Photo Live Magazine First Issue Photo live - cat's add in 2017 versioin | Page 132

andrew
HELLMICH
Welcome Andrew to our first issue,
you’re a professional photographer
and run a successful podcaster,
what else are you doing?
Thanks Rob, are you suggesting
running a full-time photography busi-
ness and a photography business
podcast isn’t enough!?
Between these, there’s not much
time left most days. My photography
business, Impact Images, is primarily
focused on weddings and portraits
but we’re shooting some sporting
teams and commercial work too
- mainly headshots for local small
businesses here on the Central
Coast of NSW... about an hours drive
north of Sydney.
My wife, Linda runs the business
from the financial side of things,
coordinating shoots and managing
everything. We have a studio assis-
tant, Tenneille, who we couldn’t live
without. Tenneille handles sales, al-
bum and print design, colour correct-
ing and ordering. In addition, we have
three associate shooters, there’s al-
ways something happening.
I find I’m spending less time shooting
as the podcasts grow and the time
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demands become greater in helping
listeners and members grow and im-
prove their businesses.
Any spare time I have is spent cy-
cling which is my outlet and a way
to stay fit. I love racing my bike and
300km plus per week is standard for
me.
Other than that, I love holidays and
travel. It’s rare for me to not have at
least two holidays planned at any
time. At the time of writing, I’m on-
board Singapore flight SQ232 en
route to France to see the Tour de
France and ride in the mountains of
the Pyrenees and the Alps. Later in
the year, I have a photography trip
planned to India. I’m looking for a
couple of photographers to join me
if anyone is interested?
Let’s start with your photography,
you’re a full time professional, what
are you photographing?
When asked, I say weddings primar-
ily but really, after being in business
for 20 years, the photography work
is more varied than that. Portraits
make up a big part of the business
and is heading toward being the pri-
mary income source.
In addition to weddings, portraits and
some commercial work, we photo-
graph local sporting clubs through
winter when things are a little quiet-
er. Linda and our associate shooters
do all the work for these and I find
myself focusing more on the pod-
casts, marketing and getting away
on holiday.
How many weddings would you do
a year? And how many portrait ses-
sions would you do?
Personally, I’m shooting around 12-
15 weddings per year now and I’ll
reduce that number in 2018. I have
a plan to travel from one side of the
USA to the other, staying with pho-
tographers and interviewing them
as I go. I’ve put aside three months
to do this and another month to do
something similar in the UK.
Our associate shooters will carry on
shooting for the studio and pick up
most of the shooting while I’m away
- weddings and portraits.
Before the podcast, we were photo-
graphing a maximum of 72 weddings
each year but it was just too much.