Guys we are so excited to introduce you to Hollie! She is Reg & Kala Photography’s Elopement and Portrait Photographer!!!

Hollie, native of North Carolina, beginning her photography journey in 2014 Hollie then moved to Hawaii to finish her nursing degree. She loves coffee shops, bubble tea, and traveling. She has not only been a digital photographer, but Hollie has been trained as a film photographer as well. (It’s amazing!!!!) A year ago, Hollie moved back to Raleigh and decided to pursue her career in art while maintaining her job in the nursing industry.

As many of you have heard before Kala and I knew at the end of 2021, we had to duplicate ourselves. Turning away almost 30 wedding clients in that year alone and I have no idea how many hourly portrait clients and elopement inquiries we received that we literally couldn’t keep track of. These individuals and families are great clients, people we wanted to work with. Couples who had beautiful intimate weddings that wanted us at their day. Families that needed to stop time for just a moment to be able to hang photos on their walls of their babies.

Time was such a thief. We didn’t have enough to serve everyone. We delivered just shy of 80,000 photos in 2021. We knew we had to duplicate ourselves. Our clients deserved more of us. So that’s when we began the search. It wasn’t easy. We interviewed 86 photographers and had hundreds to apply. We knew this wasn’t going to be a quick or easy selection. There were a lot of specific qualities we needed in our new associates.

We found our Lead Wedding Associate Photographers Hunter and Maci, but couldn’t connect with any of the other applicants that we had. We knew they were not supposed to be at Reg & Kala. We had given up the search and agreed to reconvene in 3 months to see if we could generate a new pool of photographers to apply. About a month later Hollie reached out to us. She had visited our website and called us to see if we were still hiring and if she could apply.

During her interview we had to bring our boys to the office. OUR 2 & 3 YEAR OLD BOYS! They were all over the place. I mean all over the office climbing on everything falling down. I’m sure Hollie probably thought we were the craziest people on the planet. But she ended asking if she could shadow at our next shoot which was the following Wednesday. During the bridal shoot Hollie was AMAZING!

So helpful with the bride, she wasn’t afraid to put herself in the situation and carry the dress or fix the flowers. That really impressed us. Most new photographers will keep back and not put themselves out in front, but she was more concerned with how the bride felt and looked than with herself. We knew she was a keeper.

What do we love most about her? She is deliberately kind. She smiles almost constantly. She loves babies. She has been willing to train at multiple shoots a day to learn and perfect our style, systems, and posing rules to become a top photographer in Raleigh.

What are we proud of her for? How she is so open about what she needs. If she is struggling to learn a photography skill, she is so willing to put her ego aside to learn, and that makes her the best student. Most people feel like they must act like they know everything, and you know what happens when photographers do that? They deliver crappy photos and keep a big ego. Hollie cares more about how others feel, especially her clients, so she will set her pride aside to learn correctly to be better for them.

Why are we happy to have her on our team? We love the fact that Hollie embodies what it is to be a servant leader. We get to lead our families and couples during exciting times, to make sure dreams and visions are captured. She believes in the fact that how we do anything is how we do everything and she puts her everything into anything that she does.

Below is a complete guide on hiring associate photographers, whether you choose ours (which we believe are the best) or someone else’s.

WHAT IS AN ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER?

Often you will first hear about an associate photographer or an associate photographer team when the photographer you want is already booked on your day, or maybe their price is a little outside of your budget.

This new concept can cause confusion for most or maybe even fears. You’re afraid they are inexperienced, or not as good as the main photographer. Then (gasp!) their prices are lower which confirms your belief that they are not as good as the main photographers, because more expensive means better right?

Most people answer three questions when they book a photographer.

Do you like their work? Do you like them? Is their price in your budget?

If all three are yeses, then book them! Right?? Well, I know especially when its your wedding and it isn’t that simple. So here’s a few things to know when booking associate photographers.

STYLE

The great thing about hiring an associate team like Hunter & Maci, is that they are going to keep the same signature style of photography that Reg & Kala have created and curated over the past 9 years! When hiring Hunter and Maci, this was one of the first questions that we asked. Are you willing to create work that looks exactly like ours?

Associate photographers get to focus on shooting, while editing is still done by the main photographers (us). This ensures the consistency of the photos. So, you get the same service before and after wedding days, the only difference is who is actually at your wedding.

 WHY IS THEIR PRICE LOWER?

Most associate photographers have lower packages not because they aren’t as good, or they don’t have the experience, which is the fear most people have. It is because they don’t have to carry the cost of running the photography business.

Advertising, marketing, accounting, insurance, bookkeeping, social media, continuing education, image storage, editing software, travel costs, licensing, even branding costs like websites, photos and videos these are all things the main photographers must carry. Meanwhile associates get to do what they do best, take beautiful photos and help you feel comfortable in front of the camera.

Different associates on the same team can even have different pricing. Not because of difference in skill, but difference in the number of events they want each year and even preference.

EXPEREINCE

Most people believe associates are inexperienced, at least in our case this isn’t true. We hire photographers that want to be photographers while we handle the business side. All of our associates come in with at least 3 years experience as a photographer, and then we put them through our expansive training system.

Posing, lighting rules, exposure concepts, flash training, typical and a-typical posing, flattering rules, our client experience, and even some of our top secret tricks to deliver our signature style is all a part of the training that they go through before be “released” to shoot without us, the main photographers. 

WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO BE AN ASSOCIATE?

Being a photographer and running a photography business are two different things. There are some amazing photographers the world will never see, because they don’t know how to launch their business for great clients like you to find them. Many of our associates prefer the imaginative artistic aspect of photography to the business side as well as working in a team with support rather than trudging through alone.

BONUS!

One thing you may not have thought about, with a team like ours where we have multiple associates. If for any reason your scheduled photographer couldn’t make it to your wedding. (Like how I, Reg, ended up in the hospital after 3 weddings back-to back-to back on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday wedding days with Pneumonia). We have backups to send AND they are going to deliver the same style, experience, and use the same systems because the team is trained to deliver the same photos to you.

Hope this helps in your decision on if an associate is the right fit for you!