I’m in love with the idea of intentionally creating a unique life, and hearing the stories of people who are in the process of creating inspired lives for themselves is fascinating, and always a learning experience for me. I’m excited to share those stories here through the Creative Life interviews.

photo by Becka’s husband, Nate

Becka Robinson is an  alarmingly talented photographer and owner of Studio222 Photography based in Orlando Florida, who also writes a brilliant personal blog called Life as an Artistpreneur and tweets at @beckarobinson. I started following Becka about three years ago- her work is gorgeous, and she’s incredibly insightful. I think you’ll love her take on how she found her path and what she’s learned as she builds her creative life.

How did you get your start in photography, and how did you discover that this was what you wanted to do?

I think it’s safe to say that photography found me and forced me into a relationship with it. Just kidding, but only kind of. I’ve always been a creative. When I was a child I would draw, paint, sculpt, and beg my parents for those Klutz craft books. (Anyone? No? You missed out.) My family would get me art kits for Christmas. Everything from sand art, to shrinkydinks, to make your own stained glass. I played “Art Gallery” when I was in elementary school (WHAT A DORK) and would set up “paintings” I did and then make my friends pay me in lemonheads for them.

In high school I found digital media and it became my hobby through college. Photography became a means to an end for me. I needed photos to manipulate so I learned a bit about how to take them. I taught myself as I went by trial and error and looking up answers online. Toward the end of my college career I met a friend who happened to be a photographer. Organically our friendship grew and she taught me more about cameras and I taught her more about digital media. We worked together for a little over a year and she pretty much taught me everything about shooting weddings. I’m a big advocate of mentors because of her. We are still good friends. In fact, she helped me shoot a wedding reception last week.

photo by Heather Ahrens

I did not want to shoot weddings. I thought it was a crazy world (it is) that I wanted no part of. So I shot portraits. Until one of my portrait clients got engaged and asked me to come and shoot her big day. I invited my boyfriend (now my husband) to come help me and afterwards we realized that we enjoyed it. We decided to share some of our favorite images from that wedding on my portrait website just to “see what happens”. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tell me about where your business is today! You’re part of an amazing team-how did you and Nate meet? Was this destiny or what?

Today we are approaching our 3rd birthday as Studio222 Photography. Nate and I have shot every single wedding together since the beginning. We’ve been very blessed to have our work recognized by both online and print publications and by the successes we’ve achieved. I am not the girl to say that everything was luck. Because I worked my ass off for the last 3 years, and that’s what it’s about… Being nice, working hard, and being in the right place at the right time. There’s a component of luck but you’ve got to have all the cards in place before Lady Luck can throw down a winning hand.

photo by Jeff Newsom

I met Nate in college. I wouldn’t say it was destiny. We didn’t really like each other that much. He thought I was bossy (possibly true) and I thought he was a smart ass (possibly true). We were in a band together which is how we became friends and I’d say we were friends for probably 3 years before we were more than friends. But once we fell, we fell really hard and there was just not an option to not be together. He’s my soul mate and when you find that person that can really see you, you know there’s no way you couldn’t have them in your life. We eloped on October 24 of last year.

What does the word “artistpreneur” mean to you?

I love this word. Nate is impossibly witty and we both love wordplay so we’ll combine words all the time just goofing off. It’s a thing. (Hey, I never claimed to be cool.) I threw this one out one day while brainstorming a name for the personal blog I wanted to launch and it stuck. To me, an “artistpreneur” is a creative person who is using their artistic talent to pay their bills. It’s the marriage between being an artist and a business owner. It’s the tension between the almighty dollar and creative integrity. Lordy, it can easily become a pretty heavy word.

photo by Tim Beckford

What are some of the most important personal and business lessons that you’ve learned running your own company?

This answer could easily turn into a book proposal! There’s so much I learned. My degree is actually in psychology (not photography, art, or business) so everything I’ve learned about this business has come from actually running this business. Here goes…

• No matter what, if you are a women who works with a man, people will assume that you are his assistant. This happens ALL THE TIME at weddings. At first it made me really angry because I started our business and pretty much ran it by myself for the first couple years. But… it also means I get out of having to deal with a lot of the stuff that I don’t want to do because people ask my husband first. Ha!

Ok, so that one was a bit of a joke so I’ll give you a good one now… ;)

• A big business lesson I’ve learned is that, at the end of the day, it’s just you and your clients. It’s not twitter. It’s not facebook. Most of what you read on there is “embellished” anyways. Everyone puts on a good front online and you can’t let yourself believe it all. They aren’t going to tell you when they had a client call and yell at them for a mistake they made. They aren’t going to tell you when their book deal fell through. They aren’t going to tell you that they can’t make their credit card payment this month. They’re going to tell you about how some blog featured them today and you’re going to assume that their life is  SO PERFECT! And it will be tempting to wonder what they did and try to copy it step by step. So take what you read with a grain of salt and just worry about yourself. Make decisions based on your own convictions. Do what works for your business. Run your own numbers and don’t worry about other people’s. This has made all the difference for Nate and I.

Thanks so much Becka!

You can find Studio222 photography here, read about her Life as an Artistpreneur,
follow her pins on pinterest or see what she’s tweeting about

Are you following your passion (whatever that is!) and crafting an inspired life around it?
I’d love to feature you! Please e-mail me at kylaroma [at] gmail.com, let me know in the comments or
be in touch through my contact form