Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Vaz.
Hi Sara, 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 backstory with our readers?
Even as a kid, I’ve always been interested in careers and owning a business. At first, I dreamed of becoming a screenwriter and winning an Oscar in middle school and then helping patients as an anesthesiologist in high school. But after more thought, I realized my creative skills would ultimately land me in my dream career. Studying art at school and becoming an illustrator was my plan, but two weeks before heading to BYU, I saw a Vogue cover of Kate Hudson in the grocery store checkout. Immediately, I knew that I wanted to become a photographer and help any person feel like they belonged on the cover of a magazine.
I’m grateful that I was able to study photography and learned to capture great images, but I do feel like it was just an introduction to a world of new techniques, niches, and even the business aspect of the profession. I started photographing lifestyle family sessions and noticed I loved taking photos of the kids one-on-one. Headshots fascinated me and I started taking courses and learning from the best headshot photographers online. I narrowed my website to only advertise headshots and found my niche in 2016.
I did a variety of acting, kids, and business headshots and realized in 2023 that I wanted to add branding to my services. Throughout 2024 and 2025 I learned from mentors and have photographed so many amazing personal brands and businesses here in Utah. I love helping other business owners be seen by creating strategic, impactful imagery that shows them as experts in their field and creates connection and trust with their audience.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
While I’ve always been encouraged and supported by my family in my photography career, I struggled to grow my business. I always planned that photography would be a part-time job that I would do as I raised my children at home. I’ve been so lucky to watch my kids grow and also have a career that was important to me. My website was the main way that I found new clients, but it was hit or miss each month. As my kids grew and became more independent, I knew it was time to build my business and create connections.
As I switched to wanting full-time work, I learned how to create systems that brought organization and more time to focus on growth. I saw that joining my local chamber, the Davis Chamber of Commerce, was vital to making connections with other business owners in the community. Hiring a photography mentor pushed me to try new things and apply what I was learning. This last year, I saw my income quadruple! I realized that networking and following the advice of seasoned photographers who know how to run a business helped me to grow my own. I’ll always continue to have a mentor to learn from as I serve Utah clients with brand photography.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Telling stories has been the focus of what I do creatively. At first, I specialized in family photography and told that family’s story as we took photos in their home. Later, with headshots, I told each person’s professional story in their portrait. And now, I tell the entire story of a personal brand or business as a brand photographer.
My favorite part about being a brand photographer is helping each client be seen by their audience. It can be intimidating and hard to get in front of the camera, but each and every time a client has hesitated, they’ve come out at the end thrilled that they took reached out to me and booked their session. It’s empowering to see yourself in photos that show your expertise and help clients see you as the person they are doing business with. You can’t get that with stock photos or AI images. It might work at the beginning as you grow your business, but authenticity is what consumers crave right now. Trust is built as they see you doing your craft and interacting with clients. The photos I take truly grow each client’s business I’ve worked with.
As I talk with clients about their work and their life, I love getting to know them fully as person wanting to show up for their business and their dreams. We plan their shoot to be unique to their life and business because each person is different, even if they’re both health coaches or yoga instructors. I love being creative and making something that will benefit the client working with me.
I’m proud of the results I create with my clients. Together, we bring out their essence and personality in their photos so that they can confidently connect with their audience through their websites, marketing materials, and social media. I believe that this sets me apart because each client gets their own, individualized set of photos. No two photos are the same and that’s what makes this niche so creative and authentic. My planning process insures that each client feels seen and heard as we combine ideas and plan their shoot. Strategy is behind every decision and I believe that’s what makes me stand out from other photographers in Utah’s branding market.
How do you think about luck?
A mix of good and bad luck helped me to expand into branding photography. After 8 years of taking headshots, I decided that, while I do and absolutely love taking headshots, I wanted to photograph something with a bit more creativity and variety. I went to a local Utah Professional Photographers of America class where we learned how to take graduating high school senior portraits. I loved the class and signed up for a mastermind with a senior photographer from Seattle. His 6 month program trained me to becoming a highly sought after senior photographer. I learned so much about outsourcing, pricing, marketing, social media, mindset, and more. The end of the course was approaching and for some reason my intuition screamed “NO” at me. I was confused and felt like I had wasted 6 months of my life building this new niche. As I tried to make a decision, I listened to the same mentor’s podcast and his most recent interview was with a brand photographer in Virginia. Call it luck, but everything clicked after listening to him interview this photographer. Brand photography would fit right in with my current headshot business and I would be able to spend more time with my family by doing sessions during the weekdays.
Even with abandoning the senior niche, I knew the 6 month course had changed my business for the better. I learned how to run my business with confidence and applied everything I learned to my headshots and branding. I saw the value in having a photographer as a mentor and coach and signed up for a program with a brand photographer. What seemed like bad luck actually helped me clarify where my photography business was headed and allowed me to grow as a business owner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saravazphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saravazphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraVazPhotography
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramvaz/
