SPEAKER_01 0:00

And the little boy came in and he said, Mom, we got our family. And I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Um, so I love that.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter, where we highlight Northern Colorado's best networkers and the connections that they've made that make them successful. And today I have a special guest, Christina Grestianu, uh, in in the house today. And you are on this side of the camera this time, Christina.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yes, it's very strange.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

All right. So uh a lot of people probably have seen your work, amazing photographer in Northern Colorado. Uh, but if they haven't met you yet, share a little bit more about what you should do.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

I have a women's portrait studio in downtown Loveland. Um, we do hair and makeup, we do wardrobe consultation, we have in-studio wardrobe everything a person might need for anything from headshots or boudoir. Um, I like to joke that I'll photograph women in any state of dress or undress they prefer.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

How do you put somebody at ease uh to do that, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

I don't know. I think I'm just enough of a goofball that it just puts people at ease.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah. Well, what I love about following you, Christina, is not only take great pictures, but you have a voice in um why you're great. I mean, you you really speak to the way people get it wrong or the way people um get it to change from a good photo to just like a life-changing photo. Um, but I I see you as like somebody who has a heart of a teacher, not just somebody that has a great camera. Um, what do you love about teaching uh in the posing and the taking the shots?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Uh I love seeing um like beauty come to life, right? Like, or like a woman feeling like when you when I pose someone right, they feel it. Um and so it's it's kind of amazing to watch. It's like like you're not supposed to open the oven to watch your cake rise, but I can watch this rise right in front of me. Um, and that it's it's just so magical.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

What uh when you talk about posing and stuff, um, because people come in nervous, right? Like it's I mean, it's not just like a family photo or stand in front of a landmark on vacation and say, cheese. Uh, you know, this might be something that ends up on a LinkedIn um profile for to help them get a new job, or it might be uh a boudoir shop that's helping them with empowerment. Um, and I think a lot of people would put pressure on themselves to get the the right photo. Sure. Uh but how do they partner with you so that they make sure it's perfect?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Um, I have a process I've created over the last 25 years. Um, I call it Lumyra, but just because I have to call it something. Um and it it ensures that people will love their photos. It's a co-creative process. It starts with a consultation before even they before they even come into the studio. So usually by the time they come for their shoot, they're actually not nervous because we've had an in-person consultation of some sort. I've been in their closet, I've met their pets. Um, by the time we've done all that, they're like coming over to play Barbies with me, basically. Sure. So um, and then I'm connected to my computer the whole time we do the shoot. So if within a couple of shots she doesn't like her hair and makeup, we can change it. We take a couple more shots. Within about 20 shots, I know how she likes her expression. Um and then she knows she knows how it feels and I know how what it looks like. And then um, we just go from there and we rock and roll. And so there's no possible way you walk out of my studio and don't love via photos.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah. Well, it sounds really collaborative where you're partnering with them. Um, what are some of the I just imagine with your work that when you shoot somebody uh and they they have an experience, they're in a a moment of life where they're wanting to capture and you bring that to life. Um what are some of your favorite stories that you've helped capture? Any anyone, some you want to highlight?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Gosh, I remember hanging a portrait, a family portrait. So they it was a family, uh I think they had two or three kids. The youngest was about this high, whatever age that might be, but cute and small. And um, I went to their house to hang their portrait and I hung their portrait above their fireplace. And the little boy came in and he said, Mom, we got our family. And I was like, Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Um, so I love that. Um it just means so much to me to put a piece of art on the wall that makes a child feel like he belongs. Um, and then I photographed a woman in her 50s, maybe. She'd had all kinds of medical stuff, long medical journey, and came out of it and felt like she'd been so poked and prodded over the years that she wanted to reclaim ownership over her body. And in photographing her, she also said that when she was five, um, somebody said something about her smile in a photo. And so after that, she like didn't smile in photos. She's been carrying this for 50 years, right? And so we um we found her smile.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And um she's got she's got portraits where she's smiling and she's joyful, and she would like I just I couldn't believe that she'd been carrying that for 50 years and she was able to let it go in my studio.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

