S5E11 - Julie Campbell
This week’s guest is photographer Julie Campbell. She is based near Ventura County in Southern California. Her focus is mostly on family and newborn photography but she does corporate photography such as product for brands and headshots. Full disclosure, she took the host Rabiah’s family photos in December.
Julie actually started out as an elementary school teacher. When she had kids of her own she started photographing them and really enjoyed it. This hobby got more serious as she took online tutorials to build up her skillset. Getting a DSLR camera was a game changer. With this new equipment in hand, she taught herself Photoshop. She also got education around starting a photography business which she highly recommends anyone starting out take the time to do early on!
At the suggestion of her husband, Julie branched out from taking photos of her own family into taking photos for other families. At first, she did it free of charge but after a while, it was time to start getting paid for the work
We talked about transitioning to charging what she was worth which is a struggle for a lot of creatives and entrepreneurs. We also discussed something that people often reveal to their photographer; everyone is self-conscious when having photo taken. If you are one of those people, you’ll want to hear this chat. You’re not alone.
Note from Rabiah (Host):
Julie did an excellent job photographing my family near Malibu, CA. We all love our photos but we definitely all brought our own brand of “I hope I look ok” to the shoot. One thing that I love about this podcast is that I get to talk to people about what they do and how they ended up there and Julie really has a DIY story that I loved hearing. I am even more impressed with her than I was when we met or when I saw her work. If you’re in So Cal, I recommend you see her for your photos!
The client becomes the interviewer. Rabiah welcomes Julie to the podcast after getting photos done last year.
Transcript
Rabiah (Host): [00:04:13] This is More Than Work, the podcast reminding you that your self worth is made up of more than your job title. Each week, I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves. You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing and who they are. I'm your host, Rabiah. I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer and of course podcast. Thank you for listening. Here we go.
Hey everyone. So this week I'm excited to bring you someone that actually did my family photos in December when I was back home in California. She was a lot of fun to talk to. She actually was un- unsure of if she should be on the podcast. Was she the right guest? But she definitely was and I really enjoyed editing this episode and hearing back what we talked about and reflecting on it a bit. interestingly enough, this person, Julie Campbell had [00:05:13] a different career before she became a photographer. She's self-taught initially. So, again, I'm just encouraging people, if you wanna do something, anything do the thing. You can learn. I teach myself to do things all the time. Probably not well , but even editing this podcast, you know, I taught myself how to do all that.
And I just, I really encourage people to, to do things. Photography is a lot of fun and something I was doing before, and haven't done in a while, but if you can create images of vacations you go on or just with your family and stuff like that. It's really fun. Um, I like learning about how she put her business together, cuz she really did from the ground up after she did her first career, which I will let you hear about on the episode rather than ruining it right now.
One thing too is we get into a little bit about a health issue she had at, during, during COVID. Well, during the lockdown part of COVID, uh, with her eye and, and having an detached retina and I'm still dealing with an after effect of COVID right now where [00:06:13] I don't have all my vision in my right eye, and, but I can't imagine going through what she did. And it was really just put things in a perspective for me in two ways. One, you know, I am lucky, even though things aren't going super all the time, I am lucky, but also it's okay that there are times that I'm honoring that I don't feel so lucky. So it was kind of a good reminder that we can name the pain we're in or name how we feel and it's okay.
And we don't have to compare it to other people. But we can also, when we're in a healthier spot, acknowledge how guilt. Um, I was gonna say guilty, not guilty, but acknowledge how fortunate we are. And so it was a helpful chat. I hope listening to that part of the chat is helpful to some people too, because you never know when you're gonna be going through something or maybe you have a friend who's going through something that you wanna help and talk.
Um, I definitely, again, wanna reiterate that message to reach out to people when, when you feel like you should, because it's likely they probably uh, we'll be glad to hear from you. Um, if they're not, I'm really sorry [00:07:13] and I'm sorry to put you in that situation, but at least, you know. Um, I guess I'll leave it at that.
Um, this is women's history month, so it's all women this month on the podcast and next month will get back to a mix of, of people, but I'm really happy that I just had so many amazing women to talk to. And. um, I'm excited that next month, I think is Earth month so we'll have a couple eco kind of friendly people on too.
If you have someone you recommend for the podcast, let me know if you, um, just wanna drop me a line and tell me what you think that'd be great too, but I'll leave you with that. Thanks and enjoy the episode.
Rabiah (Host): All right, everyone so my guest today is Julie Campbell and she's a photographer. She actually did my family's photos back in December when I was visiting California. We decided it was time before my sister's kids were fully adults with their own families that we should get photos [00:08:13] together so she was the photographer who did that. And that's how I met her. Thanks for being on, Julie.
Julie Campbell: I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, of course. And um, can you just tell people where I'm talking to you from?
