Keith Claytor

Keith Claytor is a wedding photographer based in Connecticut, USA. In this interview, Keith shares his five most important life or photography lessons as well as explaining why he has a cake clause in his contract with clients.

[ Keith Claytor ] Thank you for this platform. I watched one that you did last week with Cafa and I think that was just fantastic. It's good to have a place to talk about some of the things that we're learning and sharing and going through. It's so important for us to stay connected right now - probably more important than ever for us to just stay connected.



I've been a wedding photographer since 2005 when I actually picked up a camera and shot my first wedding. As so many other people have done, I'll share the same story where we didn't necessarily want to be a wedding photographer, but a friend called you up and said, "Hey, you know what, I'm getting married and you do some pretty good things with your camera. Go ahead and take my pictures." The only thing that's different in my case, I was just starting to dabble in photography, as well as the person. So we actually traded weddings. I shot their wedding and they shot our wedding. It was a way to jump in with both feet for two sets of people and two businesses, which was pretty cool.

2008 was when I decided to take my business Time Frozen Photography full time and have been blessed to be going strong ever since. It's been a wild ride - learning things constantly and adjusting with trends in the industry and life changes and things like that.

One of the things that I've actually done recently is joining a software company called PICSPOTR. We're developing a really simple and easy to use platform to maintain our relationships with our clients - everything from scheduling to invoicing, workflows, all of those things. Our goal is to allow people to do the business side of what we do, which sometimes is the stuff that we hate to do. We're trying to make it as simple and stress-free as possible. So a shout out to Milton and Tru and Chanel. You can go to https://www.picspotr.com or join our Facebook Group to get information about some of the exciting things we're doing.

[ Huy ] 
If a new client asks "Keith, what's your style of wedding photography?" What's your style?

[ Keith ] I want to tell all sides of the story. I believe in documentary photography but I also believe in making it beautiful. We want to show the joy, the pain and every single tear - whether it's a happy tear or a sad tear - because there's all kinds of emotions in a day. But I think that there's still a way to find beauty in the highs and the lows of the day. What I strive to do is to somehow find a perspective that shows the beauty in every single part of that day.

[ Keith ] You don't have to be the loudest person in the room to be heard above the noise. That's something that I learned from my father. He's retired now, thankfully, and is enjoying life down south. He gets to golf. He went from being entry level to working for the state defending people and helping people out in consumer affairs. He's a soft spoken quiet person, not one that has ever wanted attention.

I always I asked him "what's that about?" He told me when he was having conversations with people, he would almost whisper. He would talk in a very low voice intentionally so people would lean in and actually show interest in what he had to say.

A lot of times, we think that we need to walk into a room and take over the room. That's just so opposite of the truth that if we want to accomplish something, we need to listen. You can't be walking in thumping in your chest because if you want to get honesty from people, you have to approach them at their level. That's one lesson that my father taught me that I take every day with me.

My natural inclination is to seek out people that are more like myself. So I'd probably go off into the smaller group in a corner and have a one-on-one or small group conversations as opposed to trying to be the life of the party. That can change depending on the number of martinis but for the most part I gravitate to the people that fit me and fit my style.

[ Keith ] You just gotta be you. That's one my son has taught me. One of the cartoons and books that we love to read is "Pete the Cat". It's a really cool cartoon on Amazon prime. It's one of those kids' shows that has some music, but it's "Baby Shark" music so it's not going to drive you nuts when it plays over and over in your head. One of the characters is Diana Krall. Elvis Costello's in there. There's some good tunes in there but also life lessons.

I spent many years of my life trying to fit into holes that I didn't necessarily fit into. At some point we're probably all guilty of that. We want to be something or we want to be seen a certain way but the reality is if you're looking for true connections with people, you don't have to chase it. You just have to find your lane and the right people, the right experiences, the right opportunities, they gravitate towards you. 

I am not a master of SEO. I am not a master of marketing. If you happen to follow me on Facebook or Instagram, (you know) I don't necessarily follow the rules of how a page should be curated or anything like that. I have good days and bad days. I try to be as authentic as I can with all of them and hopefully bring a smile to some people's faces with some joy or a laugh. Just stay true to yourself and the doors just kind of start to open up.

