Meet Amanda Fothergill | Wedding Photographer

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

Hi Amanda, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
There are so many factors that go into the success of a brand. There are marketing factors, knowing where to market based on the price you charge for your product/service. There are communication factors, how well you communicate to your clients/customers. There are financial factors, how well you spend your money to get the most return. There are so many more, but when I look at all of these factors and how they have impacted my personal business, there are two that really shine brighter than the rest. Those two are 1) setting expectations and exceeding them, and 2) genuinely caring.

Let’s talk about exceeding expectations first. It’s easy to forget what your clients don’t know when they hire you. After a couple of years of running my business, I found myself assuming that clients knew I would email them the link to their gallery. They would get a digital download of all the images. There would be a print release. I would forget to communicate these things and the client would be left wondering when and how they would get these photos after our time together. When I didn’t sufficiently communicate the expectations, how could I possibly exceed them? In order to exceed expectations, I had to first set the expectations. Once the expectations were set, I could then make every effort to exceed them, leaving the client pleasantly surprised and ready to sing my praises to the next person they talked to. When you focus on setting realistic expectations and then exceeding them, you are setting yourself up for great word-of-mouth marketing. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your photos are or how fabulous you interacted with your client during their session, if you fail to meet their expectations in another area of their experience with you, they will be far less likely to tell all their friends about you. Every time you exceed their expectation, you wow them a little more, and when you’ve wowed them over and over again, they will be sure to tell others just how much they HAVE to use you for their own wedding photos!

Exceeding expectations will always bring so much return to your business, but when you couple that with genuinely caring about your customers, you are sure to stand out above the rest of your competitors. In order to invoke genuine emotion about my clients, I like to ask myself why I love doing this in the first place. I’m not a photographer just to pay bills. I’m not a photographer just to go to cool places. I’m not a photographer just because I want a flexible schedule. While I love all those aspects to being a wedding photographer, those are not the foundation as to why I do this career. So, why did I really become a photographer? Because I want my clients to remember these special moments for the rest of their lives. I want them to have a tangible legacy to pass down to generations after them. I want them to transport back to those milestones and remember the feeling they felt in that exact snapshot. I have so many memories from my childhood not because I actually remember the moment but because I’ve seen a photo of the moment and my mom has told me the story. When I’m serving my clients, I’m serving them with that in the back of my mind. I hold myself to a really high expectation of capturing not only the day as a whole for them but each individual moment that makes up that whole. The in-between moments that are filled with emotion and connection. I have a vision of them decades from that moment reflecting back on photographs and recalling the story with a smile on their face. When I want that for my clients, it causes me to really care about them. It causes me to care about how I’m serving them and what I’m capturing for them. When you care about them like that, they feel it. Even if they are perfect strangers, it’s possible to care about them in a way that they feel to their bones. And when you are feeling genuinely loved, it’s so much easier to return that love. Which looks a lot like a little thing called loyalty.

While I wish I could rank one of these factors over the other, I’m not sure that it’s one or the other but much more a one AND the other. When using these factors together you are sure to succeed. Be patient as you begin to exceed your client’s expectations while also caring about them as humans. These things take time and repetitiveness, but after you’ve proven that you can be trusted to care for them and exceed their expectations, you will see a shift in your business where people want to use you because it’s YOU, not because of how beautiful your images are.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a wedding photographer in Knoxville, TN. I have a background as a CPA before I went full-time wedding photographer in 2015. The thing that sets me apart from other wedding photographers is the experience that I give my couples. The experience is the full package. From the time they first interact with me online, whether it’s through socials or through my website, they will feel the authenticity of how much I care about my clients right away. They can hear my voice speak through each photo that it’s not just another photograph for me. It never is. It’s about setting up my clients to relive the most joyful, wonderful parts of their lives if and when their life gets a little less fun. We aren’t always living out the best day of our lives. Life can get messy and chaotic. And when the craziness ensues, it’s nice to have a mental time portal and take yourself back to the joy you felt when you said your vows or walked down the aisle or danced your first dance together. Or maybe it’s transporting back to the day you had your first baby. Or the day you moved into your dream home or climbed that mountain. Once they see that I sincerely care for them, my communication is timely and organized. I have professionally written emails that still somehow seem personal. It’s a constant balance of being both professional and personal. It’s possible to do both but if you get too personal (for me, this looks like wearing my work out clothes to a session) it starts to feel less professional. And if it gets to professional (for me, this looks like not sharing any stories about my kids with my clients) it starts to feel stiff and way too professional. All the professional but personal communication leads up to our first interaction at their engagement session where I make them feel beautiful and confident. We are all uniquely radiant in different ways and in this first interaction with them, I help them find the beauty they bring to the table and help it glow its brightest. From there I deliver final images quickly and efficiently through a user friendly gallery. There are so many more smaller pieces to the experience I provide for my couples and it is this that sets me a part from other wedding photographers in my area! The hardest part about getting to where I am today was the patience I had to have along the way. While there are some businesses that get big quickly, most will build over time slowly but surely making the trek to being something. It’s repetition and experience that accrues over time proving my reputation can be trusted and relied on when choosing the person to capture your most amazing days for you. As I waited and put in the hours for literally years, one of the things I learned is it’s never worth sacrificing someone else in the industry to further myself. Gossipping about others, using someone just to get ahead, and copying my peers never brought me success. Being myself, having my own ideas, and prioritizing the clients who have chosen me already is where my energy is best spent. Thanking Jesus along the way for allowing my path to cross with some pretty phenomenal people who have pushed me and supported me from the very beginning.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are two different scenes in Knoxville I would say are equally my favorites, that is 1) The Smoky Mountain National Park and 2) Downtown Knoxville.

