My Biz: Photographer dogged about her one-person business

Name: Rachel Tabron

Title: Owner/photographer

Company: Ambroja Photography

Address: 329 10th Ave. SE, Suite 127, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 540-3686

Website: http://ambrojaphotography.com/ and www.facebook.com/ambrojaphoto

Elevator speech: Photography for pets, weddings, pets, children ... and pets

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the six years since she started her business, Ambroja Photography, Rachel Tabron

has managed to photograph some 200 weddings - that's an average of 33 per year.

She's also snapped countless portrait sessions.

But animals, she confessed, just may be her favorite subject.

“I am totally in love with animals and feel so lucky to be a pet photographer,” she said. “My interest in dog photography is founded in my desire to celebrate and encourage the deep bond that develops between human and animal.”

In recent years, Tabron found a way to use her photography skills to give back to her community. She takes photos of the adoptable pets at the Cedar Valley Humane Society and for Cedar Rapids Animal Control when she can.

“I believe that great portraits of these animals give them a chance of being recognized and possibly creating an emotional connection with the viewer and being adopted,” she explained.

Tabron, from Missoula, Mont., graduated from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in 2003. She worked for McLeodUSA when she first moved to Cedar Rapids and started her own business.

During the past few years Tabron has come to specialize in photographing weddings, boudoir sessions, pets and children.

“Every woman is beautiful and deserves to feel so,” she said of her boudoir photography. “These portraits are done in a tasteful, artistic manner.”

She recently settled into a new studio inside the Cherry Building in the New Bo district.

“I attended an open house for a friend that owns the Garden Wren at the Cherry Building and fell in love with the space and the feel of this artist community,” she recalled.

The new studio is filled with antique finds that Tabron uses for photo session props. And the refinished hardwood floors and exposed brick walls of the Cherry Building make an ideal backdrop for her work, she said.

Tabron will be the first to tell you owning a photography business isn't all smile, point and click, however. Especially with her three children at home between the ages of two and six.

Tabron dedicates certain days for photographing clients, while using others to focus on customer and vendor relations, editing and design, marketing and other office chores.

“I tend to be strict with how much time I spend on each task, otherwise I will get behind,” Tabron admitted. “I do tend to work my regular day hours as well as many late night hours to keep up with my work load.”