T.H. Peterson Photography - Behind the Scenes

11/05/2026

Santa photos!!!
Book at bit.ly/WestRidgeSanta26

T.H. Peterson Photography - Behind the Scenes will be at West Ridge Mall this year for Santa photos.

Reserve your spot at https://bit.ly/WestRidgeSanta26

$5 to reserve to ensure you don't have to wait in line. Walk ins available but you may have to wait.

Packages starting at only $29

Prints printed on the spot as well as digitals.

Book now to reserve your appointment https://bit.ly/WestRidgeSanta26

11/05/2026

Preview of Aubree's fall senior session. We couldn't have asked for a better session! Absolutely perfect!

11/05/2026

We're so honored to have been a part of such a beautiful celebration!!
Zach and Kate's photos are almost ready!

11/04/2026

Today’s tip is about the reality of working for yourself. I started this journey in 1999 and I worked for 10 years for a Photography company and worked very long hours long weeks and the workload was pretty intense. Often we would see 40 to 50 families every day. 5 to 6 days a week.

I don’t really see that kind of volume anymore, thankfully. But my days are just as long, if not longer. It’s really difficult when you own your own business to have a balanced work life. Much of your life is consumed with your business.

This is especially true during peak times of the year. During fall and Christmas is a prime example of seasons that we are very busy.

And it’s very important as a business owner to take full advantage of all the work that is out there to be had

But it can be overwhelming. It’s difficult to stay on top of the workload. It’s difficult to meet deadlines. There’s a lot of long nights early mornings. Not being able to go out with family or have downtime.

Sometimes I literally have to figure out work or incorporate eating and personal hygiene. I’m literally sitting there thinking I need a bathroom break and I don’t even have time to do that.

And the reality is, if you don’t stay on top of your workload, it gets way out of control and so you keep a close eye on it and you work on editing and staying on top of everything and you can still get behind.

And I say all this to make the one point which is if you’re gonna be in business for yourself, you have to truly be obsessed with what you do. This is not just for photographers. This is for anyone that owns a business.

The money is good. There’s no question about that but if I was doing something literally all day long from the second I wake up to the second I go to bed all day every day(that I didn’t love) I would hate my job. It wouldn’t matter how much money I made. If you are thinking, oh, I’d like to be a photographer that sounds fun, try it out. Definitely you might really have something valuable and beautiful to offer the world. You might find some real artistic pleasure in your life through this line of work.

But you might also realize it’s just too much. I have been in this business long enough to have seen so many photographers come and go. And some of them have been very talented. Some I even wish would come back, but they get burnt out or the work is just too much or they just realized they don’t have time for other things in their life that are important and I get that. You only have one life and you have to make things a priority and maybe the obsessive obscene amount of effort and energy that goes into owning a business might just be too much. Very few people are truly cut out for this life.

This is why when I’ve had people tell me they don’t understand why I share so much information with people and how that might negatively affect my business. For example, my competition taking my information and running with it. I literally just laughed to myself because I could tell you everything I know, but there is still all the work and all the effort that has to go along with all that information. And I know for a fact that most people just would never want to live this life.

So if you’re inclined to own your own business, by all means go for it. You might just be cut out for it.

11/04/2026

Book your own Christmas mini session at bit.ly/Christmas-26

11/03/2026

Today’s post is less of a tip and more of a idea of how photographer should approach their business.

We are a creative industry, and even with all the artistic and creative characteristic, we possess a lot of photographers tend to fall into what they perceive to be the safe and standard practices of our business

But I always say we’re not just creative in terms of how we make images and how we edit them. We can choose to be creative and how we market our ourselves. We can just to be creative and how we create opportunities for ourselves. In 2017 I began to micro session events. Mini sessions were all the rage and most people considered a Mike a mini session like a 20 minute session maybe 30 minutes. I had this idea of doing five minute sessions and instead of calling them mini sessions. I decided to call in micro and instead of charging whatever price I was charging for a mini session. I decided to do a fraction of that and they would just get a few images. If the kids did well, they might end up with 10 or even 15 Images

And still, the price would not be very expensive

It allowed me to do 12 sessions in an hour, which before was kind of unheard of, and I could actually end up making a lot more money because I was doing more sessions even though I was charging less

So it was affordable it was quick it was painless. It had a lot of people to not have to commit to very much and sometimes maybe it was a theme that was not something that they wanted a ton of pictures of.

Honestly, I had never heard of the term micro session. I felt like I coined it and now I actually hear a lot of photographers use that phrase. I even hear the term micro Wedding.

I don’t know if I actually did Coin the phrase, but I know that I never heard a call that prior to me coming up with that term.

Photographers can also just come up with the most random or artistic concept and invite people to come participate. I don’t know many businesses where we can just create opportunities for ourselves like you can in Photography. A plumber doesn’t create opportunities. He has to wait until someone’s pipes are broken.

