Maeson Wagner
@mwagnercourant
A few lucky people are able to turn their passions into a money-making endeavor. Larson Riccoboni, a junior at the high school, happens to be one of these lucky few. Larson’s love for photography has grown into a successful business that captures brands, families, and individuals around Fairfield County.
When asked how her love of photography began to take shape, Larson said that she started by taking photos with her phone. “There was a time when I downloaded a few cool apps on my phone, which really helped me,” she said. “After that point, I realized that I enjoyed taking photos, so I invested in a higher quality camera. Since then, I’ve been focusing on growing my photography business.”
After getting her high quality camera, Larson began taking photos of her friends, and from there she said that her business was born almost by accident. “I was just taking photos for fun in the park and this mother of three came up to me and asked me if I took photos. I told her that I took photos on a creative basis and that I wasn’t doing anything professionally,” Larson said. “She then told me that she was new to the area and asked me if I could take photos of her kids. Figuring why not, I accepted and everything kind of went up from there.”
After taking photos for the first family, Larson says it has been easy to grow her business because of New Canaan’s close knit community. “Something so great about New Canaan is that there is this word of mouth spread,” she said. “If you take photos of one family, they will recommend your name to their friends, to their extended family, etc. Essentially, everyone is super willing to share your information with other people they know might be interested.”
This time of year, Larson has several interested clients and often does back-to-back photoshoots for families in need of photos for their holiday cards. “ I have been really busy the past few months and it’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “Especially these last few weeks, I have been taking a lot of family portraits in Waveny Park. I’m trying to take advantage of the weather while we still have beautiful colors outside.”
Not only does Larson do family portraits, but she also does product-based photography and individual photoshoots. “I was able to do a few shoots with some of my friends that have a skincare and haircare brand, and most of the photos have them holding and using the products,” she said.
As for individual shoots, Larson enjoys taking photos of her peers. Earlier this year, Larson took portraits of juniors Mia Wells and Stella Turner. “Larson is really fun to work with because she has you do a lot of creative poses and has such an incredible eye.,” Mia said. Although Larson has an idea of what she wants to do prior to a shoot, she is very accommodating to what the clients want as well. “One of the best things about the shoot was that Larson was really flexible if we had any ideas for poses and locations. She would also hype us up while she was taking pictures which made her really comfortable to work with,” Stella said.
Larson says working with her peers has been an amazing growing experience for her and has helped with the success of her business. “I didn’t charge for any of my photoshoots in the beginning. When I was developing my business I would ask my friends to be my subjects, so that I could practice and get better.” To this day, Larson still enjoys photographing her friends and “making the most of the resources around her”.
