S2.E10 – Madison Rensing on Photographing Artists, Saying No, and Knowing What You're Worth

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with photographer Madison Rensing in Nashville. Her first camera was a cheap pink Canon she got around nine, used for photographing cereal and climbing the tree in her backyard. Her mom later found a used Nikon on Facebook Marketplace for a hundred bucks, and she teared up when she got it. Summers visiting a cousin in Alaska turned into landscape work, and driving thirty minutes into downtown St. Louis turned into portraits of her friends. The turn came from two photographers she knew only through Instagram. Trevor and Alex met her for coffee at 7am, looked at her work, and told her that if she wanted to do this for the rest of her life, she could. She calls it the light bulb. One of them hired her to shoot his wedding, and that was the first proof she could pay her own way with a camera. After a year of community college she moved to Nashville and landed in a room full of songwriters. She shot digital for about a year, then found a $20 Minolta at McKay's, a local thrift camera and book store, and converted to film for good. A friend handed her a Yashica Mat 124G, and about two years ago she moved into Contax. Clients started asking for the film work specifically. Now artists send her their unreleased music, and she puts headphones on and writes down what she sees. She works with people who are not models and have to be in front of a camera anyway, so she builds the shoot around making them feel safe. That approach runs straight into the hardest part of the job, which is deciding what to charge a friend, whether a label-backed artist pays a different rate, and how to say yes below your number without deciding your work is worth less. This episode explores Turning a hobby into a career on the strength of one conversation What a $20 thrift store camera changes about how you work Building visuals from a song nobody else has heard yet Directing artists who have never modeled in their lives What to charge when the client is a friend Keeping your price and your worth separate Follow Madison: Instagram:   / madisonrensingphotos   Website: https://madisonrensing.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:37 Welcome to f/22 in Nashville 02:14 Shooting musicians and artists 03:47 A pink Canon at nine and a $100 Nikon 04:35 Alaska summers and shooting friends near St. Louis 08:06 Trevor and Alex find her on Instagram 09:43 You could do this for the rest of your life 11:41 Building a portfolio and shooting her first wedding 13:28 Moving to Nashville and landing in a creative community 17:55 A $20 Minolta at McKay's 20:13 A Yashica Mat and then the Contax 21:45 Pinterest boards instead of shot lists 23:36 Getting the music before it comes out 26:20 Making people who are not models comfortable 27:46 Caring about people while still paying the bills 30:27 Why she does not want to shoot video 34:51 Tours, personal projects, and 2026 38:38 Value yourself more than you think 44:11 Confidence that wavers 46:53 Turning your value into a number 51:52 Where to find Madison Hashtags: #MadisonRensing #FilmPhotography #MusicPhotography #NashvillePhotographer #35mm #MediumFormat #PortraitPhotography #ShootFilm #F22Series #VSCO