Meet Mariah Bormann | Wisconsin Couples Photographer

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

Hi Mariah, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
Changing my mindset!

I am guilty of having so many ideas & things that I want to do that if I dont have everything set and put together then I wont do it because I want it to be perfect…In the beginning I think this hurt my progress so much because I wasn’t getting anything done by letting my ideas sit. In order to progress you have to at-least start and if you dont then nothing is going to happen. I knew if I wanted to make a photography business work I had to change that.

You dont have to have an entire website planned out, you’re not going to be the best right away so dont expect to be. Try new techniques, network and do model calls, you dont even need all the expensive gear to get started you just need to change your mindset & START! Start making a website even if you dont have a logo, get yourself on social media even if you dont have enough content to post every-single day. Just showing up and putting yourself out there is a step in the right direction.

I learned that you dont have to have it all together to get started, take small steps and you’ll get to where you want to be & dont be afraid to mess up. No one in this business sat down once and had it all planned out, it takes time, you’ll learn as you go; you’ll find things that work and things that don’t.

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.
Getting to where I am now was and is still not easy by any means. I have started & built this business from the ground up while also working a full time job where more times than not I have to work 45-50 hours a week. Truthfully, I am horrible with work life balance so a lot of times in the past photography had to take a place on the back-burner in order to see family/hangout with friends. Photography is working its way to the front right now since summer/fall is busy season but naturally I lean more towards a type A personality so go-go-go is normal for me but it for sure gets overwhelming at times & can make me feel burnt out more times than I care to admit.

Something thats helped prevent/ease the feeling of burnout is shooting for myself. Recently I started making vision boards for shoots that I want to do (I have over 60 ideas right now). When I look at the boards it makes me happy; I love that it gives me the opportunity to create something and then with the help of other vendors bring it to life. Theres a lot of time where I’ll be on pinterest and see one photo that inspires me and create an entire shoot idea around that.

Sometimes I will even plan one around a specific person or couple, there are a handful of vision board shoots that I think would be perfect for fun couples sessions so I like to throw some ideas out there when I can, recently I have had some ideas that couples actually wanted to incorporate into their engagement photos. I want to keep trying different things and do shoots that other people haven’t done or thought of.
There are a ton of styled shoots around these days and a lot of them have the same concepts…I want to do something different and show my skills off on ideas that are original/my own. #1 thing when being a photographer is to always set aside time to relax & create for yourself – whenever you have ideas write them down and make those ideas come to life.

I love traveling and will always be willing to travel for a fun shoot, session or wedding/elopement. I have been to 24 of the 63 national parks in the United States; I think that makes me unique from other photographers, although I haven’t shot at a national park yet for a booked session I have a lot of knowledge on the parks and can offer couples a unique perspective and lots of information on the parks.

I love shooting couples (engagement, proposals, elopement, maternity, small wedding) & editorial/creative sessions.

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?
I would highly recommend breakfast at Jelly Cafe ESPECIALLY if you are gluten free! I was so excited to go here because not a lot of places have GF breakfast foods – I was able to have pancakes & some of their donuts (cinnamon ones are the best). Once your belly is full, venture out of the city a bit and go to Rocky Mountain National Park for hiking. If your’e lucky you’ll see some elk and moose!

For your second day start off your day with brunch at Snooze A.M eatery, explore the city for the day & during the night head over to RiNo, grab a bite to eat and take in the nightlife. Walk around and look at all the art/graffiti.

Top pick for a nighttime hangout would be at Blake Street Tavern; near Coors Field. Hangout, Eat some bar food OR you can get a big bowl of ice cream! Vanilla Honeycomb is my favorite, the size is big enough that you could make a whole meal out of it.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Joey @ Remingtons Flowers & Co Joey and I met during a summer softball league in high school, I think about 9-10 years ago. We played for the summer and didn’t really keep in touch other than social media but then a few years ago WE RECONNECTED AND…She knew I did photos and I knew she did flowers, this just so happened to be around the time when she was thinking about starting her own business. She mentioned it to me and we kinda just decided to do some collaboration. Its been really fun being able to do photos right at the beginning and then still be able to do them for her from time to time now. Shes always hyped me up and recommended me to people.

We’ve been lucky enough to do a few wedding together where she is florals and I am the photographer. She is the greatest florist ever, I would never get flowers from anyone else – To be as young, talented and successful as she is I think its really rare. She deserves all of the shoutouts.
https://www.instagram.com/remingtonsflowers/

Meg @ Meg J Photo
Megan and I met at a styled shoot in May 2021 ever since we have both been supporting each other and pushing each other to do better. We second shoot for one another which is always fun and recently went to a n amazing workshop in Colorado together in July. Seeing her progress from last May to now has been incredible!
https://www.instagram.com/meg.jphoto/

Website: www.mariahbormannphoto.com

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariahbormannphoto

Other: Link Tree. https://mariahbormannphoto.com/links

Image Credits
Images are all mine @mariahbormannphoto