Interview with Brooke Pt 1

Earlier, I had the opportunity to ask some general questions of my business partner and friend, Brooke Winegardner, about photography, the business of, and some other stuff to give those interested in the background and short history of Freedom Sunshine Images.  This will be presented in 2 parts, and I really look forward to getting all this out there for our fans of our page and each of our individual side projects!!

Part 1

JonC : Let's start with the most obvious of questions: What made you want to get into photography?


BrookeW: When I was little my grandmother purchased a yellow plastic camera with matching sunglasses for me one day. I pretending to take pictures of bugs, flowers & my grandparents. As I got older I was allowed to use the family camera & I loved it. While growing up, I preferred magazines over school books focusing more on the talent coming from the photographer. I was interested in a style more like national geographic, traveling to exotic locations to capture everything to wildlife, landscape, & everyday life. 
That's how it all began when I got my first camera, excluding the traveling to exotic locations. With the help of Myspace, people seen my work and began to ask me to weddings and portrait work. I do more portrait work now with little time to focus on my nature snapshots. 

JC: Yea, since we teamed up a few years back , I have definitely noticed the huge increase of business since the MySpace days... I used to try to do custom profile pics for people and that didn't really pan out well, but it did at least point me in the direction that I wanted to go.  I would be a liar if I said your success has been a major influence and motivation for me on my own artistic path.  What was another career direction you were interested in before photography?

BW: My grandmother always told me I was going to be a nurse. She wanted me to be in the healthcare field so badly. I kind of just rolled with that idea and worked inhealthcare for about 6 years. I loved taking care of people but it just became stressful. People you worked with become a part of your family. Seeing death has never been something I can handle and in that field, that is an extremely common thing. There were other factors that made me search for other paths in life though. 

Mainly because I have always been an artistic person & I knew I would rather be broke using my creativity than be rich & be miserable not doing what makes me happy. So really...I knew anything I could express my talents through would be the only thing I wanted to do in life. 

JC: And it's looking like you are doing pretty good for yourself.  Unlike a lot of people, you are willing to make something basically using whats around you and turning it into a lucrative outlet for a career.  With jobs being hard to come by and so many people out there just willing to give it all up and live off of welfare and everyone else working their ass off in the general workplace, you really stand out. What are some of your future plans in regards to the studio?  Any Improvements? 

BW: This month I am getting my own studio rolling again. The paint is ready to be slapped on and the set up is out of my home. I cant see paying $150.00 a month for a room I already have and lights I already own. By December...It should all be up and running.
I also have a wonderful landlord who has agreed to allow me to use a lot of his antique items as props

JC: That is awesome.  I cant wait to see the finished results.  Don't ask me to help paint, because I suck at painting. Absolutely terrible.  Alright last question for this part: How well do you think Social Media plays an integral part in your day-to-day?

BW:Social media is a huge factor in my day to day. without it...I wouldn't have as many costumers as I do. 

OK, I will have Pt 2 sometime tomorrow.  In the meantime, thank you for reading.