Julie Campbell: I am located in Southern California in Ventura County about an hour out of LA close to where you, your family is.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, exactly. Close to where I grew up and close to where my family lives now. So yeah, that's cool. And you're in a close proximity for people who don't know, to beach and mountains and different parts that, that makes Southern California. Great, right?
Julie Campbell: Yes. Yes. I love it here. There's everything. Beach, mountain, desert everything.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. I'm a big, big fan of California too. So I want to talk, first of all, like you did not start out as a photographer in your careers, is that right?
Julie Campbell: Right. I went to school and became an elementary school teacher. I actually taught kindergarten for a couple of years and loved it. I loved the little kids.
I loved getting to know them. I loved the excitement of teaching them new things. It was, [00:09:13] I really loved it. And then I had my first daughter and I know I just. Little baby. And I thought, oh, I don't, I don't want to be with other people's kids. I want to be with my own kid. And so I I quit to stay home and raise my kids.
I had four kids and I just loved being home with them. But then I did have, always had that thing, like, oh, I, you know, you always want the kind of, I wanted like a creative outlet or something besides just staying home and like changing diapers and sweeping floors and doing that stuff. So I became obsessed with taking pictures of my kids cause I thought, you know, everyone thinks their kids are the most beautiful? So then I, I got, I got my digital camera. It was just a really simple one. And then I looked online to see how to take better pictures. And it just became an obsession that just grew over years. And luckily the internet has all the information that you need.
So I, I did tutorials. I took, then I went and I took [00:10:13] classes at the local college at Moorpark College. And. Online classes. I became obsessed to learn everything I could about photography. It was just like, it was like driving my, it was like a passion that I could not let go of. So then I started buying things and we didn't have a ton of money.
Cause we were just one income family and my husband earned all the money. So, I had to like save her things or wait, and I would get kind of like the basic, you know, equipment and then try to just do my best with what I had. And my husband decided one time, he, he decided to buy me a DSLR, which is the next step. So you can become, you know, do, you can do a lot more with DSLRs instead of just the basic point and shoot cameras. He got me one and that opened a whole new world to me. And then I learned, you know, Photoshop and everything. I put the kids to bed and that's what I do for hours at night.
I did this for years and my husband's like, you know what? You should, you should probably like start earning money with this. You take pretty [00:11:13] good pictures. You could probably take other people's pictures. And I was like, no way, I have this whole thing, like, I'm just a mom, that's all I can do.
And no one's ever going to pay me to take their pictures, that's ridiculous. And he's like, no, I think they will. So he went out and got me, his coworkers. He said, he said, my wife takes pictures. Can she take pictures of your family? Like just for free. And so they were like, sure, why not? So I did that for a few months.
And then I was like, you know what? This is actually a lot of work, and I really like it so I do kind of want to be paid for it. Like I don't want
to do it for free. So I, then I started charging just a little bit and then I kept raising my prices and I took business classes.
I took photography, business classes because you know, it's one thing to do the photography, but it's a whole other thing to run a business, you know you have to have a lot of information about what your costs are and taxes and all that really boring stuff. And I actually hated that part, but it's necessary. I feel like you do need to be paid for what you do.
You want to make it worth your time. Like I [00:12:13] was leaving my family, so I needed to be have it be worth missing that time away from them and you know, the freedom that cause the freedom that came with it, because with the photography your clients are gonna want, they want appointments during the weekends.
And so that's, you know, the weekends are usually like, it was when my husband had his time off. So yeah, you just gotta make it worth your while. And me and it was, I loved that it was so flexible so I could do it when I was able to.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Julie Campbell: So yeah, it's been, and it's been great. I love it.
Rabiah (Host): How many years has it been since you did the first,
I would say like your first professional gig?
Julie Campbell: I think it's been about 15 years.
Rabiah (Host): That's so that's great. And I think you touched on so many things I hear from people, just, even in my personal life, but sometimes on the podcast too.
And I do, I mean, I do stand up comedy and I do the podcast. And so those are also different things where you can end up, if you have more skills, like in the business side or an understanding about your worth and your value, you end up in those conversations like around [00:13:13] money. And I know just seeing some comics and like, especially female comics where I relate it to is they'll be asked to do a gig and then there'll be asked how much do you want to be paid versus like, here's the rate we're paying. So they almost don't want to, like the bookers don't want to establish that there's a rate that should be paid. They want you to tell and, and depending on who you are, you might get paid different things, but it's like the work is of a certain value and so hearing you talk about you, you started out pricing really low and then increased it over time. What I'd like to know is because I think it'd maybe be helpful for people like, how did you kind of come to terms with that your time was worth more than you were initially saying it was, and just kind of decide confidently, like this is what my work is worth and this is what I'm going to charge and ask for?