And that's the kind of stuff that's just like Goosebumps. Goosebumps.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Um yeah, just to to get not a photo, but just the ability to smile or to see yourself. That's that's magical.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Um, how has networking been a part of how you grow your business?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Well, I think that um, you know, people don't buy portraits the way they buy ice cream cones, right? It's like not something people buy every day. And so because the purchase cycle is so long on my business, um, getting to know people and building relationships is the only way to do this, so that when somebody decides that it's time for a portrait, um, they just think of me and they like what they feel. Um, so networking, building relationships, that is the core of my business, the core of my marketing. Um, there's no way that I would run like a group on and have anything good come out of that.

unknown 6:28

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

And then a lot of photographers have a business, but they run it out of, I mean, they don't have a studio. Um, I think that's something that's unique is if you drive in downtown Loveland, you drive right by the studio and um you're able to capture different things. What do you think that um has given you is having that physical presence where people are coming to you and you have the ability to come to them too?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, it um I think it creates legitimacy. There's an element of trust there, like, oh, you know, if she has this commercial space, I you're not you're obviously not the first person to be paying me if I have this space. Um and I think it's comfortable, right? Like it feels much better to walk into a commercial space than like come into my basement for your boudoir session.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

That's a little sketchy when you put it that way, doesn't it? No, for the garage. I don't think it's better. No, no, you want to have a professional studio for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Um, another thing I see with you, Christina, is uh wherever you are, you become the leader of that. Like I think I went the first time I met you was a realities for children event, and you were taking photograp uh pictures of like the new businesses that were coming in there. But um Yeah, I guess like taking the lead, and and uh as a photographer, a lot of it is like kind of behind the scenes kind of stuff, but you have this really magical being a leader in a in a community, but then also being behind the scenes too. How do you manage both of that?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I don't know. I joke that I if I ever write a book, it's gonna be called Tales of Reluctant Leadership. Um But I I sort of want to create a certain safe space. And so I have to I have to be a safe person and I have to like create some ground rules, whether spoken or unspoken. Um, and so because I feel so strongly about that, I'm willing, reluctantly, to take leadership and ownership and just make sure that people feel safe enough to be vulnerable for a camera. Yeah. Um, but if if like nothing I provide is necessary, I'm happy to be in the background.

unknown 8:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

And then how has business changed? I mean, in the age of AI, I mean, people are doing a lot of different things. Um, I think there's also just a like a hunger for authenticity. Um so how are you using AI or how are you using that AI is blowing up to your advantage to have something that's more authentic?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

There are some very cool AI photo editing tools. So um, if I photograph you today and you need your headshot tomorrow, I can provide that because I have some AI editing and it's pretty amazing. Sure. Um, so it's it's a very cool tool. I, you know, it's also kind of janky. Like it's super funny to like tell Photoshop to do something in AI and get like the most ridiculous thing back. I tried, there's like a backpack on a floor and I like circled it and I was like, remove. And it put like a cat and it put a weird plant, like it just could not remove the thing. And so um, you know, it's just a tool. On the flip side, uh, it was probably about five years ago I had a high school senior, right? So 16, 17-year-old girl, who um came in and she'd traveled, and so we were gonna do some photos around travel. And I said, Um, if she wanted, I could photograph her on a green screen and put one of her photos of Amsterdam or whatever behind it. And she said, No, uh, we could just go outside and photograph in downtown Loveland because I only want it if it's real. And when I saw that come from a 16-year-old, you know that's where it's going. Yeah. Um so immediately, like I stopped. There's no green screen in my studio. Like immediately, I was like, okay, well, if this is where we're going, we're gonna be more and more real. So um, yeah. So my I mean, I was never like an someone who'd really like super edit people. Um, but even I scaled back the editing to even more real out reality. So you always know the the 16-year-old girls are like the canaries. You always know what's going on if you pay attention to them.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Oh man, that is the truth. I have a 14-year-old and she's she's definitely in tune to things before. Yeah, for sure. Yep. Um how much is the the tools that you use versus the operator of the tools? You know, I just imagine that you got great equipment. I've been in your studio. You you you tell me you control the sun, there's lights that can come out of everywhere, you got all these props and uh really cool things. Um and obviously the cameras are high-end, but it's that years of experience that I think brings out the shots as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

