Meet Matt Zamarron | Portrait Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Zamarron and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Being a portrait photographer means busy weekends in reality, especially for high school senior portraits and wedding photography. These two categories are a majority of my clientele. At the beginning, I would book anything I could no matter what because I knew I needed the work and also wanted to be as accommodating as possible. t took some time, but I had to learn to keep time for myself and my family. This meant marking some days off as unavailable each month and sticking to it. Also, as my children got to high school, this has meant not booking weddings during football season as they both are heavily involved with at school and have Saturday games. This has all helped with my work life balance.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
These days the portrait photographer market is saturated. Many hobbyists with a nice camera want to make money with their camera by offering portraits. What they don’t know is it can sometime take years and lots of practice and work! I shot at least 150000+ photos of just general stuff mostly before I learned enough about composition, exposure, light and editing photos so that I could begin to understand how to do portraiture. I took several classes and workshops, but above all else it was the desire to improve and constantly practice that got me better. Boy did I need it because my first portraits were not good at all. Once you’ve been doing this a while, you become your worst critic and it’s important to not let that get in the way. In the photography industry, “imposter syndrome” is a real thing. Basically, you feel like you don’t belong. You compare too much to others which can be a real problem for some. Everyone goes through it from time to time.

Besides the technical side of photography, it is a business and takes customer service and finding leads and customers. That is the biggest reason that photographers quit or don’t last long. Creating a website and social media pages are a must. I didn’t start showing up on search engines regularly for probably a year. Word of mouth is the biggest form of advertising whether you are just starting or have been a professional photographer for a while. I tried Facebook ads and google Adwords, but those were costly and no guarantee to generate lots of leads. I eventually learned that tweaking my website to improve my SEO. This gives me natural, organic leads that don’t cost money. Also, taking care of your google business listing is huge! Adding photos there consistently and also getting reviews from customers is important.

As far as customer service goes, it can break your business quickly if you start getting unhappy customers and bad reviews. Do my sessions go over the time they’re supposed to sometimes… yes! However, it’s all worth it for the happy customer, great reviews and recommendations. Customers do want awesome senior portraits, wedding photos, etc. Beyond that, how you make them feel goes a long, long ways. I make sure that at my shoots, I’m super friendly, talk and get to know my customers, and above all, make my shoot fun and relaxed. High School seniors are constantly nervous about posing. I make it simple, not stiff, and find what they are most comfortable at for posing. As far as nerves, talking about their extra curricular, college plans, and hobbies all are examples that help get them relaxed in my opinion. I love when customers mention in their reviews and recommendations how great the sessions were. That’s what I pride myself on.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Kemah Boardwalk is a definite must-visit for anyone exploring the Houston area. For those seeking a bit of culture, catching a show at Alley Theatre or the Hobby Center is highly recommended. If you’re craving a delicious meal, Mia’s Table near Kirby and Star Pizza are excellent choices. For a fun outing with drinks and retro arcade games, Cidercade is a favorite spot.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It’s a bit cliche, but I’d like to give a shoutout to my wife and kids. They were my test subjects many times and still are on occasion. My wife helped me a lot with getting some trial and/or first clients. She’s been supportive the whole way, no matter what I needed. It’s definitely a bonus to have a wife that will help me when my confidence is down and remind me why I’m successful and remind me that my work is excellent.

Website: https://www.zamphotographytx.com

Instagram: zamphotographytx

Facebook: zamphotographytx

Image Credits
Matt Zamarron, Zam Photography