Julie Campbell: Kind of slowly. Cause I, I, like I said, like, I was not confident at the beginning. I felt like, oh, I'm not good enough. Like, you know that I'm, everyone else is better than me and I'm not good enough. And then, you know, the more I took [00:14:13] classes and I went to seminars and I went to conventions and I talked to other photographers and there's like a lot of networking between photographers online.
And they would, you know, a lot of education saying, you don't do this for free. Don't spend your time. Don't spend hours and hours on the computer. And, you know, cause a lot of the photography is not just the photo session. Most of the time takes place at home when you're editing like hours and hours and hours, depending on how much you do.
And I was realizing I'm losing sleep, I'm doing all this stuff. My mentors that I looked up to, they kind of inspired me to like, charge what I'm worth. And honestly, like I still charge a lot less than they do. I know I still believe that, you know, photography should be accessible to everyone.
People should be able to have nice family photos. , I'm not like Ann Geddes or like, you know, the famous ones that people think of that are make, you know, billions of dollars. But there's, there's like a balance, you know, like I want it to be accessible, but I also want to be paid for my time.
So, I don't [00:15:13] know. It's tough. It's hard. It's hard to know, to know what is right. But I, you know, I based it off of my time and how much it, how long it takes me and what my materials are and how much I want to earn. And, you know, there's, there's a lot that goes
into it.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense, but I think it's good that over time you realized. And I liked that there's this network of people, maybe that you guys have a community of photographers because in creative spaces, one thing I've noticed is in business, like just pure business when you're in corporate it's, it's interesting to see the dynamics and how there is the sense of competition that's different than the community I've seen in creative areas, because I feel like, for example, I interviewed this one designer, Steph Mathena and she was talking about how one thing that helped her when she decided to start her business was there was this whole like designer community on Instagram that's super supportive where again, they can talk about pricing and clients and stuff like that.
And it sounds like photography similar that there's not as much the competition as there's the community. Is that kind of true? [00:16:13]
Julie Campbell: Yeah. I mean, there's definitely the competition. I think that the nice thing about it is because it's online, you can talk to photographers in another country, you can talk to them across the country, and they're not going to be competitive with you because they don't have your clients.
Like your clients are local to you. So there's the competitiveness of local clients. Like I, I do military homecomings and when I do that, like you see a whole bunch of other photographers there. I see my peers there and I, I like to talk to them and meet them. And some of them are really standoffish and they don't want to talk to you, but some of them are super friendly and they will like, oh, what's your Instagram or what's your, you know, so they can, you can network with them and get to know them.
And I really like that. There's some of both, some people just don't want to tell you anything and they don't want to share their information with you, but it's other people are very open and they'll talk to you about anything. So, yeah, I just, I love that. Yeah.
Creative people definitely are more open, I think. They want to help [00:17:13] you because they want, they want to raise the whole industry up to be better. so I like that aspect of it.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. That's really cool. And then as far as, I guess, Well, two other things just around what you said.
Cause there was a lot there. One was just the aspect of you learning business and realizing that you needed to have that acumen as well. And I personally also hate any kind of number management. It's just not, not fun, especially when you realize how much you're spending on stuff.
Would you change what you did or do you think just taking the specific courses you did were a good idea? Like if someone was starting out in a creative business, would you say that they should do that sooner than later? And what kind of path would you say to do?
Julie Campbell: I would say definitely do the business part soon, as soon as you possibly can. I'm still terrible at accounting.
My husband does the taxes and he, every year he's like, oh, you are just horrible and horrible about stuff. And I'm like, I, you know, this is what I do. I'm sorry, can you take it over for me? I don't know whatever, but I suggest you do [00:18:13] hire people to do things that you're not good at. Like a lot of photographers hire people to do the editing becaust they just
you know, they just don't want to have all those hours and it's just easier for them. And I've thought about doing that, but I actually, I love the control. Like I love to be able to edit the photos, how I want them. So I haven't given up that yet. But, you know, just, you know, hire an accountant, always have your ducks in a row with taxes and the all that stuff and your insurance.
I do newborn photography and I'm terrified that a baby gets hurt in my, in my care. I'm so careful. I mean, these, and even on photo shoots out in the, you know, like we w when I went to your family were at the beach and tripped and gotten hurt and not, you know, you never know, you never know what's going to happen so you have to be really careful to protect yourself and also protect your clients.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I never thought of that because like the kids were running around for sure. And I have a tendency to slip. Yeah. [00:19:13] It would have been me, but yeah, that's interesting. So as far as the imposter syndrome, because that's what I would really describe you having at the beginning of it, it's just right?
Did you have an epiphany at one point? Cause I've, I've noticed with me sometimes I'll just have an epiphany and then I'll go back to my imposter syndrome, but come back to the epiphany again. Or how did it resolve for you?
Julie Campbell: It hasn't completely. I learned from, you know, other photographers, so I'm constantly looking at other photographers' . Work and trying to get myself to do better.
