional photographer was an unattainable dream – everyone told me it would be too hard to make it as an artist. I thought that managing people was an unwelcome challenge and that there was too much pressure in wedding photography for me. It was during a student scholarship to a major photography conference that I first had the chance to shoot people – and soon my peers were trying to hire me for their senior portraits and family photos. I had no business experience or training – I still don’t! – but I put up a website and learned as I went. When I was 19, I got a job assisting a wedding photographer and from that first wedding, I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life – it was career-love at first sight! The rush of shooting a wedding makes me feel the most ALIVE I’ve ever felt, out to the very edges of my fingertips. At the same time, it’s automatic now, like slipping into a second language.

When two completely different individuals get to plan a day that reflects them and their commitment to each other in any way they choose, what kind of party will they throw? Maybe they want to say their vows at sunrise on a mountain top, just the two of them; maybe their grandma will be their flower girl at a 150-person dance party. And every time, it’s an overwhelmingly fulfilling experience as the moments fly by, because Weddings! Are! Fun! I’ve now shot hundreds of couples and I love that I get to be the one to tell their story of how it all happened.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When I moved to Denver in 2015, I had to reestablish my work within a new community, which felt a lot like starting over. Because each couple gets married just once, return business is the challenge in the wedding industry and referrals from family & friends are the strongest source of income. Instead of taking a step back, it was actually a step forward in disguise, as the market in Colorado is larger and I’ve been fortunate to connect with an incredible community of wedding photographers here who support each other to the fullest. Turning competition into collaboration is a big key – no one builds their business in isolation, and we can all learn from each other. If you feel like you have too much competition, find what makes you stand out. In the beginning, I felt like I had to tone down my goofy, weird, undignified (homeschooled!) personality in order to be “professional”, but I found that being real with folks encouraged them to be real with me in front of the camera, and we all had so much more fun that way. Even if that means letting them know that I totally just ripped my pants lying in the dirt. Because that definitely just happened.

Please tell us about Lucy Schultz Photography.
I shoot only weddings, elopements and engagements with a bright, true-to-life color style. The Colorado mountains are my home base but I also love destination weddings and traveling, and my love of landscapes shows in the emphasis on the natural scenery in my work. I genuinely enjoy wedding celebrations so much that I approach photographing them through having as much fun as possible and making sure everyone in front of the camera is having fun too.

My signature images are my Tiny Planets, which are 360-degree round panoramic images. It’s a little mind bending, but I don’t use a drone to create them. Usually when you think of a panorama, you’re thinking of a long, skinny image of a landscape, which I then bend until the outer edges meet each other and the horizon becomes a circle, leaving the subject standing on their own little world. I love these images because it gives my clients the chance to see what the entire location looked like in just one image. And they’re totally unique and different. I’m also a big fan of in-camera double exposures, which is a fancy way of taking two photographs on top of each other. When done correctly, one image fades through the next, creating a juxtaposition that can’t be achieved any other way.

I’m most proud of my two Fearless awards. Fearless awards are for outstanding candid wedding photography, judged by a rotating panel of international wedding photographers. It is extremely selective with just 1-2% of images awarded from over 10,000 images in each round. It’s one of the only image-based rankings of wedding photographers that you can find, in a world where most vendor listings are pay-to-play.

Any advice for other women, particularly young women who are just starting their journey?
Invest in yourself. I thought I believed in myself and my abilities, but it wasn’t until I put money into advertising and exposure that I saw a big swell in business. It seemed risky and I was terrified that I would lose the money and not make any new bookings, but it ended up being the big boost I needed. Take the risk!

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Image Credit:
Lucy Schultz Photography

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