Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Denton.
Hi Rebecca, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Sure! I’ve always taken photos, but I really fell in love with the process just after college in the mid-1990s, when I took a community black-and-white film photography course at a museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was already working as a writer for newspapers, but I fell head-over-heels for all things photojournalism and started job-shadowing photographers and practicing on my own.
Eventually, I worked my way into a staff photographer position at a daily newspaper while also continuing with writing. Digital photography was just coming onto the scene at this point. I spent more than a decade as a writer and photojournalist for newspapers and magazines in four different states before starting my own photography business in Nashville full-time in 2013.
With my years of experience as a photojournalist, weddings and events were my first focus. Through 10 years in that fast-paced environment, I learned how to photograph in all kinds of light and how to create beautiful images on a tight timeline. This is where my love of storytelling and my style of photography – emphasizing movement and connection – really developed, and I started teaching lighting workshops, receiving awards, and had my work featured in publications including People and Nashville Lifestyles magazine.
I was working really hard, and things were going really well on the surface, but truthfully, I wasn’t happy. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and constantly stressed and anxious. I was working seven days a week, from early mornings to late nights, trying to keep up with my family’s needs while editing thousands of images and shooting more and more sessions. I was finally getting referrals from high-end wedding planners and exclusive venues, and I loved my wedding clients and felt that I was a great fit for that kind of work. But I realized that I was missing so much of my family and children’s lives, and I was losing touch with friends and even my husband because I was never around or available to spend time with them. I could see that the direction I was heading – booking more and higher-end weddings – was something I thought I had wanted, but in reality it just wasn’t sustainable for me and the way I wanted to live. I loved all the relationships I had built and the families I had worked with – that’s what kept me in the wedding industry for so long. But it came down to my own family and the need for me to be home more for them. So I decided to pivot, and it started to happen organically just before COVID hit in spring 2020. During the unexpected down time, I found that I had time and space to think and plan, and I knew I had to make some changes if I were going to continue with my business.
I returned to my editorial roots when I started photographing for Edible Nashville magazine. I found that food and lifestyle photographs were the perfect blending of my photojournalistic style, and I felt naturally drawn to people who create food, promote connections, and run their own businesses. Slowly, I started to pivot my business and follow my heart in the direction of commercial and editorial food and brand photos. That’s my main focus now. This industry is still challenging, but in a completely different way that’s more sustainable to me. It allows me to have more of a work-life balance while still photographing things that I love.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road or a straight journey. When we moved to Nashville for my husband’s job at Vanderbilt, I could not get a job in photography, so I fell back on my writing experience and became a reporter at The Tennessean and then an editor at a publishing company. I had two children during this time, and I transitioned from film photography to the new digital technology by photographing my kids. I missed being a photojournalist, but my life was busy as a new mom and an editor, and I used my photo skills to document my kids, which was OK for a while.
At some point, I just felt that I needed to do something completely different, so I did a crazy thing and quit my editing job to work as a preschool teacher. I really felt the need to spend more time with my children and be close to them. In this new job, I had summers off, and my daily schedule was the same as theirs. I needed some stress-free headspace to figure out what I wanted to do next. Everyone thought I was crazy, but it just felt right to me. As a preschool teacher, I started photographing the children in my class so parents could see what their kids were doing during the day. It really grew out of love for all the children in my class, and of course, the parents loved all the photos that I would send out each day.
Parents started asking me to photograph their families. As I started doing more of this, I bought online courses and started getting serious about photography again. As I started doing more family photography and filling up my nights and weekends, I started thinking about doing photography again full time. It all happened very slowly and organically, but after a couple of years of learning and practicing, tons of late nights and early mornings were spent editing and photographing.
After eventually building up a base of clients, I leaped and went full-time in photography in 2013. By this time, I was photographing bar mitzvahs and weddings along with families, and I felt I had found my calling. It took a while, but all the experience I gained along the way has really helped round out my technical knowledge and has given me a unique set of skills. It was in 2019 that I had a big mindset shift and started turning my photography business toward food and brands, which is now my focus.
We’ve been impressed with Rebecca Denton Photography, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My business now specializes in food and brand photography for commercial and editorial clients, along with entrepreneurs such as restaurant owners and artisans.
What sets me apart from others is my extensive background in photojournalism, along with a decade of event and portrait photography. My main focus is helping people promote their businesses with beautiful images that showcase their food, personalities, and products.
I’ve been told that my “superpower” is putting people at ease in front of the camera and capturing natural portraits, along with my technical skills in using both natural and artificial light on location and in the studio.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I see myself continuing to work and grow in the editorial and commercial fields of photography, focusing on food and brands. But I know from experience that things can change in unexpected ways, especially in today’s fast-paced world, and I don’t take anything for granted. So I’m just staying open to new directions and new experiences, and continuing to learn and grow.
Contact Info:
- Email: rebecca@rebeccadentonphotography.com
- Website: www.rebeccadentonphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccadentonphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaDentonPhotography
Image Credits
Rebecca Denton Photography
