The Storyteller

Megan Drane, M.Photog.M.Artist, didn’t plan to be a photographer. With an MFA in creative writing, she says she saw herself as more of a literary storyteller. But when her photographs of her family led to a growing chorus of portrait requests, she started following a new path.

Drane founded her Chicago-area studio, Firefly Nights Photography, at the end of August 2007, when she started photographing babies and toddlers for personal referral clients. For the first few years, she pursued photography part time while building up her skills and clientele, and working her full-time corporate job. She took seminars and online classes, steadily honing her craft until she was ready to pursue photography full time in 2011. Through her education process, Drane was drawn to compositing and digital artwork. Before long, it became clear she was pursuing her dream of being a storyteller after all, through visual art rather than words on a page.

MENTAL PICTURES

“I’ve always been very fanciful,” says Drane. “I live with pictures in my head at all times. It’s always been a personal challenge; can I turn what’s in my head into art? That’s what inspired me to go down the visual artist route.”

Drane started posting her art images online. She also began entering image competitions through PPA and other organizations, and professional critiques helped her refine her craft. Potential clients were drawn to her unique, sometimes whimsical work, even if they weren’t initially looking for a commissioned art portrait.  

Today, when someone expresses interest in Drane’s fine art imagery, she schedules a consultation to understand their vision, preferences, and the story they want to convey. For the process to work, it has to be a mix of the client’s ideas and Drane’s artistic inspiration, she says. “If they have a very, very specific idea in their head, it doesn’t work as well,” she explains. “It needs to be open to interpretation. It may be their idea, but it also has to be my work. And I can’t create it if I can’t visualize it.”

ART FOR SALE

The commissioned art pieces are unique enough to continually draw in new clients. They also cross over into some of Drane’s more standard portrait work. There are differences in process and end results (one piece of wall art versus a gallery and 30 to 40 images for an album), but her compositing and fine-art approach sometimes influence the creative process of her regular child, family, and senior portrait clients. This balance is crucial to her success, she says.

“I am creative, but I’m also very business-oriented,” says Drane. “My business needs to be successful. My focus is on whatever can make money and still be a fun job. The creative work feeds my soul so photography doesn’t become a dull assembly line. But it also feeds the rest of the business by drawing in clients and augmenting the other portrait work.”

She asks questions to develop a concept, and through an iterative process, she and the client fine-tune the vision until she has a starting place for image capture. “It’s an ongoing conversation,” Drane says. “It’s almost like I’m a therapist during this process. One of my superpowers is getting people comfortable and asking questions to get to the heart of something.”

Drane typically captures a lot of images to establish a direction and refine the posing, expression, and other elements. She shows the initial captures to the clients to ensure she’s on the right track. Then, once they’ve established that she’s heading in the right direction, her clients don’t see anything until the final piece is complete. The ultimate deliverable is one fine-art image.

“Whatever you want, I can do it,” says Drane. “Reality and me don’t have to see eye to eye.” That’s important to many of Drane’s clients, who may want to be represented differently than the way the rest of the world sees them, she explains. “It’s not about what’s real. It’s about what you want to be. These images can show the best part of you, or how you imagine yourself, or your creative vision for yourself. Being able to show that side of someone is very relevant nowadays.”

SPECIAL WORK FOR SPECIAL NEEDS

Another significant focus for Drane is her special-needs clients. As the mother of a child on the autism spectrum, Drane understands what is required during portrait sessions involving people with different sensitivities. Unfortunately, most photographers are not as accommodating, and Drane says she was troubled by stories she heard about people’s negative experiences during sessions. 

So, she started offering mini portrait sessions for families with children with autism, behavior challenges, sensory issues and other special needs including Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and cystic fibrosis. The sessions are discounted to make them more affordable for the families, and structured to help everyone relax and enjoy the experience. “Every kid is different, so it’s important to know the right questions to ask,” says Drane. “That helps you create an experience where everyone can feel more comfortable. I love giving people something they don’t get from other photographers, and they leave feeling positive.”

Setting and managing expectations for these sessions is important, says Drane. The parents’ hopes for the session may be different from what the photographer is considering, and trying for a specific image or experience may cause undue stress for the child, she says, “so make sure you understand what [the family is] looking for.”

Also, it helps to find ways to work within a child’s abilities rather than pushing them to do something uncomfortable. For example, Drane says, many children on the autism spectrum will not establish eye contact with the photographer. Instead of continually requesting that they look directly at you, Drane suggests asking the child to focus on something else such as the lens of your camera or a point on the wall. Then adjust yourself to the subject, rather than asking them to adjust to you.

FLEXIBILITY FOR THE WIN

Whether working with a special needs portrait client, on a commissioned art project, or with a standard portrait client, the key is to be flexible, says Drane. It pays to do a little digging to understand your client, and craft something specifically for them. That’s how you exceed expectations and create a superlative client experience. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” she says. “So have a conversation, ask the right questions, and then make the adjustments that will put you in a position to succeed.”   

Jeff Kent is editor-at-large.