So I do th there's a lot of comparing there's some times when I look I'm like, oh, I can never do that. I'm terrible. Like, you know, like I just a lot of negative self-talk and so I can't say that I'm completely over it, but I do recognize, I do have clients that say like your photos or have been on my welfare all this time.
And I love looking and looking at them and I love being able to have pictures of my daughter when she was a baby. And now she's a teenager and, you know, I love being able to have those forever. I love that aspect of it and I loved that, what I, what [00:20:13] I ultimately love the most about my job is that I get to capture families being together.
And it's a moment in time that will never, ever come back ever. I just love being with families and seeing how their dynamics and how much they love each other and, and recording that for them. That's what I love to do.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. And it's really special. I mean, as an experience, I'd say if anyone's in Southern California, I would definitely go to you.
But the thing is like, just for us, our family is definitely you experienced it where, you know, my mom clearly just, she did not want to do it actually, even though it's partly a gift to her, it was a very misguided gift by me, I think. And then, you know, we have basically kind of the family where it's the mom and the dad, and then the kids are separate, you know, with the them having divorced. And, but it was really great to be able to still include everybody in it and to be able to have like, okay, you with the kids and you with the kids and stuff. And like, that was really special.
I think everyone had a nice day and they were surprised by how much fun they had, which was cool. But one thing I noticed you [00:21:13] were really good about, especially with my mom, like getting her to smile cause it's hard. I don't know why. And luckily she doesn't listen to this.
Cause my podcast. She's supportive of the fact that I have it but she doesn't listen to it, but I think it was cool for me to see you get that out of her, you know? Cause I was worried and I didn't have to worry about it. I was like, oh, you know what? I don't have to worry about this today.
Like
Julie Campbell: yeah. I always tell clients like, it's my job. Like they, you don't have to worry about getting your kids to smile. Like that's my job because I want you to relax because the more people are relaxed, the better the pictures are going to be. And I want it to be a good memory too. I don't want it to be something where they look back and think, oh, that was so horrible because when they look at the pictures, they're going to be like, that was horrible. And I look like it's horrible and you know what I mean? So you have to have a lot of it is there's a lot of things going on. And so yeah, I actually like all the different things. There's always somebody in there who doesn't want to be there. It's usually the dad. The dad very rarely wants to be there.
And so I try to make jokes with [00:22:13] them and, you know, like teenage boys hate it and I, you know, so I try to, to make jokes and make it fun and make it, you know, so it's not so stiff and boring and tedious. I like to move around a lot. So hopefully it's not a terrible experience for everyone. And I do, like I asked people at the end, was it, was it bad?
And they're like, no, that was better than I thought it a lot better than I thought it would be. That's a success for me. If I get the one who hates to be there. Oh, there they're okay with it. Then that's a success.
That's good though. That's a good way to measure it. You know, really just like, was it not that bad kind of cause liked that.
Rabiah (Host): Exactly. So one thing you do so we talked about like newborn, family and then you also do corporate kind of photography, like headshots, but also like branding and stuff. How, I guess, how is the approach for you with people versus objects and then I guess, yeah. Do you get more joy out of one or the other?
Do you [00:23:13] find it in both in different ways?
Julie Campbell: Probably both in different ways. I, if I, I think families are definitely my passion. Corporate is nice because the people don't feel the pressure. Their product is the, the light is on that instead of them and how they look.
So they're much more excited about the photos. I think with, headshots people are very nervous about that. That's for sure.
Rabiah (Host): I can imagine
Julie Campbell: that's mainly about lighting and once you have good lighting and it, and they're ready, then it's, it's great.
And I do a lot of touch-ups on people. So that helps.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I mean, I asked you, Hey, are you going to touch this up? Cause I wanted to make sure, you know, you want to know, you know, like you don't want to have your whole chin removed but you want to have some things fixed.
Julie Campbell: Yep. Everyone asks me, can you make me lose 20 pounds?
Or can you take this off? [00:24:13] Or can you do so everyone's, self-conscious every single person, even like I've taken pictures of millionaires and they are some of the most self-conscious people I've seen for their physical self. Everyone, everyone is like that. No matter what, you know. They could be like the most outgoing super confident person in front of a group and then you put them in front of your camera and they just, you could tell they're just very uncomfortable. Everyone has the same feelings. I feel like.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I can, I can see that. And then it's just, but once you kind of let go, I think you can end up with good, good photos.
So as far as, since you like photography was your hobby, I'd say right initially in a way, and it became your passion and your career. Is it something you still enjoy outside of your profession or did your relationship with it change or like how do you, do you still enjoy doing it outside of work?
Julie Campbell: Yes, I definitely do. In fact [00:25:13] last year I had a bunch of medical problems with my eye, my retina detached and I was not, I had to, there were many weeks where I was laying flat down on like face down on a table just looking down at the floor. And so I couldn't, I could only get up to use the bathroom or like very, very little time sitting up or doing anything else.
