Check Out Karen Evans’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Evans.

Hi Karen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My dad loved photography and had a darkroom in our basement when I was a kid. He didn’t do this professionally, just for fun. The bug bit me as well when I was in my early 30’s: I took photography classes and learned darkroom myself. One day, a photography friend tried to talk me into helping him photograph a wedding and I literally laughed in his face. The LAST thing I wanted to do was potentially ruin someone’s big day! But when I got there and started working, well, it was a light bulb moment, one that illuminated for me the career path I’d been wanting but hadn’t known. A few months later I started my own photography business, specializing in – what else – weddings.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest immediate struggle was that when I started my business I was also working a full-time, completely unrelated job. After awhile I cut my full-time job duties to four days per week so I could concentrate on editing the weddings I had photographed on the weekends. Continuing struggles were always either enough or too many bookings. And the most recent struggle was Covid and the shutdown of events with large numbers of people, because, by that time in my career, while weddings were still allowed to happen, I had transitioned into mainly corporate events – which are typically populated with large numbers of people (and were not allowed to happen). Bye bye, photography work!

Having no business due to Covid, I decided to pivot and in 2020 moved two and a half hours away from my home city to a lakeside tourist town. I started volunteering with a new art venue called The Arts Garage, which used to be a funky old city garage where road equipment was stored but which has in the intervening years become a premier arts destination complete with up to 20 resident artists, monthly rotating exhibits, art classes for children and adults, and multiple art-related events. Having become deeply embedded with the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council (owner of The Arts Garage), I am now the volunteer coordinator, membership chair, and a member of the board of directors. I still do the occasional wedding or event here or there.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a “creative,” I’m not very creative. I was never too fond of making photographs of landscapes or anything like that; I prefer photojournalism – telling a story with photos. And my preference is the story of humans interacting with, usually, other humans. I think that’s why I gravitated toward weddings: they’re almost always fun and exciting and there is always something happening. In my position now with the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council I get to use those skills at our monthly artist receptions where I photograph humans interacting with humans and art.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
My dad, first and foremost, for having a darkroom in our basement and letting me hang around to watch. My photography teacher who taught me to use a manual camera and taught me everything about darkroom = from developing my own film to printing my own photos. My friends who encouraged me to photograph weddings. Bosses at my job who allowed me to work only four days per week so I could grow my business. All my clients who placed their trust in me to preserve the memories of one of the most special times in their lives and beyond. And my current crop of friends and fellow volunteers who support me in all ways.

Pricing:

• Wedding pricing starts at $3500
• Event pricing starts at $450/hour
• Family portraits start at $475

Contact Info:

• Website: https://karenevanspictures.com
• Other: https://gpcaac.org