Meet Beth Osberg | School Portrait Company Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beth Osberg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
For me, balance between home life and business life starts with family first. When I first started my business it was simply to create a little extra income for my little family. I was working part time elsewhere and I took any and every opportunity that I could to grow my photography business little by little. Not only for the extra income, but also for the experience.

As our family grew, and their demand on my time grew, I had to make some shifts in what I was doing. First and foremost, I had to do what made me happy and that meant cutting things out that didn’t. When our youngest child was born I left my part time job and decided to throw myself fully into my photography business. I was a little scary, not knowing how we would make things work, but then Covid happened pretty quickly after I made that choice and it really gave us a hard reset to everything.

After Covid I found one particular area of my business that was really thriving; school portraits. I had been doing school portraits for years, but on a small scale and by myself. I had always heard from others how much they loved the school portraits I took of their students and how different they were from the big school portrait companies. But I still wanted to cling to doing my family sessions too. However, as my kids grew and their activities and interests increased it got progressively harder for me to want to do family sessions on weekends and not be present for my own family. I tried a few different things to make it work, but ultimately decided that focusing on this one area of my business that was thriving would allow me the freedom to be with my family when they needed me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
You know how school picture day can be a little awkward and cringy, ultimately leading to very unflattering and dull photos? Our company is looking to change that culture. We work to create a seamless and stress-free picture day for schools and their families. We strive to create images of students that are artful and unique, reflecting back who they truly are by being intentional with our interactions. We go above and beyond to serve those we work with by displaying unreasonable hospitality, making each person we come into contact with feel seen and loved.

This business has been shaped and molded over many years. It started with me working alongside a few other teachers at a school I was working at part time. The school wanted to stop using the large volume company it was using and keep everything in house. They gathered four of us staff to take over this responsibility and within a year, the other three in the group were gone and it was just me.

But I didn’t want to give it up just because they were gone. I absolutely loved it! I loved interacting with the students to try to get images that reflected their personalities, and it was working. Parents loved them! After a few years of doing just the one school, I reached out to a few smaller groups to see if they would be interested in working with me and things really snowballed from there. Especially after Covid. Schools were looking for a little more flexibility and customization in their school picture day and that was something I could provide.

Things had been going so well, that several years ago I decided that this was my niche and it was time to focus on this one thing; fine art school portraits. Not only did it bring me pure joy to interact with these schools and students, but it allowed me the freedom to be present with my family when they needed me. And that is a huge factor in how I run my business.

Things were moving so fast that it was harder and harder for me to do everything on my own. I needed help. But I didn’t want just any help. I wanted to find people, specifically women, that would benefit from having a little work outside the home that they could do while their kids were in school. Or women that had their own photography businesses that wanted to try to grow their business while helping me grow mine.

Through word of mouth I found three lovely ladies that are helping me do just that. It’s been a huge game changer for me. I’m able to focus more on what I love about running my business, while helping provide a small income for them. And, hopefully, it means growing a little more each year and adding to the list of schools we serve.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Our family is a little introverted and we don’t care for things that are overcrowded and busy. We have lots of out of state family that come to visit us all the time. We will typically take them to family friendly places like the Denver Zoo. Or if we’re looking to give them a mountain experience we will drive up to Mt Blue Sky and down into Idaho Springs or out to Buena Vista for the day. Or down to Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods. A lot of our family is from the mid-west and so we will usually take them to In-and-Out Burger while they’re here. We are also huge pizza fanatics and Walter’s 303 pizza is our favorite splurge for guests to enjoy. Ultimately we really love staying close to home. Maybe grab some froyo at Nella’s then going for a walk around the lake at Clement Park.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family is the biggest thing that drives me and my business. They have always been my biggest motivators and supporters. I wouldn’t be doing any of this without them.

I’m also part of an amazing small mastermind group of female school portrait photographers. They have been a huge help to me, encouraging me and helping me grow my business. We just met in person for the first time last year and I was amazed at how well we all got along. We are all so very different, but having the same passion in life gives you such an amazing foundation. They have really pushed me to grow over the last few years and I’m so grateful.

Website: https://reallifephotoco.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reallifephotoco/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reallifephotoco