Support Perfectly Natural Photography

September is officially Support Small Green Businesses Month here at Greener Assets. This interview is part of that series. You can find more information about his series here.

Today’s featured business is Perfectly Natural Photography. Check out their website and this interview with owner/photographer Barb Lattin:

Greener Assets: How did your business first get started?

Barb: I’ve wanted to be a photographer since I was really young – at least 9 years old. Strangely, I never considered a career in photography, and instead studied Communication Disorders in college.

After having my first son 9 1/2 years ago and taking roll after roll of pictures (back in the days of film, lol), I so badly wanted to take pictures of all the kids around me. Unfortunately, I never got the nerve up to ask friends if I could photograph their kids because they all seemed to have friends with photography businesses. Or they started one themselves!!

Last October I was dreaming about it again, as my last friend to start a business had put hers on hold temporarily, and we had a differing circle of friends, when I realized that there were no local photographers (and back then, I thought there were none altogether) who were focusing on Breastfeeding Portraits. (Greener Assets Note: Please go to the Perfectly Natural Photography website to see gorgeous breastfeeding portraits!)

Knowing that this was something I had always wanted (and had even tried to have another photographer capture my image during a portrait session once), I thought maybe this would be my foray into becoming a photographer. I asked around my circle of friends, almost all of whom breastfeed their children, and received a resounding YES.

I have not stopped studying and practicing since then, and dream nightly about some photography-related aspect. LOL I have spent the time from November 2007 until the end of August 2008 bettering myself and building my portfolio. My “professional” website went up at the beginning of September, though it still needs tweaking.

GA: Why did you make the decision to go green?

B: I’ve lived a green lifestyle all my life – as much as I could – and it was important to me to make my business as green as possible. For me, being a work-at-home-mom, my business isn’t separate from the rest of my life, so it didn’t make sense to treat it any differently.

As I posted on my blog, sometimes (in my personal life) I have to choose the not-so-green choice because of finances. But I had made the decision that I would do what is necessary to be green in my business practices, and wait until I had enough money for each thing as necessary. It makes me feel good knowing that I can make good decisions for my business that are also good for the Earth.

GA: Tell us a little about your products/services:

B: I create Custom Children’s Portraiture. I use all natural light (so far, though I may supplement a bit in the future) and do on-location work, whether at the client’s home or an outdoor location. I allow the child to do what they would naturally do, and capture them being “perfectly natural”. I specialize in Breastfeeding Portraiture and believe that every mom who nurses their child should be able to have photos of this short-lived relationship.

I bet you are wondering how my business is green! Well, I’m doing everything I can to use green products and to offset my carbon footprint. For example, instead of getting my business cards from a very popular – and cheap – provider, I searched out a green printer to have my cards made.

Among the other steps I’ve taken are:
1) To send my Welcome Packet by email instead of printing and mailing it (even though I do use paper with 30% post-consumer content); I’m excited that soon I’ll have an online magazine-style viewer for my Welcome Packet.
2) To have my photos printed at a lab that has sustainable options for print and press products, as well as a commitment to being as green as possible.
3) To do away with a lot of “fluff” with regards to packaging the product for the client. While all of that is nice and looks wonderful, I believe it’s not necessary. I know that I personally would rather not receive all the extra packaging that come with my products, unless it has another use. So I will ensure that the packaging I do use is either reusable, recycled or recyclable, and all three if at all possible.
4) Once I’m doing enough business, I plan to join 1% For The Planet. Until then I’m doing little things that are free for me to use but that make a difference for our planet, such as always using Eco-Search for my search engine (it is powered by Google, and donates to other nonprofits that also support the environment) and CO2Stats to make my blog carbon neutral. I enjoy finding new things all the time. :-)

GA: Where do you see your business going in the future? 

For now I’m going to focus on networking locally and building my business. Although it’s always been my dream to be a photographer, constantly working at my business (which is so many more hours than most people realize, and that’s just the part related to the photographs) has had a really negative effect on my children, who are homeschooled. This has driven home how necessary it is for me to keep my business low volume.

So while I planned on being a low volume business from the beginning, I now plan to have a super low-volume, high quality business; only two regular sessions and a few breastfeeding sessions per month, spending the time to make each portrait just right.

In the future I will make myself available for “destination” portraiture, and I am even dreaming of a book in coming years.

Thanks, Barb and Perfectly Natural Photography!

Pictures with Permission from Perfectly Natural Photography.