In the Smoky Mountains, if you would just like scenic drives, Cades Cove and The Foothills Parkway are what you need. Two amazing driveable routes that offer stunning, incredible views and possible wildlife sitings like bears and deer. Family friendly hikes that are stroller accessible would be Clingman’s Dome and Laurel Falls. Shorter and still family friendly but not stroller accessible would be Rainbow Falls, Abram Falls, and Grotto Falls. One of the more strenuous hikes that are my favorite is the Chimney Tops. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge have LOTS of tourist attractions but some of my favorite restaurants are on the Townsend side of the Smokies. We love Peaceful Side Social, The Dancing Bear, and RT Lodge. The two latter restaurants being more upscale.

In downtown Knoxville you can’t go wrong with any restaurant but here are a few of my favorites. We love getting the house margarita at Chivos as well as their dinner menu. We also love the Guac appetizer at Babalus. Any cocktail at Kefi is amazing and if your a gin drinker, the Vault has all the gin drinks as well as one of the coolest atmospheres. For more of a bar scene we love Clancy’s. Tupelo Honey and Southern Grit are our two favorites for a creative take on the classic southern dishes. Not Watson’s Kitchen has a fantastic beer selection and makes the best burger! If you love Sushi, Nama is the best and you have to get the crab dip as your appetizer. You can catch a movie at the Riviera, go bowling at an underground bowling alley at Maple Lanes, or see a concert/show at The Tennessee Theater or The Bijou. Cute little shops include Nothing too Fancy and Bliss. Ice cream at Cruze Farm or Kilwins and a night cap at a speak easy called The Library in the back of the Oliver Hotel. There are roof top bars at several of the hotels and so many beautiful airbnb’s to rent. I love downtown Knoxville and if you catch it on game day, a first friday, a parade, a festival, or the farmer’s market, it is flooded with fun, amazing people.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I was new to the industry, there was a local photographer that really invested in me. Her name is Lori Hensley. She is no longer a practicing photographer, but her time in the industry impacted so many. She is where I saw what truly caring for your clients and peers really looked like. She left her mark on so many of my photographer friends who I still socialize with today.

On a more regional level, I’ve also learned under Julie Paisley and Katelyn James. Both phenomenal wedding photographers in the south that are so transparent in their teaching methods. They stand out so beautifully because of the way they genuinely want other photographers to succeed.

I, of course, couldn’t do any of this without a strong foundation in Christ and a loving and supportive husband. The Lord called me into this role when I was a senior in college and crossed my paths with mentors, educators, supporters, and encouragers all along the way. Without these things, I could not have made it this far. My husband being my biggest supporter of all, also has a full-time job and helps watch the kids every evening I’m gone to a shoot and every Saturday I’m gone all day to photograph a wedding. He is and will forever be the person who helps me the most in following my passion.

Website: amandamayphotos.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandamayphotos/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-fothergill-4a114390/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmandaMayPhotos

Facebook: facebook.com/amandamayphotography

Youtube: @amandafothergill7546

Other: blog: amandamayphotos.com/blog

Image Credits
Suzy Collins ( https://www.suzycollinsphotography.com/ ) took the photo of just me in the headshot!