Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Closser.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Back in 2012, my husband Dan told me he needed to talk. He said I seemed “off” and asked me if I was depressed. And he was right; I was miserable. Feeling this way really scared me because it is not normally in my nature to be so down. My disposition is usually positive and upbeat.
While talking this through, I realized I had started living for the weekends, dreaded walking into the building where I worked 40 hours per week, and I counted down the minutes until I had time off. I was anxious, not sleeping or eating well, and my irritability was at an all time high.
For 12 years, I had been a social worker. And, for 7 years prior to that, I was in undergraduate and graduate school studying social work. I had been volunteering since I was a kid and I even started my own nonprofit. Social work was my identity. “Helping” others was all I knew how to do. For years, I truly loved my job and helping people made me happy. But, in reality, the person I needed to be helping was myself. I needed to be focusing on my own happiness. I’m a firm believer that if you aren’t happy with something, it’s up to you to change it. No one is going to do it for you!
So, there I was, at 34 years old, deciding I needed to change my career. I always loved photography and I started to wonder if I could start my own business? Dan was extremely supportive, which was wonderful. The money, on the other hand, was the biggest and most terrifying challenge. (Which, in hindsight, is pretty funny because I was already living paycheck to paycheck on a social work salary—how much worse could it get?)
I started learning as much as I could about how to take professional photos, and about how to run a business. I practiced on anyone who would let me and I gave it a go with every genre out there. Babies, families, couples — you name it, I tried it. Photographing newborns made me want to wail louder than they were, I found myself sweating and needing a nap after family shoots, and after doing weddings for a while, I realized I was working my weekends and summers away. I still hadn’t quite found my niche!
Then, something really amazing happened. I reached out to an incredible photographer and educator, Sue Bryce. My friends and I wanted to pool our money together to book a photoshoot with Sue for our friend Jill, who was suffering from breast cancer. Not only did Sue respond, but a month later, she flew Jill and me to Paris! Sue Bryce and filmmaker Hailey Bartholomew generously and wholeheartedly told Jill’s story through the documentary The Light That Shines.
It was truly life-changing for both me and Jill. Unfortunately, Jill lost her battle to cancer on February 3, 2106, but her one-of-a-kind heart and spirit will be with us.
After coming home from Paris, I was utterly inspired and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I began focusing on portraits of women, specializing in personal branding photos for entrepreneurs and high school seniors. My business took off and I was able to quit my social work job entirely!
During the next several years, my business continued to grow. I loved the freedom I had to create my own schedule, travel when I wanted, and to love what I did again. Plus, I had more than tripled the income I was making as a social worker. And, most importantly, I had two babies during all of this, and I could spend as much time with them as wanted!
Eight years into becoming a photographer, I began the education part of my career. I created several online photography courses and products for photographers to help them grow their own business. This has brought me back to my “roots” of helping others and it has been so much fun!
In 2020, I was asked to host a podcast called The Portrait System, which I continue to do to this day. This year, I was also invited to host a different podcast called Studio Tours and it was an easy “yes” for me. I absolutely love talking with people on the podcasts and, as much as I still love photographing clients, it gives me a chance to have versatility within my career.
Seeing my dreams come to fruition has been absolutely incredible! Don’t get me wrong, being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy, there are a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that come with it. But, every bit of it has been worth it and I’m grateful every day!
Dan and I and our two boys, Van and Dre, live in Chelsea on ten acres, complete with a big garden and chickens. We split our time between our country home and our lake house in the Irish Hills area where we fish, wakeskate, and hang out with friends and family.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have definitely been struggles, but it has all been worth it! Figuring out how to properly run a business and learning to charge what I needed to for my services, in order to sustain, was the biggest challenge. Often, photographers are expected to charge only a couple hundred bucks for a photoshoot and that is not realistic when you take into consideration the time and cost of goods. After the physical shoot time, there are often many hours of editing the photos, not to mention everything that comes with marketing a business, client communication, logistics of running a business, cost of gear, professional fees, etc. Burnout is a huge problem in our industry because if your pricing isn’t high enough, you end up having to do more photoshoots than you can handle in order to make ends meet.
The other struggle that I experienced, and I know many others have as well, is work and life balance. When you are an entrepreneur, there is always something to do and without traditional working hours, it can be difficult to shut it off. I’ve learned to implement boundaries over the years and that has helped me tremendously!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I included some of this already in the opening question. But, to add more:
My favorite client is someone who hates having their photo taken. Being photographed can be such a vulnerable thing and it brings me so much joy to create an experience that is actually fun for people and to give them photos they actually love!
People usually don’t know what to do in front of a camera and I make it so easy for my clients by posing and directing them all the way down to their hands and expression. I also have a stylist to provide hair and makeup styling based on how the client wants to look and I help my clients with figuring out what to wear.
For personal branding photoshoots, we usually do them in my studio. For high school seniors, I grow a wildflower field on my property and do a ton of photoshoots in the flowers! It’s so much fun!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
When I was 4 years old, my parents bought a trailer in Silver Lawn Mobile Home Park in Cement City, Michigan. Silver Lawn was a seasonal getaway located on Silver Lake and each summer, it would come alive with families from all over Michigan and Ohio. Weekends there were filled with swimming, fishing, rides on our pontoon boat, bonfires, playing with our lake friends, climbing on an abandoned structure we called “the cement building”, jumping off the “big red raft”, which was a huge dock just off the beach with red wood on the top, and kids’ Michigan vs Ohio soccer games on Saturday nights.
My favorite memories were there for sure!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nikkiclosser.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkiclosser
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NikkiClosserPhotography/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePortraitSystem
