In every business journey, as in life, we learn, we grow, and we change. As I’ve traveled along, I’ve outgrown my business name “Human Element Conservation.”
When I started out a few years ago, I established this website as a blog. I wanted to find a way to showcase my photography, but at that time, I didn’t think I had enough quality photographic content to focus my website solely on imagery. So, I planned to use my photos as illustrations in textual blog posts. I came up with a title that represented what I would be talking about; Human Element Conservation (i.e. involving people in conservation), and began writing blog posts.
Shifting to Photo-Heavy Content
After only a few months of constructing that style of blog posts, I realized I had been misguided in my belief that I needed to write extensive posts to showcase my photography. Afterall, I was starting a photography business, not a writing company. I took down the earliest posts, and revamped my website to focus on photo-heavy stories instead.
As I went in this new direction, ramped up my social media game with postings that were image-heavy, and began creating images for more clients, I wrestled with the name Human Element Conservation. Every time I created images, I wrestled with how to credit my work. Should I credit it to myself as I’m the one that created the images and would like to be recognized for my work, or to my business name, as I wanted to build my brand and create recognition for my conservation photography? The solution seemed simple; follow other photographer’s lead and re-brand my business to be “Maranda Miller Photography.” However, for months I struggled with releasing the words “conservation,” and “human element,” as they portrayed what my work is about (conservation-focused, and includes a human element, such as education).
Finding Courage to Change
I found courage to change my business name by studying what my conservation photographer mentors and role models do. I discovered that many of them position themselves as creators, naming their businesses in a way that credits their photographic work to their own name. They then focus on a certain type of content, thus demonstrating through their work what type of photographer they are.
I’ve chosen to finally take a leap, and changed my name to “Maranda Miller Photography.” This will better represent myself as the photograph creator, and I’ll let my body of work speak to the type of photographer I am.
I’m excited for this new chapter, and continued growth as a photographer and business woman. Thanks for sticking with me on this journey! You can check out my current work at my newly-named Facebook page, or Instagram account.
