Pinch Me: Hillary Gardner Living Her Dream as Family Photographer

When Hillary Gardner was studying photography at Grossmont College, she’d often be sent out to shoot landscapes or abstracts.

Time after time she’d come back with photos of grandparents and babies, couples or small children and a story about how the people pictures really did fit the assignment.

Her instructor would grade her down and deliver yet another plea to photograph something without a face.

“I didn’t want to do landscapes and abstracts,” she says, laughing. “I wanted to do people.”

Give her points for knowing what she wanted.

For four years now, Gardner, 28, has had her own photography business, specializing in people—newborns and toddlers, family and maternity portraits, weddings and intimate boudoir shots. Since October 2009, that business—Stills by Hill—has been in a small studio at 4711 Third St. in the heart of The Village.

She’s doing exactly what she wants—fulfilling what her husband, Sam, calls her “artsy fartsy” drive—right where she always wanted to have a studio.

“I love it,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine not doing it. My husband always says, ‘If we win the lottery, would you keep working?’ Like, yeah. I mean, I’d run things a little differently, but I love it.”

Hill at Home in the Natural Environment

Stills by Hill is open only by appointment. She takes no walk-ins. In fact, she prefers to do most of her shooting in more natural environments outside the studio.

But for consultations, some portraits, packaging and ordering, Gardner is at the studio, which—to a visitor—feels as much like a home as a business.

It has a big couch with pillows, soft chairs, a flat-screen TV, children’s play area, some storage rooms and photos everywhere, some of her own relations. Gardner specializes in family photography, and her environment reflects that.

“Someone asked me once: Do you live here?” she says. “I said no; my house isn’t this clean.” 

It’s a place where a young mom would feel comfortable bringing her 2-year-old daughter, and in fact it is. Often, Gardner has her little girl Lilly with her, playing with her toys or other children while mom consults with clients. It’s all part of the goal to create a business that allows mom-daughter time.

When she first moved into the studio, and out of her home office, her intent was to separate her work and home life a bit more (and to stop from obsessing about having to keep her house clean because clients were coming over, she jokes). But she found she still takes a lot of work, such as editing, to her home in El Cajon so she can spend as much time as possible with Lilly.

Although she opened her studio in the midst of the Great Recession, she says business has been surprisingly good.

Even when times are bad, she says, people keep getting married, having babies and holding birthday parties—and they want those times and memories captured in photos.

“The people who come to me realize it’s an investment in a family heirloom to put up on their walls, display or pass down to their kids,” she says.

She’s a new-age businesswoman, using Facebook, Twitter, an interactive website and a blog on her site to connect with clients and potential clients. Ninety-five percent of her business, she says, comes through referrals. For that, she says she’s incredibly thankful.

Staying in touch with clients—many of whom she now considers friends—has been crucial.

“We’re in an era of social networking,” she says. “It’s huge.”

Business is going so well, in fact, that she jokes she’s achieved a goal.

“I always said I wanted to be so busy I didn’t have time to watch TV,” she says.  “And then I started my business and sure enough, my DVR is like filled!”

Proud of Her Portfolio

Gardner on the different types of photography she does:

Weddings: “They’re hard work, but there’s something about capturing the emotion between a bride and a groom that I love. If I could just spend all my time with the bride and groom, that would be awesome.”

Newborns: “That’s the most fun. There’s something about a baby peeing all over you that is so gross, but it’s so sweet, too, you know? They’re only so small once … Those are the shots you’re going to look at when they’re 25 and say, ‘Look how little.’ ”

Maternity: “You don’t know how many times in your life you’re going to be pregnant. This could be the only time. And no matter how crappy you feel about your body—let me rephrase that: no matter how uncomfortable you are, how fat you think you are, or unattractive—there’s something about being pregnant that you’re going to want to have a positive memory of.”

Boudoir: “It’s not difficult; they’re more fun. It’s a different experience. Every woman is self-conscious in a way, so photographing them [when] they’re half-clothed—and yet they’re comfortable enough with me to say, ‘Whatever you think looks best’—means they trust me, which is awesome.”

Toddlers and children: “I don’t like to photograph them in the studio if they’re more than a year old. I like to have them in heir homes. And the reason is: because they can be themselves. I let them read to me, I let them jump on their bed, let them totally come out of their shell.”

Family portraits: “It takes time for the family to warm up. Usually Mom is ready to go, but Dad is like ‘Let’s go, let’s get this done with.’ So the dad has to warm up. I want them interacting, playing. I’ll ask them to do something completely stupid to get them saying: ‘This is ridiculous,’ and then they start laughing, and that’s genuine.”

Each new job, every new client becomes an opportunity to connect, she says. Her two favorite things about her work are meeting people and creating something special.

“I like being the one who’s giving them something they’re going to have forever,” she says. “They’re going to look back …  and see that time in their life, and I’m the one that’s giving that to them.”

Her Path to a Career

Gardner got into photography while a student at West Hills High in Santee. She was inspired by the birth of her niece, and began using her as a subject.

She won some photography awards at the Del Mar Fair, took some photo classes at school, and then studied photography two more years at Grossmont College before getting her bachelor’s in interior design at the Art Institute of California in Mission Valley.

After college, she worked in interior design for a while, but then decided to dive back into photography, something she said “kind of runs in the blood.” When she was growing up, Gardner often helped with her mother’s videography business; an uncle also was a photographer.

Photographing people just seemed to be something she was drawn to.

She recalls getting her yearbook as a senior at West Hills High and being surprised to find a large photo she took of her niece, at about 2 years old, sitting on “the potty,” looking at a book with a great expression on her face.

“She  [the editor] did it as a full-page ad, saying, ‘Hillary Lachman in the photo club took this picture of her niece and hopes one day to photograph children for Gap ads.’

“I kind of look back on that, and I guess I’m doing what I had hoped to do. … It was something I wanted, and I’m doing it.”