Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Lao.
Hi Charlotte, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I picked up a camera when I was young. I was always the kid who liked to tinker, taking things apart around the house to figure out how they worked. One year my uncle gave my dad a DSLR, and my dad handed it to me and told me to learn how to use it. I was fascinated that you could press a button and freeze a moment, then see it on the screen right after. I brought that camera everywhere and took pictures of anything and everything.
In high school I took a film photography elective. A lot of people took it to hang out, but I took it seriously. I stayed after class to develop extra rolls in the darkroom and ask my teacher questions, and that’s where I learned the fundamentals of photography.
I studied engineering in college, but I wanted photography to stay part of my life, so I joined the school newspaper’s photo department. I covered rallies, events, and sports, and I learned a lot about photojournalism and from the photographers around me. I picked up a few paid gigs and started wondering if this could be something real. It felt risky, though, so I finished my degree and kept it on the side.
After graduating I moved from Connecticut to the Bay Area for an engineering job. I spent weekends and afternoons exploring and photographing a place that was new to me. That’s also when I came back to film. I had stopped after high school mostly because of the cost, but seeing photographers I admired shooting film reminded me how much I loved it. I brought a film camera on every hike, and with no pressure to produce anything, I had room to figure out my own style.
Around the same time, my co-founder and I started a side business doing photo and video production for brands. As social media grew after the pandemic, it turned into a creative agency, Poto Projects, that also handles strategy and organic marketing. I ran it alongside my full-time job until it got busy enough that it made sense to go all in, and I did.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For most of my life, photography was the side thing and never the main path, so it was never a straight line. When I started college and later my engineering job, I put the creative work on pause for a while.
The hardest part was the back and forth in my own head. I’m a logical person, and coming from STEM, leaving a stable career for a creative field didn’t make sense on paper. But photography was what got me excited to wake up and go do things, and it kept me curious. I spent a long time going back and forth between what I loved and what made financial sense.
Starting a business brought its own challenges. Going from a corporate job to working for yourself is a big mental shift, and there have been plenty of hiccups along the way. It hasn’t been the smoothest ride, but it’s been an exciting one, and I’m always learning something new as a business owner.
What helped was realizing I didn’t have to choose. Photography is still my own thing. I go out and shoot because I’m curious, and I keep that separate. The agency gave me a sustainable way to support that work financially, and it lets me take on projects that line up with what I already love shooting, like lifestyle and nature.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a lifestyle, hospitality, and travel photographer based in the Bay Area, and I shoot a lot of my personal work on film. Alongside my own photography, I co-run Poto Projects, a creative agency that helps businesses, brands, and individuals grow through organic content.
What sets our agency apart is that we look at the full picture. A traditional production company comes in, shoots the photos or video, and leaves. We do that too, but we start by understanding what the client actually needs and where the content is going to live, and then we build the production around that.
What I’m most proud of is taking the leap to change careers and trusting myself enough to do it. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have pictured myself as someone who would walk away from the path I had planned. Figuring out what I actually cared about and going after it, even when it felt risky, is the thing I’m proudest of.
What sets me apart is my path. I didn’t come up through the creative field in the traditional way, and working through that shift taught me a lot. The same mindset I used to make that change is how I approach any new project or challenge now.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I remember when i was young, and my mom and I were at Target doing holiday shopping. It was packed with people grabbing deals. At one point she went over to the electronics section, where all the laptops and video games were, and when we left there was a box in the cart. I was too short to see inside, but I kept trying to look, and my mom kept distracting me. I caught a glimpse of something red and I think I saw the word Nikon, so I started to suspect it was a camera and that got me excited thinking it could be a gift for me.
After a couple of weeks I’d forgotten about it. Then on Christmas morning there was a wrapped box the same shape as the one in the cart, and I was excited before I even opened it. It was a red Nikon point and shoot.
We already had a camera at home, but it belonged to my parents. This was the first one that was fully mine. Looking back, getting it for me was my parents’ way of encouraging my curiosity. I brought it on every trip after that and took pictures of everything. I still have it today
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clao.potoprojects.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claophoto/
- Other: https://potoprojects.com/
