The Young Ones Sandy Puc

Sandy Puc’ has spent her career specialising in photographs of babies and children, and she’s looking forward to the chance to share some of her expertise through her workshops at the 2012 Convention. Sometimes you’re not even aware yourself what your natural strengths really are, and you just find yourself naturally drifting into the areas that you feel most comfortable with and then discover that it’s what you really wanted to do all along.

Colorado-based Sandy Puc’ very much fell into that category when she first started out as a photographer aged just 17. She achieved her business licence a year later and started out with the intention of moving into the commercial sector. However, she found that she was starting to pick up more and more bookings to photograph children and slowly but surely that came to be what she was known for and she found that she was enjoying the experience.

“I didn’t think photographing children would be my career path,” she says. “However, I fell in love with working with kids and, especially after having my own children, I became very dedicated to photography.

About 19 years ago I moved to Colorado and started my business all over again! I began to build the business working out of my home part time, and I started working with friends of mine and friends from church, offering free sessions so that I could begin building my portfolio.

“Very quickly, through referral marketing and providing incentives to get people to talk about what I was doing, I started to grow the business. I did a lot of displays as well as charity functions to create a more visual presence in our community.

“Although I love all types of photography I quickly started to specialise specifically in babies. We created a baby plan 19 years ago and it has become one of the company’s foundations. I came to realise that, if you work with a family when they have a newborn baby and if you take care of them through good customer service and a quality product, you can actually create a relationship that will last a lifetime.

“I began working with many newborn babies through that first year of life, and we then created a follow-up marketing programme so that we could work with them through their birthdays for the next five years. This programme ensured that we were capturing the most important years in a child’s life. “Additionally, we did their family portraits and, after 19 years, I have been honoured that some of my original baby plan children are now my high school senior clients. This year I was even honoured to photograph a baby of one my own original newborn clients! It’s absolutely wonderful to see a full circle of a generation that has utilised our studio.”

Sam has always taken a keen interest in training and networking, and has been an involved member of many of the US associations for 20 years or more. Having heard about The Societies through meeting speakers who had been involved with the Convention and seen some beautiful work that had been produced by Society members, she decided to broaden her horizons and to sign up for membership herself two years ago. With her background in training it was only a matter of time before she was asked to come over to the UK and talk to a new audience about the distinctive brand of child photography that has proved so successful for her over the years. Her first Convention was last year and she can’t wait to repeat the experience in 2012.

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What our members say
Why I like the Societies: The network and being able to chat to other photographers - Andy R
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Convention testimonials Scott Johnson: Thank you @TheSocieties for an amazing convention, packed with such inspiring speakers. I'm buzzing! Can't wait for next year!! #swpp
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Photo Quote: My favourite thing is to go where I've never been. Diane Arbus

There are 227 days to get ready for the SWPP Convention and Trade Show at The Hilton London Metropole Hotel ...
which starts on Tuesday 8th January 2013