Lean In

In 2010, in Canal Winchester, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Erica Manning was working as a personal trainer. She enjoyed her job, at least more than she had one of her previous jobs, which was selling copiers. “It’s hard to get excited about selling copiers,” she says. “Management would say, ‘If you can sell copiers, you can sell anything.’”  The phrase stuck in her head. “I thought, Once I start selling something that I’m passionate about, this is going to be great because I won’t have to fake being excited about what I’m selling.” At the time, she had no idea that something would be her photography skills.

DIVING IN

Manning’s incarnation into award-winning photographer might not have transpired had her husband not filed away a one-off comment she made. One of their neighbors was a photographer, and Manning mentioned she’d like to make keepsake-worthy photos. Manning had a point-and-shoot camera she used often, but the results weren’t like her neighbor’s. So, Manning’s husband gave her a Canon EOS Rebel T2i for Christmas. The camera became Manning’s portal to another world. She scoured the internet for photography tutorials. She discovered Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and other photography organizations and went to workshops. “I was consuming as much as I could to learn and to get better and to grow,” she explains. “And at no point did I get sick of what I was doing.”

It wasn’t long before she’d upgraded to a professional Canon camera. She bought her first set of strobes—Paul C. Buff Einsteins. Manning used herself and her two daughters as test subjects and spent her free time “just practicing and practicing and not being afraid to fail,” Manning says. “The more I did it, the more quickly I was able to see where I was falling short and what I needed to learn.”

Soon Manning was getting paid to take photos. “I started with everything,” she says, including weddings and events. She quit her gig as a personal trainer. She discerned that her real photographic passion was portraiture—the preparation, the sessions themselves, the editing, and post-production. Soon portraits were all she did—senior photos, legacy portraits, creative portraits, headshots. In 2016, Manning purchased a small building in Canal Winchester and converted it into a portrait studio. She discovered that the building’s black ceilings gave her images a moody quality. “A painterly feel, a vintage feel,” Manning explains. “I just leaned into it.”

HAT IN RING

If awards are any indication, Manning leaned in the right direction. In 2024 she was named a Diamond photographer in the high school senior category of PPA’s International Photographic Competition. She’s received ICON International Photography awards, and, through The Portrait Masters, attained the Fellow level (the first and only Fellow in the state of Ohio). For three years in a row Manning has been named one of WPE’s top 100 photographers worldwide.

Manning entered her images in competitions in the hope they’d do well enough to “give me some credibility,” she says. The awards also helped her battle her imposter syndrome. “I’ve spent a lot of time actively working against the negative mindset that I can’t or that I’m not good enough,” she explains. Manning also resists the urge to play “the comparison game” by comparing other photographers’ levels of success to hers. “I think that’s a dangerous thing to do,” she adds. Instead, she spends her energy working on how to improve. “I feel like part of what made me successful is that I give myself grace. If I don’t reach a goal I set for myself, I’ll take a closer look at that goal. Is that goal serving me? Does it align with my purpose? If the answer is yes, then I take different action steps to achieve that goal. If it’s no, then it’s OK to pivot,” Manning explains. “That sort of mindset has really helped and shaped me into the photographer and the businessperson I am because I’m not getting hung up on failures. Because I don’t consider them failures. They’re learning opportunities.”

BUSINESS SAVVY

Manning’s background in sales and her degree in marketing from the University of Colorado have helped her promote her business, as have business webinars and her study of various photography business models. Also beneficial to her business? Making mistakes and learning from them. In the early stages of her career, she set her prices too low. But as Manning’s photographic skills improved, she recognized she should be compensated for the level of excellence she was providing her clients. She was a realist, though. Pricing models in a Columbus suburb don’t match those in New York City or Los Angeles. “I charge a reasonable rate, and my clients feel there’s value in what they get and they’re willing to pay for that,” she explains.

Erica Manning Photography is a one-person operation. For her creative work, she does it all—from pre- to post-production. For client work, Manning occasionally hires retouchers. She’s able to fly solo because she’s developed efficient workflow systems that allow her to “make my business profitable and still offer my services at a reasonable rate,” Manning says. Much of that efficiency stems from her knack for planning. “The more I can do ahead of time, the more smoothly things go.”

SETTING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS

The bread and butter of Manning’s business is senior portraits. This means working with high school students, many of whom have never experienced a formal photography session. The key is educating her clients on what to expect. This education takes the form of emails, “pretty PDFs,” and pre-session consultations, she explains. “I’m also showing clients my images and giving them references as to what different styles look like,” she adds. Manning wants her clients to imagine what a session with her will look like—what the final images she creates might look like—rather than having clients create expectations after wandering down a Pinterest rabbit hole. “Having them look at my images gives them a way to define what they like and don’t like before the session,” Manning explains. “I’ve found that to be very, very helpful.”

A typical portrait session lasts two hours. Timewise, “the session itself is minor in comparison to the pre- and the post-production,” notes Manning, who works in both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. With her creative work, the pre- and post-production processes (which often includes composite images) take significantly more time.  

FINDING THAT SPARK

Although Manning admires other photographers’ work, she says she avoids looking at it for inspiration for fear of plagiarizing, even if by accident. Some of her best sources for ideas are fairy tales, classic art, and the Bible. And then of course, there’s Norman, her beloved cat, “who I’m with all day long. Just the weird, crazy things he does spark ideas in my head,” she adds.

There are also what Manning calls her “heart things,” projects that particularly move her. Several years ago, one of her clients, who’d gone through a mastectomy, wanted photographs to use in her role as a breast cancer awareness advocate and motivational speaker. “I couldn’t even think about charging her,” Manning says. “It was one of those life-changing sessions. We both just sobbed after we were done.” Since then, Manning has photographed several cancer survivors free of charge. This year, she formally titled this type of pro bono, personal work, “Light Stories.” “Time after time I’m seeing the stories we’re able to tell with our images, what they can do for the subjects,” Manning notes. “It is definitely a huge component of what I love to do because I love to see people see themselves in a more powerful light, a more positive light.”

THE POWER OF SHARING

In the last few years, in workshops and in one-on-one mentoring sessions, Manning began sharing her knowledge of lighting, post-production image making, and business processes. “There’s just something about watching another photographer have an aha moment, whether it be from basic skills to creative portraiture to anything else,” she says. “Helping them eliminate the years of learning that it took me to get to that point, for them to realize that early on—I love it.” Currently, the teaching/mentoring side of Erica Manning Photography accounts for about 20% of her time. “It’s a delicate balance. I love the photography part of my business and I don’t want to give that up. So I continually ask myself, ‘OK, where do I need to spend my time? Where do I see my career going?’” Manning notes. “I’m still working through what that balance is.”

One of Manning’s daughters is a recent college grad and the other is still in school. Her muse since 2018 is Norman, the family cat. Jack, the Mannings’ dog, “is a sweet oy,” she says. “Unfortunately, he hates to have his photo taken.” In the last few years, she and her husband have been traveling more, with Manning taking advantage of her time in various destinations to seek out and capture potential backdrops for her composite photos. She admits she has a hard time putting her camera down. “One of my daughters teases me sometimes. She’s like, ‘Mom, you need a hobby that’s not photography or photography related,’” Manning says. “And I’m like, but why? I love this. Why would I do anything else?” 

A writer and photographer, Allison Shirreffs has worked with various national organizations and publications.