Career Change to Photographer: Emilie Zangarelli's Path from Teacher to Pro

Many photographers used to work in a completely different field. Emilie Zangarelli was a teacher. Today she is a photographer specializing in maternity and underwater photography, she trains other photographers, and she is one of the most followed faces in French-speaking photography.

In this episode, she walks Anthony Heukmes through every step of her journey, including the less glamorous ones, and shares what she would do differently.

Who is Emilie Zangarelli?

Emilie Zangarelli (website in French) has been a professional photographer since 2013 and runs Studio Zangarelli in Seine-et-Marne, near Paris. She specializes in two fields she is passionate about: maternity (pregnancy, newborn, baby, family) and underwater photography.

• A former teacher: preschool, elementary and then middle school, with a specialization in teaching students with disabilities.
• An educator: she trains photographers in newborn, pregnancy and underwater photography, in small groups at her studio, one on one, or online.
• A voice people follow: very active on social media, she is an ambassador for brands she was already using, such as Sigma for lenses.

To her, teaching and training are two different jobs from being a photographer: taking beautiful photos is not enough to know how to teach others. Her teaching background gave her the foundations of pedagogy, and above all the habit of adapting to each student.

1. From teacher to photographer: how the career change happened

Like many maternity photographers, it all started with her own pregnancy. After a session with a photographer that left a strong impression on her, she tried to photograph her newborn son herself… with a result she describes as a disaster. She then hired a professional, Magali Tinti, who recommended a book on child photography and told her to buy a real camera.

Three months from first camera to registered business

She bought her camera in August and registered as an auto-entrepreneur in November (France's simplified micro-business status). Not out of ambition, but out of caution: as soon as friends and family asked her for photos, she wanted to invoice them, operate legally and be insured. At that point she was running the business on the side, alongside her full-time teaching job.

Going full time: a matter of circumstances

The big leap was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. When her second child was born, she was refused a transfer to a school near her home: she would have faced three hours of commuting every day. She took a year of unpaid leave from her teaching post and went full time, with the right to return to the public school system.

“I wouldn't have had the nerve to tell myself: right, I'm going full time in photography.”

Emilie Zangarelli

2. Burnout and low prices: the beginner's mistake

After an initial phase where everything was rosy, Emilie found herself overwhelmed. Her prices were too low, she was booking three sessions on Wednesdays, then on Saturdays and Sundays, and editing at night, on top of her job at school. After two years, she went through what she calls a “photography burnout” and stopped everything.

Six months later, the passion came back. She started again, but with only a few sessions, and raised her prices significantly. The unexpected result: demand went up even more. With more time per session, she enjoyed her work more and her photos got better.

Calculate your prices instead of guessing

Now positioned at the high end of the market, she calculates her prices based on three things:

• the time spent on the shoot;
• the time spent editing;
• her investments (equipment, outfits she lends, prints).

She also stays calm about it: if her bookings ever dropped, she would adjust her prices or the way she works. Other models work very well too, such as mini sessions, which are very profitable for photographers who know how to organize them, even if that pace doesn't suit her.

“Try it, stop, raise your prices, think carefully about the offer you're making to go with that increase.”

Emilie Zangarelli

Anthony points out the advantage she had at the time: with her teacher's salary, she could test a price increase without any risk. That is exactly what full-time photographers lack when they don't dare raise their prices, for fear of losing all their clients.

3. Finding your first clients: local before Instagram

People often ask her how she made it on Instagram. Her answer is surprising: Instagram is not what built her client base.

• Facebook, where she was already very active before becoming a photographer: her friends told their friends about her work.
• Getting out there: lots of flyers, reaching out to midwives, and above all talking about it to everyone, from the baker to the parents at the school gate.
• A network of fellow photographers: by meeting other photographers, you recommend each other when one of you is fully booked or on vacation.

“The clients are there, they're all around us.”

Emilie Zangarelli

Her reasoning: on Google, you are competing with every photographer in the area. Among the people around you, you may be the only photographer they know.

4. Word of mouth comes from the experience

Emilie shares a telling anecdote: an international celebrity came to the studio without having seen a single one of her photos. A friend, a loyal client of Emilie's, had simply told them she was “a good photographer, and nice”.

Anthony, who has booked many sessions with his own family, agrees: someone outside the industry sees little difference between two good photographers, but remembers the moment they spent for the rest of their life. Emilie actually chose her own wedding photographer for this reason: her husband wanted someone discreet and pleasant, not necessarily the most beautiful images.

“People can copy you, they can do the same thing you do. But they can't copy who you are.”

Emilie Zangarelli

In practice, the experience starts before the session even begins: how you welcome people, and preparation that lets you understand why the client is coming to you and what they expect from their photos. If you are more reserved, this can be learned: smile, take an interest in people, show empathy.

5. Working from a home studio: pros and cons

Emilie welcomes her clients in her own home, in a true home studio: backdrops hung from the ceiling on the ground floor, storage and a wardrobe room upstairs. She could rent a space, but she doesn't want to.

To protect her family life, she doesn't work on Wednesdays or weekends, with rare exceptions: a session on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday comes with a surcharge. Other photographers share this approach, like Audrey Gueton, who compares a home studio with a rented studio for her intimate portrait sessions.

6. Included prints and the viewing session

Emilie's approach to selling products has changed a lot, or rather selling keepsakes, the word a workshop student suggested to her and that she adopted:

1. At first: digital files only.
2. Then: albums, which she thought were too expensive for her clients.
3. Today: fine art prints included in all her packages. Clients also receive the digital files, but they always leave with printed images.

From download link to in-studio reveal

For years, she delivered photos in an online gallery and never saw her clients again. She then introduced a viewing session: clients come back to the studio, discover their images on a big screen over coffee, collect their prints and can order albums and wall art.

Her fear that “they won't come back” turned out to be unfounded: for clients, this appointment extends the experience. She doesn't even need to sell, they ask for it. The idea came from a conversation with a fellow photographer who was already working this way.

A word of caution, though: this takes preparation. You need to account for the time spent on orders, album design, packaging and shipping before you set your prices.

7. Photo competitions: a real selling point

Emilie has entered competitions between photographers and won several awards. She gets two benefits from them:

• Self-confidence: seeing her images recognized by her peers.
• A sales argument: her clients care about awards, far more than about her work as an educator.

Her advice if you are short on clients or confidence: go for it, the investment is small (a few photos to submit). But don't overdo it: with awards every month, the message gets diluted. She has actually taken a break from them.

8. Educator and influencer: what visibility changes

Sharing comes naturally to her: she answers every message, shows what happens behind the scenes in her stories, and relies on a community that helped her gain confidence. Brands came to her because she was already using their products.

To keep up, she has delegated client management to a friend she hired: her friend answers the emails and does the first round of screening. Emilie also points out that Fotostudio saves her time every day.

But with her clients, this visibility carries little weight: most of them don't know she trains other photographers. What impresses them are the awards and the well-known people photographed at the studio.

Mistakes to avoid when you make a career change to photographer

FAQ: making a career change to photographer