And that was really, really hard for me physically, obviously. It was very painful. And mentally. But I did miss being able to be creative and use my camera and go outside. And I mean, there were so many things that I missed obviously. I didn't pick up my camera for months. And and I, I wouldn't say that, I thought about that part because so much, so many other things were gone from my life.
That was kind of to the back burner, but once I started taking pictures, just again, like I remember driving when I could actually drive to my first newborn shoot, after that, I was crying on the way [00:26:13] there. I was like, I am so happy. I get to do this again. The joy was overflowing and it was like work.
It was like something as you're getting paid to do, but I was so happy to do it, but I
also I also love taking pictures of my family. I did most of my pictures that I take with my family. Take pictures of my dogs. We take pictures when we go on vacation, like some, you know, landscapes, but, and I, I love to do that.
If I have a free Saturday, I love to just go somewhere and take pictures. It's my fun. My kids laugh at me because I look, I look when I'm driving somewhere, I say that's beautiful light. You guys just look at that light, it's so beautiful. And so they'll actually point it out to me sometimes they're like, mom, is that good light?
Is that good lighting? And so, yeah, I, I definitely love doing it for clients, but I also love doing
it for myself. \
Rabiah (Host): yeah. That's great. It's good that it, cause sometimes when something becomes career or your profession, it can change, you know, how, how you enjoy it or if you enjoy it. One, one question actually, cause I've been wanting to ask a photographer this.
So [00:27:13] in a way everyone's become a photographer because of the iPhone or pixels or whatever. Right. But I even, and I'm one of those people who like, I'll take pretty decent pictures with it, but I still see the value in hiring a photographer for things because I've seen plenty of times people try to say, oh, we're doing a family photo shoot, but it's just on their iPhone.
So what would you say to someone who's thinking I could just do this or I should hire someone? What would you say to them about the experience of hiring someone versus just DIY with an iPhone?
Julie Campbell: If you hire someone it's going to be, you're going to be in the pictures a lot more and they're going to, you're going to be happier with them.
But if you can't afford to hire someone, don't not do it, you know? So yeah having a photographer who knows lighting it will, it will change everything about your photo shoot. And I I've done it where I've taken pictures of my family and I've gotten like a tripod and tried to do it. And it, it, it never works well.
It just doesn't, it's not a success because you, [00:28:13] you can't pose yourself, and the photographer can see what you all look like together and like move people around and fix things that might be funky. But if you have the tripod and you're trying to do it yourself, or it's just, it's not gonna work out because you keep like, your, everyone will be so annoyed that they have to stand there and wait for you to go look at the picture and then come back and it's not a good as good of experience.
If you hire someone, I just feel like it's so worth it. It's just so worth it because they can see what's going on and they can, and it's the family is going to be so much happier because it'll go quicker and it'll look better. Hopefully it looks better.
Rabiah (Host): That's a good point. You said about like taking the photo then looking at it and deciding stuff cause I know I'm my sister and I, when we do selfies or whatever, I'm kind of a one and done person. Like, well, that's how I look and I just move on, but it's like, she always sees something else. And I have friends like this too, where, you know, if you're doing a selfie with them, it's going to take like 20 tries or [00:29:13] something.
And I'm always going to make the same face, which annoys the person cause it's almost like they're a flip book and their face is changing these ways and mine is kind of... But but yeah, so that's true because it does get frustrating after a while you can't, you can't be bothered really, you know, like. So do you have anything that you are passionate about that that kind of fulfills another part of you that like if, photography becomes overwhelming at all, or is it just like, you're good with your career? That's kind of like that just as your only interest in you're doing that. Do you have any other work-life balance stuff?
Yeah, like I love to go. I love to go hiking. I love to go to the beach to hang out. We go camping a lot. I I actually got back into teaching a little bit this year because there's some people that are so desperate for teachers
Julie Campbell: um, pandemic and like so many people being out. So I have been teaching fifth grade this, this month.
But I've realized I really [00:30:13] like the the flexibility of being able to work when I want. So so yeah, so I, you know, I do, I've been doing a little bit of that, but yeah, I just, and then like, you know, I do CrossFit what I do, but yeah, I do some exercise you know, hang out with my friends and I don't know, so yeah,
yeah.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Well, I like the CrossFit, I mean good because you do. I mean, when we went, we went on those stairs and stuff and you handled them like a champ. We were kind of like, oh, we to get on all these stairs. So it pays off.
Julie Campbell: Yeah, that, that it does help. So yeah, I do. I love exercise. I'm kind of obsessed with it.
Like I I don't look like I exercise a lot, but I do, but right. I love the feeling of being able to I kind of get tired, you know, like I left that feeling after it's over. And like, you feel like you've hard, but you accomplished it. I [00:31:13] love that feeling.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. I get that. I, I mean, I've gotten, been trying to work out more now and I'm another, I don't not look like it, but like today I was in the gym and it was cool, like to just accomplish all the things and to be tired from doing that rather than just be tired from sitting around.