For sure. Um, years of experience, training. Um I, you know, like I think good equipment matters, um, but only to a certain extent, right? Like uh my husband's a champion fiddler, and you could give me the best fiddle in the world, and it's just gonna squeal. Sure. Like I'm not gonna make anything come out of it. But you put a crappy violin in his hands, and you'll hear the difference between a crappy violin and a great violin. Um, you wouldn't hear the difference in my hands. And so I think you know, everything, anything is like that. Like surgery is no different. Like, you don't want to give me a scalpel. It's not the tool, it's the surgeon.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Um, and certainly the surgeon needs a sharp scalpel. I need a good camera and I need equipment, but it's not the equipment that does the job.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah. And you one thing that I love when I talk, you're very clear of who you support, right? It's like mostly women. Uh um you don't really want weddings. Uh you know, you don't there's some things in photography that you don't do. Um how do how do you kind of draw the lines of what you really love to do uh versus the jobs that you might refer to other photographers?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Um well, it's just because I've done everything and I've been like, oh, that was not fun. We won't do that again. Yeah. Um, you know, so newborns, I'm scared I'm gonna break them. If they don't hold their heads up on their own, I'm not photographing them.

unknown 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Um, real estate, like you need you need specific equipment and experience to do that very well. And I could do it mediocre, so I'm not interested in doing it. Sure. Um product photography, again, I can do it kind of okay. Um, and I've helped people, like if they come in for headshots and then they're like, can you also photograph my one bottle of thing? Well, I'll do that, but it's because they came for headshots. Um, so anything that like isn't super fun, like weddings, it's a long day, it hurts my body. Um, and if you don't do a lot of weddings, you're just not very good. And so the last time I did a wedding was like a favor, and I was like, oh, I'm not as good at this as I was when I was shooting weddings every weekend. And like I'm yeah, I miss moments, like you're just you don't have the timing, you don't have it. And so um I was like, I'm not I'm not doing weddings anymore. That's it, I'm not as good.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

And by you saying no to stuff, it allows you to be really, really good at the things that you are, like for the headshots. And how do you uh how do you hone the craft where you are elite in those specific areas?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Oh, well, I participate in competitions. Okay, so there are two print competitions left in the world. There's a slew of online photography competitions, competitions, uh, but I participate in the US iconic um, it's called icon awards uh competition. And I've I started competing in 2013. And the first year I went, they do judging live. So you can go to Las Vegas and listen to them judge every photo as it comes up. Um and so I sat there for like eight hours for four days, just listening to photos be judged, and um it really made me realize how bad I was in a very inspiring way. Like I was suddenly like, oh my god, I could be so much better. And I started seeing things that I never saw before, and it was so exciting. And so I started competing for about three years then. I got stuck, so they score um 75 to 79 is considered professional standard, and 80 and above is like award winning, starts to be silver and silk gold awards. So 79s are like a real jab to the heart. Because you're almost so close. Um, so I was stuck in 79 land for years, and I thank God I had a great mentor. I still she's a dear friend, um, Sarah Edmonds. Yeah. Um, she told me that 79 means you're a freaking moron if you stop now.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

And those words got me through. Um, so I broke into the 80s a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

And um, but it made me really like sharp on seeing how light hits and why it hits the way it hits, and posing details and just compositional things that I never paid attention to before I got into competition land.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Well, I think it's important for any, no matter what your trade is, to seek out rooms where you can learn with people who are doing it at an ultra high level. You know, so uh if there's two competitions in the world, you need to be in that room. Um so have you do you network with other photographers? People, do you have mentors or in that in the space that you've drawn inspiration from?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, for sure. So Sarah, she's in Italy. Um she when I first saw her name, I immediately signed up for her workshop. Um and then she became a dear friend and a mentor, and like I can just ask her questions now. And um, and then I like I just think you no matter where you are, you sort of need a team of them. Like one mentor is sort of just one voice, but it's good to have a couple different people you can bounce things off of. So I have um I have a sweet, sweet community of photographers that are all over the world that I can just like ask questions to, and we all converge on Las Vegas in March. So for the icon awards judging, and so um yeah, that's a really valuable community.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