I get support from people in places that I wouldn't even imagine. That's one of the things that I'm just absolutely so grateful for. I'll just share with everyone that my son is going through some real health challenges. We moved to Pittsburgh last year for about eight months as he was undergoing some STEM cell transplants and additional therapies. There were communities of people that didn't know me reaching out to help our family along our journey. I can honestly say that business would be completely different if it weren't for that support that we received. The community is everything but it stems from us being our authentic selves and sharing our life and our journey and the things that we're going through.

[ Keith ] This is the responsibility that we all have to bring someone else up along with us. It's a huge community but it's a solitary, lonesome job sometimes. I'll speak for myself. At the beginning of my career, I took my knowledge and didn't share what I learned. It's good to be competitive but at the same time... I got to a point in my career where I started realizing that the more you share the more it comes back to you. What you get can come back tenfold. I've got people who helped me along the way over the years. Now it's on me to make sure that somebody else who is just getting started have all the arrows in their quiver and have all the tools that they can get to succeed.

It's important for all of us to make sure that as an industry we're strong and as a community we're strong. The only way we can do that is by helping each other and supporting each other. Mentorship is a really cool thing that we should all embrace. If you're the person being mentored, turn it around and give it to somebody else.

[ Keith ] Actual photography advice. I've been lucky enough to shoot some fashion week events and in New York where there's just a ton of photographers crowding to get the same shot. My approach has always been to find something different. Usually different is what your client is looking for especially if they have 30 selections of the exact same image over and over. There's another story that's happening somewhere in that room. Something that I like to do is keep my head on a swivel.



A few years ago I shot a wedding. It wasn't a huge wedding with maybe just over a hundred guests. For whatever reason, the videographer brought three shooting assistance with them. There was a total of four videographers, myself and my wife shooting. At the time of the speeches, there were literally four videographers standing around the couple, all pointing their cameras at them at the same angle, with the same lens, from the same distance. And I was just thinking, man, what a missed opportunity because somewhere somebody's laughing or somebody is crying. There's something there that the four shooters are missing. 



Jacklyn Greenberg - who I am sure everyone knows - when she's shooting with her partner Chris, they always make sure that they're shooting from a different angle with a different lens.

[ Keith ] This is not a secret. Cake is my friend. I usually put a post up on Facebook at the end of every wedding. I have a clause for cake in my contract because at the end of a 14-hour day, I need some sugar to get me through the last hour. I just like cake.

There actually is a cake clause in my contract and I do it for two reasons. Number one, as we mentioned - I like cake. But the other reason is I want to make sure that my clients are paying attention to their contracts. I guarantee you that if you put something funny or something light in your contract, it's going to be a conversation piece. It's making sure that they're paying attention. Also it's making sure that when a client is signing a contract for a big dollar item, for a service on a important day of their life, they know that they have someone that they can laugh with who can see the humor in things when it's necessary.

Many times towards the end of the night that the client will walk up and say "did you get the cake?" It's one of those things that builds a level of comfort between yourself and the client. It's just part of that relationship building.


[ Huy ] 
I imagine this could be something that clients think about when they think about you. So it's sort of a marketing thing that sticks in their head "Oh yeah, he's that cake photographer." So they don't know your name, but they remember that. I'm sure that's very helpful.

[ Keith ] I had clients that reached out during our initial consultation to tell me what their cake is going to be, their flavor, and things like that. I had a client decided not to have a wedding cake - they had pies - but they had a cupcake for me separately. Find something funny and it's just something that you can run with and roll with. It's your calling card.

[ Huy ] 
Is there anything else that you want to share?

[ Keith ] That that's such an open ended question these days. There's just so much that we're all dealing with. We're just in some tough times. I think a lot of people want peace and peace is relative - what's peace for one person isn't peace for another. Until we start actually having some difficult conversations and dealing with the challenges and injustices to people of color, it's going to be a tough ride.

We need to lean on each other. One of the words that I've been using a lot lately is compassion. We absolutely have to have a little bit more patience and compassion with one another these days. Stay strong fight for what you believe in but still find a way to show compassion to our other people. At the end of the day we are in it together, like it or not. Hopefully we can find a way to not just coexist, but grow a lot stronger together.

Watch the original unedited session:

Keith Claytor from Fearless Photographers on Vimeo.