Meet Karen Richard | Specialist Headshot and Portrait Photographer

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

Hi Karen, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I guess the biggest risk I’ve taken was to give up my corporate career, sell my home, and leave behind my life in the UK (and all my friends and family there) when I moved to the US 14 years ago!

I met my husband Luc when he was moved to London from Nashville by his company in 1999, and I decided to follow him back here after he was relocated back. I arrived here in January 2010 to 8″ of snow, with nothing more than a 6-month tourist visa and a couple of suitcases – one full of clothes, the other with my bicycle!

My original plan was to continue my career in the commercial construction industry, but the 2 years it took me to sort out my residency gave me time to reevaluate my priorities and I decided to see if I could turn my lifelong passion for photography into a second career.

The rest is history!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Like many photographers, I started out as more of a generalist, shooting fashion editorial, high school seniors, families, musicians, and headshots.

But over time I started gravitating towards headshots. I come from a corporate background myself, and I find it really natural to connect with other business people because we usually share lots of common experiences. This really helps to build rapport and get the conversation going, and that usually results in great natural expressions because my clients are relaxed and enjoying the experience instead of stressing about whet their faces are doing! I guess that is probably what sets me apart from many of the other photographers, and is the reason I’ve become known for headshots – in fact they probably make up 95% of my business.

I do still do some studio portrait sessions, most mostly with business people and musicians.

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.
We’re big music lovers and there is always great music in Nashville, so we usually take our friends downtown for a night visiting the honky tonks along Broadway, and maybe even to see a band at the Ryman.

We live about 4 miles south of downtown Franklin, and I love the vibe and all the history in the area; favorites include Carnton Plantation, and the Carter House, and the walking Ghost Tour of Franklin always goes down well. Leipers Fork is fun afternoon out, and just driving around the countryside.

We both love the outdoors, so we tell friends to pack their hiking boots so they can experience the natural beauty of Nashville – Radnor Lake, and Warner Parks, and if the weather is good we would take them for a kayak on the Duck or Harpeth rivers.

The whole area has such great places to eat we are spoiled for choice! Favorites include Sperrys at Cool Springs, The Red Pony in Franklin, and Bourbon Steak.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband Luc Richard has been tremendously supportive of me and my business. He even built my studio!

He’s also my house model, and I regularly use him when I want to experiment with a new technique or try out a new piece of equipment, so I can nail everything down before I use anything new with paying clients.

Other people and groups that have helped my enormously include New York headshot photographer Peter Hurley. I’ve been a member of Peter’s Headshot Crew since 2017, and a Associate member since 2020. Peter’s coaching and mentoring, along with support of the HSC community has been invaluable to me and the success of my business.

I’ve also benefited from coaching, support, and encouragement from my business mentor Jeff Brown. I connected with Jeff during lockdown and he really helped me make productive use of that very difficult period in 2020 to launch my business on LinkedIn and sort out all of my branding and marketing.

Website: https://www.karenlrichardphotography.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenlrichard/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenLRichardPhotography/

Other: https://www.google.com/maps/place//data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8863804fe79d5543:0x7ec71e7be3f04cae?source=g.page.default

Image Credits
My headshot: Peter Hurley