You know, which I can also pull off sometimes I wanted to go, I want to go back really quick to like what you dealt with with the detached retina too. Just cause I didn't really say anything and it's like almost I didn't hear you or something, but I think it's interesting too, that you had to just lay down and couldn't even move at all cause that does give you a lot of time to think. And do you feel like, I know you said when you went to your first photo shoot, you were, you know, you cried and it was I'm sure like very joyful and grateful, but did you handling that kind of thing, we've had the pandemic going on, so that is a situation that's not the same at all, but similar and just other things going on, but everyone hits some kind of road bump and yours was very scary.
Did you have any moment or anything that you did during that time, eventually like a routine to help your thoughts [00:32:13] kind of shift and, and not get caught up in it? Because I imagine just at some point you had to like, know okay. I'm going to be okay. I don't know. So I'm just curious about like what process you went through, if you want to share that at all, when going through that rough time?
Julie Campbell: I I think my family will tell you it was a lot more emotional than I, then I kind of led on. Yeah. It was really, really, really hard. Especially being a photographer, I use my eyes for everything. Right. And and the thought of like, I'm going to go blind is terrifying. It's terrifying. I'm so terrified it's going to happen the other eye, like everyday.
So it was very, very emotional and of course, they put me on like, medication that made me even more emotional. Cause I had, cause I had a lot of swelling in my eyes, so they put me on steroids and that made me like a crazy person. My little, my little boy's like mom, I think you should quit steroids. Like
Rabiah (Host): yeah,
Julie Campbell: I promise they were [00:33:13] only for the inflammation.
Rabiah (Host): It wasn't like anything else, CrossFit. It wasn't
Julie Campbell: I wasn't doing any CrossFit for six months. So it was not that. Yeah, it just made me insane. yeah, it was very emotional and I'm still dealing with it. Like it's still not over. I'm still not healed my eye looks really bad. My eyelid's droopy and like, I'm still, I'm going, I'm seeing specialists and trying to figure out how to make it normal.
So that's very emotional. Whenever I see people I haven't seen in a long time, I know they're like, whoa, like what happened to you? So I hate that. It's a lot of like, just not ha not trying to be so vain and like, worrying about what people think of my appearance and that's hard.
And it actually happened like in the middle of the pandemic. So I had that going on, plus my eye. . It was, it was not fine. It was not that at all. And, you know, I think I had gotten to the point where I, I don't think about it all day long like I used to, and I just go about my [00:34:13] business and try to be like, okay, well you're fine.
And this is how it is. And try to there's comes a time when you just have to accept that this is what it's going to be and move on. Like I can't sit and wallow in self pity that doesn't help anyone. So I don't know. I have no concrete answers for you. I just know that it's very hard and I know people go through a lot of things that are much harder than that.
And that kind of, kind of grounds me a little bit, I think. Okay. people have a lot, have it a lot worse than you, like, you're going to be fine. You can, you can still go on with your days and, and do a lot of things. And. So, yeah. Try not to feel sorry for myself.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, no, no, but it's helpful. I mean, it, it, because, well, and I shared with you and I, I kind of went on a rant on one of my intros recently about COVID because I shared with you that I've, I've had vision problems now with optic neuritis and lost my vision in my eye and it's coming back and I, and I don't have the same career as you do so, and it was not painful.
So [00:35:13] like, there's all I can say well, mine was way less worse than yours, but sitting in your experience, feeling what you did. It doesn't matter what someone else's experience at that point is it's yours and same with mine. And I, I think I understand though, like that fear, cause I was like, all right, what if it doesn't come back?
And now I'm in a place where to be livable and I'm in that acceptance phase where if it just stays like this, I will be okay and I can manage it. But I do think that nothing prepares you for those sudden medical things that just happen. And I think also if maybe someone will listen and something will happen to them and they'll be like, oh yeah, I remember this conversation.
But I think it's good to talk about it so people can know, like, even if they're feeling desperate and sad, they're not alone in that because sometimes there's this pressure to say we're okay. Like I didn't talk to anyone for a couple of weeks other than like my mom and sister and my best friend cause I didn't want to, I didn't have the capacity to make someone else feel better about what I was going through. I needed people who would just let me sit with it. I don;t know if you experienced that but I didn't have the [00:36:13] energy.
Julie Campbell: I think it's important to you that you, it's okay to be sad about it. It's okay to feel those feelings because yeah, it's hard.
It's hard.
Rabiah (Host): And the steroids. Started I'm on steroids right now, too. So,
and it's, I'm titrating down, but man, those first weeks, I, it it's, it drives you nuts and you know it and you can't do anything about it. You're just like, well, this is what's going on and
Julie Campbell: you can't sleep with it. At least I couldn't, I couldn't sleep well. Oh, my gosh, I was going insane.
