EP10 - From School Photos to Software Developers: Meet Amy & Melanie!

What happens when two sisters from sunny San Diego go from photographing families on the beach to photographing thousands of schoolchildren, and then decide to start building their own software?

In this episode of The School Photo Podcast, I'm joined by Amy Gray and Melanie Monroe, two sisters who have taken their photography business in a direction they probably never imagined! Starting with just one small school of 200 children, they've grown to photographing around 4,500 students and staff each year. Along the way, they've tackled everything from lighting disasters and giant pencils to complicated workflows, class composites and the never-ending challenge of editing thousands of photographs. But here's where things get really interesting. Rather than continuing to struggle with software that didn't quite do what they needed, Amy started building her own, using AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, despite having no traditional coding background! We get into some brilliant conversations about:

📸 From beach portraits to school photography: How two sisters turned a small school photography opportunity into a much bigger business.

💡 Learning as you go: Why their first school photography lighting setup was a disaster, and what they've learnt since.

✏️ Getting creative with school portraits: Giant pencils, quirky poses, school desks and finding the balance between creativity and efficiency.

💻 Building software with AI: How Amy started creating tools to solve the everyday frustrations of running a school photography business.

⏱️ Saving hours behind the scenes: From automated cropping and student data management to class composites and ID cards.

🌎 UK vs USA school photography: Some fascinating differences in school systems, sibling photography, parent communications and how photographers operate.

🚀 Growing without losing control: Why taking on more schools isn't always the answer, especially when you're determined to maintain quality. And perhaps my favourite part of this conversation is the reminder that some of the best innovations come from people who are simply fed up with doing things the hard way!

Whether you're photographing 200 children or 20,000, there's plenty here to get you thinking about your own workflows, the technology you're using and the opportunities to make life a little easier.

🎧 Grab a coffee, settle in and enjoy this brilliant conversation with Amy and Melanie!

🔗 Links & resources - https://classphoto.net/ : Amy and Melanie's school photography software tools - https://amygrayphotography.com/ Amy's photography website - www.leebrooker.co.uk : More from The School Photo Podcast and The School Photography Business Handbook

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave us a review and share it with another school photographer. It really helps us get these conversations in front of more people across the industry. #TheSchoolPhotoPodcast #SchoolPhotography #PhotographyBusiness #PhotographyWorkflow #AIForPhotographers #SchoolPhotographers #PhotographyPodcast