Interview with: Carrie Duncan from Four Bees Photography

I'm excited to share my next interview with you today: Carrie Duncan from Four Bees Photography. Carrie is an awesome mother of two sweet children and I first met her when she took a mini photo shoot of my family two Christmases ago. Since then, we have frequented the same mom group in our neighbourhood and most recently she started up a new Facebook group for entrepreneurial mamas & women in west Toronto.

I wanted to interview and include her here because I love her photos which focus on the true beauty of birth and families. Find out more about Carrie below.

Photo via Carrie Duncan

Tell me about Carrie Duncan. What do you love to do, hate to do, wish you could do?

Love: snuggling with my kids in that moment right before they fall asleep. It’s like magic watching them drift off.

Hate: laundry and taxes.

Wish: I could be more organized. It’s like I’m genetically predisposed to disorder.

How did you get into the photography business? 

In my former life, I was a journalist. I think photography is very similar. It’s still telling stories, just visually instead of verbally.

Why did you start your own company? 

Truth be told, I never considered myself an “entrepreneur”– making that leap was really scary. However, I feel like capturing women in motherhood artfully is part of my path. My kids have changed me, changed my life. I wanted to be more for them. I wanted them to see they could be whatever they wanted to be.

Where does your company name come from? How did you come up with it?

When I was carving out my niche in the photography world, I wanted to specialize in genres that made my heart sing. Those were: Bellies, Babies, Birth and Breastfeeding— the four “B”s or “Bees” because I thought that would be more visually appealing.

What do you think is missing from the photography industry and how do you want to change it? 

Love. Self-love. Women are the largest consumers of photography and yet we are often the ones that enjoy the process the least. How ironic. If I could figure out a way to make women love the process, and love themselves (minus photoshop) then I’ll be a very wealthy photographer (I’m still working on that bit).

What types of photos do you love to take? 

My goal in any session is to take photos that truly capture my subject’s essence. I know that sounds corny. But you know when you see a new mom and she’s just SO in love with that new baby that it just oozes from her pores. That joy that radiates from her— that’s what I love to photograph.

What are you passionate about outside of photography? 

Food. I actually took chef training classes at George Brown College. I only stopped when the chef uniform stopped fitting me near the end of my first pregnancy.

Favourite vegetable?

Today, I’ll say kale. It’s so versatile and hearty. Soups, salads, stews… it goes wherever you need a boost of greens :).

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

The south of France. And by “go” I mean "live there forever.” The food is amazing, it’s virtually tropical with its palm trees and the Mediterranean Sea and the pace of life is slower.

Thanks so much Carrie! Please visit Four Bees Photography for more information and photos.

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Previous interview: Tara Russel of Russel Events