Rabiah (Host): I just kept like getting, I was being hyper productive and I'm like, oh, so steroids for me made me hyper productive, not super strong.
Okay. Here's what I
Julie Campbell: got to find the benefit in it.
Rabiah (Host): Exactly. Well, no, thanks for, thanks for talking about that. I just think it's nice to maybe, maybe I just need that right now. So that's why we talked about it. Do you have [00:37:13] any advice or mantra that you like to share with people or just something that is maybe a touchstone for you that you want to share with the listeners?
Julie Campbell: Okay. So I think we talked a little bit about this, about people's insecurities. I always get women who, especially who saying like I'm too fat or I'm too old or too something. Something that they hate about how they look.
And so they didn't want to get their pictures. And I always tell people that's ridiculous. I got my family pictures with my detached retina, with my eye swollen shut. Like I, I don't love the pictures of me at all. But I always tell people like you will, you will never be younger than you are today. You will only be older.
So, and you and yeah. Like people, people are upset or unhappy with their weight. Like most people are, that's just a given, but the . Important thing about it is for family photos, especially is your, your kids are not going to look at you and think, wow, she's 10 pounds overweight. No, [00:38:13] I mean, that's not what people look at when they see their pictures. Or, oh, she looks so old.
There'll be like, wow, look how young she looks. And they'll remember the person that you are. They won't remember your physical flaws. They won't look, see your physical flaws. They'll see the person that they love. They'll see who they love instead of someone's just physical.
It's about you and it's about your relationship. And I think that's important for people in life too, to not go around, being so hard on ourselves. You know, I just talked about how hard I am on myself, but it's so, it's so typical of, especially for women to be that way to be so hard on themselves. And I feel like if we need to have a lot more positive inner talk and we need to focus on the positive and what we're great at and and you know, your kids and your family, they look at you and they see the person that they love.
They don't see someone who's physically flawed and you have to remember that.
Rabiah (Host): That's great. And that was something I even went through with doing photos. I'm at my highest weight that I've been in my life. And [00:39:13] I know though that there was a time that I wanted to get family photos and we didn't cause I was too fat then.
And I remember someone else's hair wasn't good and stuff and we missed it and the person's not there anymore. And so now we have these, you know, so I a hundred percent. Yeah, that's great. Cool.
Rabiah (Host): So then I just have a series of questions called the fun five and the first one is what's the oldest t-shirt you have and still wear?
Julie Campbell: I'd say the oldest type t-shirt I have is it's a, t-shirt that my kindergarten class, my very first kindergarten class gave me, it was at the end of the year. One of the moms did it and she had all the kids sign the back of it. And it says like on the front it says Mrs. Campbell's class and then all the kids signatures in the back and they're kindergarten.
So their signature's very like rudimentary and super cute. And so I wear it to bed sometimes and I love it. And those kids are probably like in their late twenties, but I still wear their signatures.[00:40:13]
I love that. T-shirt I probably never get rid of it.
Rabiah (Host): That's awesome. That's great. That's really nice. All right. Well, and you experienced this in a very different way, but it had felt like it was Groundhog's Day quite a bit. If you think about the movie, just so if it was really Groundhog's Day, what song would you have your alarm clock set to play every morning?
Julie Campbell: When I wake up, I have to wake up to a very like soft and soothing music. So it'd probably be like some, I don't know, a classical instrumental something because otherwise I will be very grumpy. So, and I don't even have like a specific song, but just something really soft and like relaxing that helps me.
Rabiah (Host): You don't want to just. Get hit in the head with a bass guitar or
Julie Campbell: something. And I'm actually like, I'm very strange because I wake up the same time every day. Like every day I my body just wakes up. I almost don't even need an alarm clock. I need an alarm clock if I have to wake up at a different time, like [00:41:13] say early.
Today, I woke up the exact same time I woke up yesterday, but I can sleep longer today. So I did, but I don't know. It's very strange, but
Rabiah (Host): yeah, you have this pattern. That's good though. So I might be able to guess that based on if what you just said, but coffee or tea or neither?
Julie Campbell: Neither.
Rabiah (Host): Neither. I was going to say, I don't think you're a coffee drinker because if you are, you'd never have sleep that's normal and you tell yourself coffee is not a problem. So what do you like to drink? Just water or?
Julie Campbell: Yeah, I drink water. I drink soda. You know, I'm. I'm very boring. So we're LDS. So and we don't drink coffee or tea, so,
Rabiah (Host): oh, okay well that's yeah. And that's why you sleep well. You, you also don't drink other stuff, which is also why you sleep well, because I can tell you
Julie Campbell: I love my sleep.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah. And I ended up loving coffee and beer usually. So that's that disrupts it. Okay. Can you think of something that makes you like [00:42:13] laugh, sorry to cry, or just cracks you up? Or the last time that happened either way? Just something that always does it to you?.
