Junior Kate Poling has been taking pictures for about six years. During her junior year, her business started to grow tremendously.

At the beginning of her sophomore year, Poling decided she wanted to pursue photography as her career. Former journalism teacher Emily Smith helped Poling significantly during this process. She provided Poling with equipment, software, and editing skills.

“After a couple months of shooting close friends I began receiving inquiries from around town,” Poling said. “I started entering into local contests and competitions.”

At the start of her junior year, Poling was averaging seven to nine shoots per week and her business was starting to improve.

“Some would see this amount of work as stressful and overwhelming,” Poling said.  “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Before basketball season at the end of October, Jeremy Martinous and Kari Cronister from the basketball booster, asked Poling to run the basketball social media, film, photograph and produce content for the program.

“With a good monthly income I bought more equipment and software to upgrade my work,” Poling said. “I started to look into different contracts and the process of getting an LLC to make my business official.”

Poling’s mother, Abbey Cummings, is a teacher at Pittsburg High School. According to her, she is amazed at what Kate’s business has become.

“I’ve enjoyed watching Kate grow as a person as she pursues something that is meaningful to her,” Cummings said. “I’ve seen her confidence grow as she works with clients of all ages and experiments with different styles of the art form.”

According to Poling, one of the biggest obstacles she has gone through is people taking advantage of her work and time that she has put into her business.

“Turn-around time for a photo gallery can take anywhere from a couple hours to a couple weeks,” Poling said. “People don’t really understand that you have to go through the process of culling, selecting, editing, sorting, and sending out photographs.”

According to Cummings, oftentimes Poling will take on too much because she is so hesitant to tell clients no.

“There are quite a few late nights spent editing photos and videos,” Cummings said. “She doesn’t have as much time to spend with her friends.”

During Poling’s junior year, to continue working on her business she decided to sign up for a photography class by Marina Williams.

“Through her lessons I learned how to grow my business through social media and how to edit properly with adobe programs,” Poling said. “She taught me how to network with other businesses and improve my work as a whole.”

According to Poling, she enjoys photography because it is a way to not only express your style of art, but also express yourself.

“I love the whole process of taking photos. I love to style the model and make mood boards for shoots,” Poling said. “I think my favorite part has to be the editing though. Playing around with different colors, lights, angles to create a cool image is always a favorite.”

According to Poling, an advantage of being a young business owner is that she will have a portfolio built up enough to send out to potential clients.

“I decided to start my own business because I really enjoy the art of photography,” Poling said. “My friends and family pushed me to start my own business because they believed in my work so much.”

Poling having her own business has provided opportunities to learn about managing her finances, contracts, taxes, communication, and collaboration. According to Cummings, this will all be helpful to her as she advances in her field.

“Owning her own business has given her the freedom to create her own work schedule,” Cummings said. “She’s learned to become flexible when things are beyond her control and has developed a strong work ethic.”

Poling has many aspirations for her photography career as her abilities to improve continue to develop.

“I would eventually love to move to the city and shoot editorial and creative concepts there,” Poling said. “However my ultimate dream is to be a tour photographer and travel around the world jamming out to music and photographing the show.”

This story was originally published on The Booster Redux on April 16, 2024.