In Photography, we can make opportunities for people to come spend money with us and I think that’s absolutely beautiful. It’s one reason I don’t really worry anymore about my business because if bookings are low, I realize I can create a concept and invite people to come participate.

So use that creativity in all aspects of your photography. It’s very rewarding.

11/03/2026

We’re beginning our Christmas mini session setups!! 8 all new backdrops

Here’s the first

Book your own at bit.ly/Christmas-26

11/02/2026

Today’s tip he is about how to separate yourself from the “competition”. When photographers are new, they tend to compete based on price. This makes them a commodity. What is a commodity? It’s a product that has no real advantage over its competitor except for its price. For example, if you are shopping for a can of green beans, you may get the name Brand, but lots of people just go for the cheapest offbrand because it’s essentially the same thing

If you choose to compete based on Price alone, then it’s a race to the bottom. Because with a can of green beans, there is a cost to acquire those beans and so there still has to be a markup, but you can make the markup smaller and become more competitive that way

You don’t want to do that in a service like photography. You want to figure out what sets you apart and really capitalize on that.

So photographer, what set you apart?

Maybe you’re gonna say something like well I’m really passionate. OK so is every other photograph
I’m really creative. What photographer is not creative?

Those are adjectives that you feel strongly connected to, but so does every other photographer. You have to find concrete things that truly set you apart. For example and I will not list everything but a couple things that I know I offer is the amount of assistants and help that I use on sessions.

A lot of photographers are one man shows. However, when someone shows up to do a session with us, they are usually greeted by multiple people which help the session to go a lot smoother. We’re able to get more variety in a shorter amount of time. Usually we’re able to get really awesome smiles. All these things are a selling point for our business. Another is that we always use flash and strobes. This helps our Images to have a consistent look. A more polished look. A lot of photographers use flash but do they use it basically 100% of the time? Not all of them. And I know very talented natural light photographers. In fact, some of my favorite photographers are naturally photographers, but the way that we shoot is a selling point. Thirdly, and this one is enormous in my opinion, is the sheer amount of experience that I have compared to my competition. Before I even started on my own business I had 100,000 sessions under my belt through the company that I first worked for. And since I’ve started shooting on my own, the number is in the tens of thousands.

I know for a fact that that is rare and I would confidently say this probably not anyone else in Topeka with that sort of experience

So I can specifically tell you things that set me apart. And that’s what you need to be able to do. And you don’t need to have anything that significant or impressive to talk about but you need to be able to state what it is that makes your Photography special and different.

One final and probably the most important thing is your style. It’s the signature look that people recognize. The stronger your look and creative vision the more likely people are to be drawn to you. specifically for your art rather than just hire you because you own a camera.

11/01/2026

CHRISTMAS PHOTO TOUR!!!
WE'RE COMING TO YOUR TOWN!

2 new backdrops

Lawrence KS White School House - Wed Nov 18 - 5-7:30pm
Ozawkie KS Crooked Post Winery - Wed Dec 2 - 5:30-7pm

Other locations we're working on is
Topeka, Iola, Holton, Eskridge, Delia

If you want us to come to your town, comment below. Or comment if you are going to come to Lawrence or Ozawkie!

We'll have complete tour dates later this week!

11/01/2026

Today’s tip is about backing up your photos.

A lot of photographers will delete photos after a specific amount of time and if you don’t download your photos or if you lose them after that timeframe, you’re out of luck. I kinda look at that as unfortunate because if you paid for the photos, it would be nice if the photographer would have a backup

A lot of photographers don’t feel the same way. The ones that do used to say storage is cheap.

The idea of being that it doesn’t cost much to back up someone’s photos

I personally have a selfish reason for wanting to back up photos and that is I feel like I created something and I don’t ever wanna lose it.

And it has paid off for me because a lot of people have reached out and asked for their photos and I’m always able to get them for the client

I also feel as a professional. It’s a service that is something I should have.

The issue is nowadays Storage is not cheap. With data centers and AI, hard drives are becoming expensive. But I look at it in relative terms to how much you’re working.

You won’t need hard drives that frequently if you’re not working that much. And if you are working a lot, then you will need a more frequently but if you’re working a lot and you’re making money so it’s fine.

I personally back up everything four different places. This may seem excessive, but I’ve had hard drives go bad on me and I don’t wanna lose Photos.

I always remember how relieved people are when I tell them yeah I can get you those photos again

I also hear clients speak with disappointment when referring to other photographers who don’t have their photos anymore

So if you’re a photographer and you’re in business, just consider this one of the expenses of your business. Sometimes I sadly think about our wedding photographer who shot everything in film, I believe he’s passed away now, and those memories are gone forever because when I got married, I was too poor to buy anything except one print and some wallets.

We as photographers talk about capturing moments, but it just seems contrary to that sentiment if you erase those memories as well