Julie Campbell: Okay, so I don't know if there's something that always does, but there's this commercial on TV that said something it's like, I wish I could remember the exact words, but it says something like do you, do you cook or do you just put trash in the oven and call it cooking or something like that?
And the reason I think that's hilarious is because, my kids hate my cooking. They're very picky. And they do. I feel like they don't like my cooking. So like it just reminded me of like what my kids thinking about probably when they sit down at dinner is like, oh, what is this garbage you're feeding us.
I know that it's not, I don't know. It's totally me and my husband will laugh at me cause that commercial comes on and I just start laughing and he's like, why do you think that's so funny? And I'm like, I don't know. I just think it's funny because I think that's how my kids think of me. Like one time I put dinner down and my son who's [00:43:13] now he's now 19 but he, we bless the food before we eat.
And he said, please help us to be able to eat this food that my mom wants us to eat, help us to get it down. And I just thought that was like, he was really little, he was probably five and I was laughing so hard.
Rabiah (Host): It's like calling it a higher power to help them just eat.
Like this is
amazing. Yeah. No, that's good. And I think it's good that you laugh at it because this could have been a very different question where it triggered some emotion.
Julie Campbell: Kids are so honest. They are so, and actually that's what I love about him is there's no filter and they'll say anything and it makes me laugh.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Because they're so savage. Cause they're just like, this is honest and then you're like, yeah, fair play. You know?
And last one who inspires you right now?
Julie Campbell: A lot of people inspire me, but there's photography wise there's this photographer named Meg Loeks [00:44:13] and all she does is she takes pictures of her. She lives on like in Minnesota. I think it is. I can't remember, like somewhere like out in the middle of nowhere, she has a huge acreage and she takes pictures of her kids in the outdoors and inside also.
And , I've just, I'm just, I just love, I love how she does it. I'm just fascinated by it. I don't know why. Like it's very simple and I, she just inspires me. It just makes me, it actually makes me want to go live there and just be in the middle of nowhere and just have a simple life.
Her lighting is beautiful. Her, her editing is beautiful. I took her class for how to edit. It's just everything about what she does is very inspiring. And I love just how simple and wonderful it is. She actually just had a baby yesterday, her fifth.
Rabiah (Host): Wow. Oh my gosh.
Julie Campbell: I know. I know.
She just has a vibe that I really like. I admire lots of people, you know, people that, you know, I love city photography. Mostly, I just love women who are able to do amazing [00:45:13] things. Like, you know, they have big families, but they still can do, you know, career-wise how to super successful careers.
Like the woman I just talked about, she is one of the top photographers in the country and she makes tons of money and, you know, teaches a lot of people and she sells her photography for lots of money. And anyways, I just really admire women that do a lot.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Cause it's, I had a Mother's Day special last year and interviewed my sister and two friends about they're in different phases of motherhood with their kids.
Like now you have your older kids. It's sort of been a different conversation if the kids were younger and it truly is, it's a job. And it's a different kind of job because it's when you've kind of created for yourself and, you know, one that you can't get out of and all that, but it's it, it was good to learn more about that.
So I definitely can understand like seeing people make things happen cause it's really amazing to, that they find all the time in ways to be great moms and parents, and then also, you know, do that. So that's really cool. [00:46:13]
Julie Campbell: And even people that don't have kids, you know, I don't get me wrong. Like I think that some of the most amazing women ever don't have kids, you know you know, so many great things for the world.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, no, that's cool. Well, good. Okay. So if someone wants to look you up, I'll have show notes, but just, if you want to tell them to where you'd like them to.
Julie Campbell: I'm not great about social media lately, but I have an Instagram, julie g campbell (@juliegcampbell) and then I'm Julie Campbell Photography on Facebook.
That's pretty much all I do, but yeah. And then my, my website is Julie Campbell Photography dot com (juliecampbellphotography.com).
Rabiah (Host): Okay. Cool. Well, Julie, it's been a lot of fun talking to you and getting to know you in a different way when we're just both on camera, but no, one's taking pictures of each other. So thanks for being here.
I appreciate it.
Julie Campbell: Well, thanks for wanting to talk to me. It's a compliment
Rabiah (Host): Thanks for listening. You can learn more about the guest and what was talked about in the show notes. Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to. You can find him on Spotify [00:47:13] at Joe M A F F I A. Rob Metke does all the design for which I am so grateful. You can find him online by searching Rob M E T K E.
Please leave review if you like to show and get in touch if you have feedback or guest ideas. The pod is on all the social channels at at more than work pod (@morethanworkpod) or at rabiah comedy (@rabiahcomedy) on TikTok. And the website is more than work pod dot com (morethanworkpod.com). While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.
