Meet Molly Dougherty | Photographer

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

Hi Molly, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
Things in the photography business that people are probably unaware of are the hours that go into a photoshoot after the shoot is actually done. Sure it seems like the shoot goes by super quick sometimes, but going through 600-1000 photos (especially if you’re trigger-happy like me) takes a lot of time picking those 20-40 photos that you are actually going to edit. Then once you are done with that finding the perfect edit could take days. I usually start to edit and then come back to a gallery days later and change the edit completely. Then, of course, there are things such as skin, random objects, etc to sometimes edit and it can just get super time-consuming depending on how meticulous you are.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My business is MollyD Photography and I’ve been a professional photographer for almost 2 years. I would love to tell you what I “specialize” in but I really don’t have my niche yet and I am not sure I ever will. I would say that in itself sets me apart from others. I’ve gone into shoots with zero experience in that “area” and absolutely nailed it. I think my talent is really broad and it’s super helpful when booking clients. Sometimes people think that if you do “a little bit of everything” you never really grow in one area, and while that may be true for some people I don’t think it to be true for everyone. The road to where I am now was not easy. I began photography when I was a high school teacher on my way out both mentally and physically. I was working my normal teacher hours while having 3-5 shoots a week which was really hard on me. I kept going knowing I wouldn’t be in that position forever. As soon as May came around I did not have enough clientele to pursue photography “full time” so I began another job as a digital marketing manager which was kinda what I was doing before teaching. I got to work from home so that was the upside of that job, but that was probably the ONLY good thing about that company. I continued on that road for about 6 months and finally had enough of that place. I quit and didn’t really have a backup plan secured but I knew my friend had started a business and I was already doing some side work for her. Long story short, I went to work for her accounting firm in sales and marketing while she allows me to also pursue my photography dream. I am almost to the point where I could probably do photography full-time and be completely okay but what I’m doing right now is working out well! I’m just super busy, especially during tax season lol. Summers are slow for photographers especially in Texas so we have to account for that. One day I hope to have my own studio!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Let’s see I think if we could go anywhere I would take my friend to Fredericksburg to check out all of the wineries, maybe hit a Buccees and a Whataburger and definitely a lake or something somewhere! Mexican food would obviously be on the itinerary as well.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wouldn’t say there is one person in particular that I want to shout out but I definitely send thanks to the photographers who aren’t scared to share helpful advice, locations, etc without feeling threatened by your potential success. I would also like to shout out my fiance for giving me the extra push to quit teaching and just reassuring me everything would be okay once I did. It’s really hard to chase a dream when you don’t know the ending.

Website: www.mollydphoto.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyd.photo/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/molly-dougherty-024a2761

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mollydphotography1