Love Through a Lens

 

Love Through a Lens

Words: Nakita Ardern
Karyn Flett is truly captivating. Using the lens the Waikato-based photographer is serving her community by offering free sessions for terminally-ill children and their families.

Karyn came to photography in a ‘typical’ way … aspiring photographer in her youth, a subdued stint in an office for nearly a decade (all the while feeding her passion, taking photos of her growing brood) and finally throwing herself into it totally to learn everything she could.

“When I had the first two [children] I had a nice camera and always enjoyed taking pictures of them, but it wasn’t until a friend was getting married and didn’t have a photographer and I offered to take some pictures for her that I thought about making a go of this. I studied all these shots and planned out exactly what I was going to do and the photos didn’t turn out too bad at all.

“My interest became my addiction, as I slowly gained more knowledge and subjected my camera phobic kids to hours of practice.”

Friends and friends-of-friends quickly caught on to Karyn’s blossoming talent and before long bookings for her services were rolling in.

With very little planning and the encouragement of many admirers, Karyn transformed from snap happy amateur to professional photographer, although her dream career didn’t come without its share of road bumps.

“I didn’t go in with a proper business plan so was constantly overhauling my pricing to ensure I wasn’t working all these long hours at a loss. If I was to do it all again I would establish my prices from the outset instead of having the ‘build it and they’ll come’ mentality.”