Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Kelly.
Hi Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve always had a corner of my brain dedicated to creativity and art, but in college, it really picked up.
A college professor saw my talent in high school and as soon as I graduated, she got in touch with me and started training me right away. I was teaching juniors and seniors as a freshman and got ahead quickly in college with my degree in graphic design teaching and running some photography classes. I was always known for how quickly I worked. We went to Photoshop World in Las Vegas (a worldwide photo conference) and I placed in the top 3 for photo retouching out of everyone in the world that entered! Caryn Esplin (the professor) really poured her love for photography into my soul and I fell in love.
I even met my husband because of photography. There’s a photo class that travels and takes models and creates a big day-long trip, and my husband was one of the models for it. OH MAN, he was fine. We connected instantly and haven’t let go since. Everything cheesy and movie-screen-worthy about love is us. We got so lucky.
Talent wasn’t enough though, as soon as I graduated I had our first kid, and a few years later our second. Each pregnancy, I was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum which puts you out of commission on every level physically and emotionally and leaves permanent issues. You throw up all day all night for 9 months, lose weight, have to go to the hospital a lot for fluids, can’t walk, can’t smell ANYTHING without throwing up, can’t keep friends because you are bed-ridden and people stop kinda caring when you are sick that long, you feel so alone, you get diagnosably depressed, you blow out blood vessels in your eyes and face, throw out your back, herniate your heart, etc.
It was hell, to say the least. I mean when you get the flu and feel like crap and lay on the couch for 3 days, that was me for 9 months both times. We can’t have any more kids because of it. We also moved 9 times in our first 5 years married (internships, new jobs, etc) so trying to start a business in that environment was so hard.
But I LOVED it. I practiced like crazy, attended workshops and conferences, entered contests, and constantly was looking for my flaws so I could improve them. I really really loved what I was doing. I started to get really good and it only ever made me more hungry to do more and get better. I stopped being nervous before a session and just let my brain do its thing. It was second nature.
It wasn’t until the “blessing” of covid quarantine and my slow season (January-March 2020) that things really sped up. I decided to try out TikTok for my business and just see how it went. Why not, it was my slow season and I had time. I made a video showing my editing process and all the stuff I do compare to other people in my industry, and it took off. 1.1 million views I think. It was crazy and I couldn’t believe it. I made another one and again, in the millions. Like, I’m just an ordinary person, this was so crazy!
I started having people fly to me from all over the world, just for a season with me! What an honor, and big pressure! People would fly me out to them, big businesses wanted to collaborate with me, I even did a shoot for National Geographic in Yellowstone which was a memory of a lifetime. And people from every corner would email me asking me to do an edit for them (adding in a dead grandparent into a wedding photo, editing out an ex-boyfriend, taking people out of the background at Disneyland, whatever you can think of I’ve done it for someone) and it’s created a lot of happy tears for people around the world.
My highest viewed video so far has been 23 million views! It seems like I’m bragging but I feel so ordinary that it is just all so crazy and unknown territory for me. I do have to post slowly to TikTok because I’ve been so busy that it’s taking some time for me to figure out how to manage all the work it has created. Each time I post an editing video I get a few hundred messages asking for me to edit something, so it’s been like riding a roller coaster while trying to put ketchup on a hamburger. It’s made me stew pup my game, skills, time management, and quadrupled what I was making the previous year.
And all of this with my family life, it’s been a blessing and a curse! I now work as many hours as someone with a full-time job, but need to be able to drop what I am doing on a dime if my little toddler needs me to fix his toy or help him go potty. I have to be flexible and good with my time. It also allows me and my family to go on more vacations and see amazing places when I have someone hire me to go to them for a session.
It lets us have more adventures and shows my kids that being a full-time mother and business owner is possible and fun and hard work. They love going places and trying new things, and I feel so blessed that I stuck out these 8 years to be able to make a business that could be such a force for good with editing or creating freaking epic pictures for people’s big moments in their own lives.
Hopefully, that’s enough to work with, it’s the main details I think!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being pregnant was hard, moving so much was hard to establish a client base, working with the competition of all the photographers in Utah used to be hard, wondering how to reach people and advertise before TikTok was hard, learning how to run a business was hard, time management was hard, raising a family in the middle of it was hard, there’s a lot of hard struggles that go with being a woman and mother and trying to start a successful business.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a photographer and editor, both doing sessions for people or editing pictures they’ve taken for them.
I’m known for editing and shooting so quickly. I don’t know how to explain it really but that’s what everyone says when they watch me edit. I can get images back to people after a session quickly but it’s still completely polished off. I like being efficient in all areas of my life so that makes sense haha.
I shot for National Geographic for an explorer in Yellowstone who was teaching gifted and talented kids about microbiology.
I have had people fly to me for a photo session from over 15 different states so far. And have traveled to about 20 other states myself to do a session for someone. I love that I can travel and work and do what I love, it really is that stupid cliche where you don’t work a day in your life if you’re doing something you love.
I’ve been published in magazines, won countless contests, been chosen as the top 50 global wedding photographers by Junebug Weddings in 2021. Top 3 for image retouching at Photoshop World. Worked with UniLAD, Photoshop, and several small businesses.
Went from 0-to 450,000 followers on TikTok in 2021. What a ride.
I just feel like I see things differently, I can get to a location and know which lens and which spots will be good instantly, where the lighting is flattering, how to edit out any road sign or parking lot, etc. It really has been second nature, and I feel like I see things so differently than other photographers and that’s hard to find. And hard to explain really unless you are in the industry.
You’ll have to look at my Instagram and TikTok to kinda understand.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
LOTS LOTS LOTS of self-practice.
My professor in college.
Other than that it really was just a lot of shooting and then seeing what I could do better or try next time. STILL, when I do sessions I see something to improve or try.
Contact Info:
- Email: megan_kelly@outlook.com
- Website: www.thelightseeker.photography
- Instagram: @the.lightseeker
- TikTok: @the.lightseeker
