Remember school photo day? The cookie-cutter headshots, the weird lighting, each kid’s chin tilted in the exact same direction, all of which led to that universal question: “Why are class photos so … awkward?”
Brandi Morgan Raupp remembers, and it helped inspire her to go the opposite direction when she launched her commercial photography business East Coast Capture LLC. The goal of her kid-focused studio? To be creative and approach photo shoots in a way that’s individual and fun for children. Her photographers try to capture the unique personality of each child, using custom backgrounds and props, she says.
“We’re in a physical business. With little kids, we’re rolling around on the floor. I know what other companies do and in the same amount of time, we capture the kiddos’ personalities. It takes a special person who can make them laugh all day,” she said. “Usually, it’s parents who get stressed out.”
Morgan Raupp, who was raised in North Carolina, was interested in photography from an early age. In eighth grade, she was choosing high school electives and gravitated to it immediately. Then a teacher hired her to help with photo shoots and got her hooked.
As a living, taking pictures can be tough, she admits. “People say photography’s a hobby, not a career. If you want to make money, commercial is the way to go.”
She had internships in her last year of college, including one with a photographer who shot stock car racing for NASCAR. She learned a lot, she says, particularly the importance of lighting.
“The client would drop the car at the studio in the morning,” she said. “I was 19 or 20, pushing the car around, getting it up on a dolly. I had to make sure there were no reflections on the body, that you were able to read the sponsors’ decals. It’s not as simple as bringing the vehicle into a studio and taking a photo. It was a blast but not up my alley.”
In her second internship in Nashville, Tenn., she worked with a photographer who did a lot with the pro football team Tennessee Titans and its cheerleaders. That’s when she realized she liked photographing people more than cars. From there, she segued to shooting live concerts, then high school portraits, where she learned how to set up kids’ photos that reflect their personal interests.
She came to Rhode Island in 2010 when her husband’s job transferred here, and she opened East Coast Capture in 2012. Since then, Morgan Raupp has built the business with clients, including 168 schools in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Carolina.
East Coast Capture has an all-female staff of 20 photographers, assistants and staff, mostly 20-somethings. “Brandi is a force of nature,” said Operations Manager Kate Linden. “She attends each picture day at every school, checking on staff and helping photographers capture each child’s expression. There’s no task too small.”
Along with schools, East Coast Capture also shoots Little League teams, professional headshots and weddings. “I loved doing them,” Morgan Raupp said, “but I’m ready for weekends off.”
Like most small-business owners, she’s changed how she does business since the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks into the spring season in 2020, her photographers were working in the field when all their school jobs were canceled. “We had over 100 schools on the list and we had shot maybe eight,” she said. “I started thinking how can we [go] to our school families.”
She adapted her approach to graduation photos by bringing props such as caps, gowns and old school desks to a front porch or a lawn. She also set up in parks, allowing volume shoots at various spots. Sessions with graduating seniors were customized to a favorite location, maybe a bench in a quiet park or by a lake. Kids choose their own wardrobes, from cutoff jeans to prom-ready party dresses.
One new niche turned out to be a gold mine.
“We decided to do a ‘Santa Experience,’ ” she said. “We had to create something or we were going to be bored to death for the next six months.” Morgan Raupp found a studio in Smithfield and temporarily transformed it into the North Pole, with sleighs, snow, stockings, elaborate lighting and a socially distant Santa.
“We did 250 Santa sessions that first year,” she said. “We decided to keep the studio and last year we did 538. We like to make it like a movie set.”
Now Morgan Raupp plans to grow the studio work and maybe add a retail space. “I want to raise the bar a bit,” she said.
“When I first started in commercial photography in 2000, it was a very male-dominated profession,” she said. “It’s only in the last 10 or 15 years that there have been more women. It made me work harder and hungry to grow. I look at my staff in their 20s and see myself in them.”
