Running a Luxury Photography Business in a Small Town with Kate DeCoste

Jill C Smith
2 days ago
4 min read

“Luxury” and “small town” do not always feel like they belong in the same sentence.

A lot of photographers assume that if you live in a rural area, you are stuck competing on price, or you have to drive to a bigger city to charge what you want to charge. That is exactly why I wanted to have this conversation.

In this episode, I’m joined by Kate DeCoste, a photographer in Wahoo, Nebraska (population under 5,000), who specializes in seniors, headshots, and single subject portraiture. Kate is also the host of The One Behind The Lens podcast, so she fully gets the behind the scenes side of running a business, not just the creative part.

What I loved about this conversation is that Kate is not selling a fantasy. She is honest about what it looks like to grow into higher pricing, what you lose along the way, and what you gain when you commit to building a business that is not trying to please everyone.

Small town does not mean “cheaper”

Kate lives near Lincoln and Omaha, and she sees this assumption constantly: people expect that because she is based in a smaller community, her pricing should automatically be lower.

We talked about how that mindset shows up in photography, but also in basically every service based business. People mentally file small towns under “discount,” even when the cost of running a business is still the cost of running a business.

Kate’s point was simple: you can be a luxury brand in a rural area. The market is not a monolith, even in a small community.

The pivot is normal

Kate did not start out as a luxury photographer. She started like most of us started: building a portfolio, doing free sessions, charging very little, and learning everything the hard way.

We had a shared moment of trauma bonding over the early era of putting images on a disc and mailing it out. If you know, you know.

Her growth was gradual, and it was tied to confidence, skill, and a better understanding of what her time was actually worth.

Losing clients is part of raising prices

This is the part nobody wants to talk about, but we have to talk about it.

Kate has absolutely lost clients along the way. When you raise your prices, some people leave. Sometimes it stings, especially when you live in a small town and you see it happen in real time.

But she has learned to stop making it mean something about her, or about her work.

People choose different photographers for a million reasons. Style. budget. season of life. priorities. Sometimes people just like variety.

You cannot build a sustainable business if you are trying to hold onto everyone forever.

Marketing seniors is a long game

Senior photographers have a different kind of hamster wheel than family photographers.

Kate is not just marketing to the seniors who need photos this year. She is marketing to the next class, and the class after that, and the class after that. She wants families watching her work three or four years in advance so that by the time it is “their turn,” the decision feels obvious.

That kind of marketing takes consistency, and it takes patience.

It also takes clarity about who you want to attract, because senior work can go a hundred different directions.

Luxury is often the experience, not just the product

Kate talked about how important it is to show behind the scenes, not just for content, but for comfort.

A lot of seniors (and parents) are walking into a session thinking, “I have no idea what to do.” Behind the scenes content helps them picture what it will be like, which lowers anxiety and makes the whole thing feel more approachable.

We also talked about how the experience matters just as much as the final images, because clients connect the photos to how they felt while they were being created.

That is where luxury lives for a lot of people.

Not in “fancier poses” or “more expensive outfits.”

In being guided. being seen. being taken care of.

The local “must be nice” energy

If you run a business in a small community, you know exactly what we mean.

There can be a weird undercurrent when people see you as “doing well,” even if they do not understand your expenses, your workload, or the realities of running a business.

Kate’s take was basically: you cannot spend your life trying to manage other people’s opinions.

If they want to book you, they will. If they do not, they will not.

Your job is to keep refining your message, keep improving your process, and keep getting in front of the clients who value what you do.