I don't think anyone can do it alone.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, I I mean, regardless of your trade too. I mean, uh um unless you're just a pioneer in a space, but um it's it's sharp, like you said, iron sharpens iron to be around those those people who are doing it at a high level.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Um well, Christina, so so good. Um, I love the way that you're networking, the way that uh you're bringing out the best in people. Um you know, I'm just uh picturing people come in probably with a vision of what they want to do. Um how much does that vision change the day of the shoot? Uh where they're talking to you, maybe you bring out a different or evolved version of it, um, or does it pretty much stay the same?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

It really depends. Um generally by the end of the consultation, there is a vision, whether they came with a vision or sometimes they come with like a I just need a thing for my business, and together we craft a vision. Um, on the day of the shoot, we accomplish what we set out to accomplish. There's always room for creative offshooting, though, because you know, who knows what's gonna happen. Um, so we always accomplish the vision. That is definitely non-negotiable. But then there's always some like someone will say something, the client will point and be like, Oh, I like that chair. And I'm like, oh, you like that chair? Well, let's create something around that chair if you like it, you know, or whatever. People are drawn to things, and when I see what they're drawn to, I can pull it together for them. So that's always fun.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Well, let's talk, let's talk about headshots because in the networking things, you know, I get a lot of business cards and um I've got a membership platform where I'm like, hey, give me your headshot, I'll put it on the profile. Um, you check out people's websites. Hopefully, you see the owner of the business uh on there. And there let me just say there's a range of uh quality of headshots that I get. You can tell there's uh um the person who took a phone in their car, they still have their seatbelt on, you know. I'm like, I'm like, I don't know if you want me to put that on the profile. Uh to like people who use the headshot they got from 10 years ago, but it's clearly out out of date. Um, to the clearly AI photo that doesn't look anything like them, um, to something that really stands out like if they had hired you. Um why does it matter to have a professional headshot?

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Um well, it sets up an expectation. So uh we're we're so wired as humans to uh make snap judgments, right? You hear a wrestle in the bush, you run, right? You've just decided that, right? So this is what had us survive. And so um we see something, we smell something, we hear something, and we've immediately made a story of it. And so when people see a headshot, they have they've made snap judgments in like three seconds. And we can control a little bit what those judgments are by posing, lighting, composition, color, uh, expression. And so like we can use that to our advantage as business people in creatives so that your headshot communicates the feeling and the message you want to communicate in that split second that someone has seen it.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Sure. Sure. One thing I see, Christina, is like um there's some hesitancy to update the headshot because they it's not that they don't like the way they look, it's just they remember themselves when they were 10 pounds ago or a couple of wrinkles ago. But you know, your story that you told earlier in the podcast about you help somebody find their smile. How do you any tips for accepting exactly who you are and exactly who you're not and having that just be a perfect?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

I just think there's so much more to you than like the number on the scale or the size inside your jacket. Um there's so much more to who you are and how beautiful you are than like whatever aging is happening or whatever, right? Like um your appearance is the least interesting thing about you.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

And so um, you know, when we take your portrait, we can it's not it's not a mugshot. A mugshot is how you look. A portrait is who you are, and we can show that in a headshot so that it like the actual physical characteristics don't actually matter.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Yeah, I love it. Well, so you're uh, you know, this is an award-winning photographer. Um, who are you looking to network with? Who are you looking to make connections with?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Oh, I don't I just like people who are on fire for whatever they're doing. Um people with passion. Um yeah, I don't know. I just I think anyone who's got ambition and passion, I I want to be with them.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yeah. Well, a lot of the, you know, the business community of people with dreams and vision and and uh they want to go someplace and uh a perfect headshot is a big part of that. So um if people maybe want to update their headshot, like uh and maybe if they want a professional shoot with you or a consultation, how how can people get in touch or find out? Uh

SPEAKER_01 22:01

My website is probably the best place to start. It's uh photo cg dot co. Um, and then I'm in LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn and I'm on Instagram, photo cg wherever I am, or my name, Christina Gracianu. Um, yeah, that's probably the best way to find me.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Perfect. Well, we'll put all of that in the the show notes. But Christina, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks so much, and chatting uh with this. You know, I'm thinking about my headshot if I need an update. So maybe I'll get my get my update. But thank you so much for coming on the show. We'll see you around Northern Colorado.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

My pleasure. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado. I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh go in the podcast description. There's a way so that you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.