Meet Reanna Marchman (Smith) | Photographer and Creative Director for Her Tribal

We had the good fortune of connecting with Reanna Marchman (Smith) and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Reanna, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I’m from a little town in the high desert called Pinon Hills. I was raised by my great aunt and great uncle from the time I was 4 until I was 15 when my great aunt passed away and my great uncle had a stroke shortly after leaving him unable to care for us. Even though I wasn’t raised by my mom and dad I feel I had a pretty stable and loving upbringing, though our family had it’s flaws like most do. We learned a lot of responsibility in my home, and I often helped build things or do yard work along with daily chores in the home. My great uncle was a huge reader and helped build my creativity and imagination as well, by encouraging reading, writing and telling stories. I remember always having a throw away camera as young girl to take photos. After 15 is when my life became a little more difficult and somewhat chaotic, it was harder to make ends meet and the focus on childhood creativity and fun diminished. I did however continue attending a church youth group I had been part of for a while. Feeling God’s presence in my difficulties and having community love me through those hard times was key to my resilience and why I kept moving forward towards my goals. I try to maintain a positive outlook, a creative and childlike spirit as I raise my own children and press into my dreams and business. Though I feel I have lived through a lot of tragedy I believe choosing healing and growth despite it has made me into the person I am today.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a photographer and I’ve focused in on portrait photography, I do a lot of families, maternity and children. I also photograph individual portraits and branding photos, newborns and senior portraits. I also take on a few wedding a year. I’ve also done 3 home births which were beautiful. For fun, I enjoy photographing nature, specifically plants and landscapes while I’m hiking or walking. My favorite thing to do is capture the glowy light in any of my photos. I believe this is one thing that sets me apart from others. I feel like I’m mostly known for the way I capture light, I hear it a lot: “I saw how you captured the light in the photos and knew I wanted to book you.” I believe it’s not just the actual sunlight I capture, but the light in people: I try to let their personalities shine through in photos. I definitely pose people, but I always feel like the best photos are the ones where families are interacting with each other. My tagline is Reflecting Your Story. That’s all I want to do is tell people’s stories through photographs, to capture those moments in time that are so fleeting so they can look back and see themselves reflected in photos.

I get really excited when I get flowing with a client bouncing ideas off each other and being creative and having fun, I feel like those photos are some of my favorites. I feel like I’m pretty proud to have built my photography business to consistently be booking clients in about 5 years. I don’t think it was “easy” but I do think when you find what you’re supposed to be doing, something just flows, even though there are difficult and stressful moments. I would have moments when I would want to quit, because somethings felt too hard to overcome, and if I was consistent and stayed the course I would usually find breakthrough in that area and growth would happen.

I’ve learned, never give up, don’t let the negative voices in your mind win, fight them with truth and even say the truth outloud if you have to. It’s rare for someone to pick up a camera, a paint brush or an instrument and just start out perfect, it takes a lot consistent effort to become what we want to be. It’s important to keep a growth mindset: “I can’t do that yet” or “I may not be able to do that now but I’m willing to try” are sayings that help me get unstuck. As a creative, it’s also important to make sure you’re doing creative things that bring you life, sometimes it can be easy to get in a rut with your 100th family session and it helps if you have some other creative outlet to keep the creative flow even in a session you’ve done a bunch of times. Some of the things I do: take a walk and take photos of my kids, take some nature photos, draw something, write a poem, read a book, or find inspiration photos that are better than mine so I can challenge myself.

I’ve started to come to a place where I would love to help other young creatives, entrepreneurs and photographers grow in their gifts, abilities, businesses and dreams. I just started mentoring a few other photographers and it has been some of the most rewarding moments. I’ve been working with a non-profit building their brand and also going through a leadership program they offer: Her Tribal’s Origins Cohort, and I was just presented with becoming the Creative Director on their board and I am beyond excited to get the opportunity to help other women grow in their creativity, since I find it to be so healing and rewarding.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was coming to the area and I was planning a week of activities I would definitely take a trip to the beach: most likely Huntington State Beach, and then maybe eat in their downtown area at Wahoos or BJ’s. I’d also make a trip to the mountains for some hiking or bike riding: Wrightwood or Big Bear are both favorites with some good food and shopping choices after, we love the ice cream shop in Big Bear: North Pole Fudge and Ice cream Co. I’d also want to take them to some food places near us: Downtown Redlands is a favorite, we love Copehouse, and Batter Rebellion for food, and we like walking around the different shops as well as the umbrella alley. I’d definitely want to take them to places in our city of Yucaipa and nearby: Thai Chili is a favorite food place, Brewcaipa is a fun brewery in the uptown area, and we also love walking around in Uptown, my kids love the used bookstore: Timeless Pages, Roundabout Sweets candy store and Uptown Pets.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family of origin (mom, nan, pa, grandma, Laurie, Bob, Kailen, Amanda) – who have always loved me and encouraged me. My mom (Kim)- who became a mentor to me in photography and life when I was 15
My dad (Chris)- who saw leadership in me at 15 and encouraged me to begin to use it to love others and help them through difficulty
My family (Josh, Keeana, Ali, Cadyn)- who help me become the best version of myself every day by challenging and loving me so well.
My friends- who I can always call on to pray for me and remind me who I am. You all know who you are 🙂

Website:  www.reannamarchman.com

Instagram: @reannamarchmanphotography

Hertribal website:  https://www.hertribal.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reannamarchmanphotography/

Facebook: @reannamarchmanphotography

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/reanna-marchman-photography-yucaipa

Image Credits
The photo of me was taken by Julia Rensink