I had logged onto my site one day and realized the WHOLE thing had broken.

Elementor pushed an update and added a line of code they never told anyone about. My website went from looking “fine” to looking like a Jackson Pollock painting.

It was horrendous.

I panicked. I was frantically calling and emailing their support, YouTube-ing fixes, trying to find SOMETHING that would work. Their support was terrible, and I had no idea what to do.

So if building your website feels like the hardest part of starting your photo business, I get it. But I’ll say this plainly: if one page takes you a full day, the problem isn’t you. It’s the tool.

I’ve Tried Them All

Wix. WordPress. Elementor. Squarespace. GoDaddy. My very first blog ran on a Pipdig theme.

Almost every one of them gave me a headache. None of them felt like “me.” And I always felt like I was spending more time building my website than booking clients.

That’s a hobby, not a business.

And Elementor wasn’t even my only problem. Not long before the meltdown, someone landed on my site and made me realize my positioning wasn’t clear. The marketer in me ABSOLUTELY hated that.

So here’s where I was:

• My website wasn’t clear.

• It broke without warning.

• Building ONE page took me over a day.

Something had to give.

Why I Needed an Editorial Site, Not Just a Simple One

I shoot for wine and spirits brands, distributors, bottle shops, and restaurants in Miami. That industry (especially in this city) moves FAST, but it’s built on heritage, and luxury clients judge you by your site before they ever see a gallery.

A basic template site doesn’t get you hired by a Michelin-level restaurant.

When I switched to Showit almost four years ago, I wanted two things: a page I could build in under 20 minutes, and a site as editorial as a Vogue magazine.

Buy the Template. Then Tear It Apart.

The Tonic Site Shop templates got me in the door.

Four years later, I’ve outgrown full template pages entirely. I pull the sections I love, copy and paste them wherever I want, and build every new page like it’s a PowerPoint.

Remember that under-20-minute page goal?

That’s just a Tuesday now.

Here’s my hot take: templates are a starting point, not a finish line. If you never leave yours, your site looks exactly like everyone else’s who bought the same one.

Showit Didn’t Fix My Positioning. It Just Stopped Hiding It.

Here’s the part nobody tells you. A new platform won’t fix a muddy message.

Once the tool stopped fighting me, I couldn’t blame the tool anymore, so I fixed the actual problem. A big part of this was joining The Freelance Photographer, and REALLY locking in on the type of business I wanted to build - but that’s its own post.

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Now my site feels like flipping through Vogue. You don’t notice the website at all. You notice the work, and you know exactly how to reach me.

But pretty sites don’t pay the bills.

Behind the scenes, mine is running my business. Clients book through the contact form. Readers join my email list. Flodesk, HoneyBook, and my Substack all plug right in.

And when something does break?

Showit’s support team is amazing, and they’re FAST.

After my Elementor meltdown, that alone was worth the switch.

The One Thing I’d Change

Is it perfect? No.

You can’t stack URLs, so I can’t do gretchenreese.com/portfolio/client-name for client galleries. I’ve requested that feature about five times. Still waiting.

If that’s my biggest complaint, I’ll take it.

How to Start Your Photography Website on Showit

1. Take the free month. Build a real page before you pay a dime.

2. Start with a template, but plan to outgrow it. Find the sections you love, not the full page.

3. Organize your media gallery first. Trust me, the more organized your photos are, the faster your site comes together.

Then just play. The SEO and site settings are simple, and you’ll figure it out a whole heck of a lot faster than you think.

Grab your free month of Showit

Yes, that’s my affiliate link. Even without the URL stacking abilities, I’m all in.

Stop Fighting Your Website

My website works for me now, which means my energy goes into building my social and my email list instead of babysitting my own site.

This is The Shot List, where I break down how I actually build this business: the tools, the systems, and the mistakes I made so you don’t have to. But if you want to see what actually happens on set, Back of House is where all the fun stuff lives.

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But that didn’t happen by accident.

A successful shoot isn’t about getting more photos. It’s about having the right plan in place before you take any.

I still get inquiries in my inbox where the biggest concern is that their last photographer only gave them enough content for three weeks after the shoot.

Stressful? Yes. Avoidable? Also yes.

Here’s what I stopped letting my clients do before shoot day that got us to nine months of content:

#1 Hand me a Pinterest board and calling it a brief.

Pinterest tells me what you like - but it’s NOT a shot list.

A Pinterest board is inspiration.

A shot list is the strategy.

One shows what looks pretty, the other tells you what to shoot, why, AND who it’s for. Confuse the two and you walk into a shoot with a folder of screenshots. And you walk out with a gallery that doesn’t actually SAY anything.

#2 Describe your customer as “millennials who like nice things” instead of having a specific person in mind.

Demographics are a starting point, not a finish line. When you’re planning your next shoot, you need to get SO specific about who exactly it is that you’re targeting.

Even the details that seem so small - those are probably the most important.

It’s what sets your content apart. Instead of “Oh! That’s pretty,” it becomes, “Wow! That was made for me.”

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#3 Ask for a shot list that’s really 40 variations of the same photo

That’s what’ll have you burn through a gallery in weeks, not months. I know we all love a beautiful photo, but I’m not going to give you 40 shots of basically the same frame. That doesn’t help you at all.

#4 Treat product shots and lifestyle shots like two separate jobs instead of a continuous story

Every shot should feel like it speaks with your brand voice - from internal sales decks to e-commerce to social media. They have separate jobs - but they’re still telling the same story for your brand, and there should ALWAYS be a golden thread connecting every single image together.

#5 Book a shoot with no plan for how to use the gallery after

This is where you end up with pretty photos instead of strategic assets - and I don’t want that for you. This is the shift that I move my clients towards. From “we’ll figure it out” to confidently walking into shoot day with a plan that carries them well into the next quarter, and sometimes, like Far North, well beyond it. From guessing what to shoot to knowing exactly what you need and why.

We plan exactly how the images will be used before they’re even created - and you won’t even know what a ghosted Dropbox folder feels like ever again.

If you want to walk into your next shoot day with a REAL plan and no guesswork, I created a step by step guide called The Anchor Point Method to help you. It’s the exact steps I take leading up to every client shoot - from campaign planning, to behind the scenes management.

You can grab it here.

With love,