Chris Pieta: Photography education

Chris Pieta stands out not because he teaches the most creative techniques or cutting-edge editing workflows but because he teaches something most photographers never learn: how to build a sustainable, profitable business. With 45,000 Instagram followers, over 80,000 YouTube subscribers, and hundreds of students scaling their creative businesses to six figures, Pieta has built an empire on a simple but powerful philosophy: great photography skills mean nothing without great business systems.

Get expert advice by joining our 30-day Bootcamp with a DFY funnel

From Corporate Chemistry to Creative Entrepreneur

Chris Pieta’s journey into photography didn’t follow the traditional path. After studying chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he started his career as an undergraduate researcher in 2014 before entering corporate America in 2016 the same year he bought his first camera.

For the next several years, Pieta lived a double life: corporate employee by day, photography student by night. He spent 2017 learning photography during nights and weekends, then dedicated 2018 to building his skillset. But unlike most hobbyist photographers who dream of going full-time, Pieta had something different brewing in his background—an understanding of systems, data, and methodical progress gained from his scientific training.

The transformation accelerated quickly from there. In 2019, Pieta had his first gallery show and officially launched Pieta Productions. By 2020, he made the leap that terrifies most creative entrepreneurs: he quit his corporate job, went full-time as a creative, and added videography to his skillset. In 2021, he landed his first five-figure client and launched his YouTube channel. By 2022, he had scaled Pieta Productions to six figures and founded Creative Biz Launch to help other creatives replicate his success.

Today, Pieta runs two thriving businesses: Pieta Productions, a specialized photo and video production company serving food and beverage brands, and Creative Biz Launch, an education company with the ambitious mission of becoming “the world’s best education company for creative entrepreneurs.”

The Pieta Productions Model: Results-Driven Commercial Photography

What sets Pieta Productions apart from typical photography services isn’t just the quality of work it’s the business outcomes the company delivers. Since founding the company in 2019, Pieta has worked with over 50 food and beverage companies, and the case studies tell a compelling story:

Humblemaker Coffee: After sharing Pieta’s photography throughout their website, social media, and email marketing, Humblemaker participated in a StartEngine crowdfunding campaign to raise funding for their business. Utilizing Pieta’s photos, they raised over $100,000. The company noted that the photos were instrumental in their fundraising success, capturing their brand essence and serving as incredible tools across multiple formats.

Better Conditions: An 8% increase in orders and 6% increase in sales within 30 days after implementing Pieta’s photography across their website.

Additional clients: Launched first-of-a-kind alcohol alternatives like Karviva Unwined, and worked with brands like Jot, Splendid Spoon, and over 45 others.

These aren’t just pretty pictures they’re strategic business assets that drive quantifiable results. Pieta Productions encourages clients to track increases in orders and sales, and to monitor metrics like reach, engagement, and conversions across platforms. The goal is clear ROI with every project.

The company’s competitive advantage extends beyond results into efficiency. Most projects are completed within 5 days from when the product arrives in the studio significantly faster than the industry standard of 2-4 weeks. This combination of speed, quality, and measurable impact has made Pieta Productions a go-to partner for food and beverage brands looking to transform their social media and advertising game.

Pieta uses a tried-and-tested 5-step process: onboarding to learn about the company and project goals, a prep call strategy session with mood boards and shot lists, delivery of photo/video proofs for client selection, and final deliverables 3-5 days after approval. This systematized approach ensures consistent quality while maintaining rapid turnaround times.

Creative Biz Launch: The Education Empire

While building Pieta Productions, Chris fell in love with the business and systems side of creative entrepreneurship. When he shared his marketing strategies, systems, and business knowledge with fellow photographers and videographers who were struggling, something remarkable happened: people started landing clients using what he taught.

This feedback loop led to the founding of Creative Biz Launch in 2022, with a mission to provide education and resources to photographers, videographers, and creatives to help them get clients, grow their creative business, and pursue their dreams full-time.

The Creative Biz Launch system is comprehensive, offering step-by-step programs designed to help aspiring creative entrepreneurs start, scale, and grow their businesses to six figures and beyond. The program includes expert guidance, practical strategies, and a supportive community accessed through the Skool platform.

By 2024, Pieta had helped hundreds of photographers and videographers build profitable businesses. Student success stories demonstrate the tangible impact:

Luke Kranenburg: Improved his niche selection, client outreach, and pricing strategy after joining the course. He transitioned from wedding photography to brand-related gigs in the lifestyle and sports niche. Before joining, Luke was earning $30,000-$35,000 doing 25-30 weddings yearly. Now he makes $50,000 from brand work alone, charging a minimum of $1,000 per project.

Aaron Villa: Went from zero clients to 7 clients within a few months of joining the program.

Students consistently praise Pieta’s genuine investment in their success. One testimonial noted that he really tries to understand his students and give the best advice he can, emphasizing that it’s not just a course for him—he’s really there to help uplift students and shape them into the best photography business professionals they can be. Another student remarked on his ability to get complex concepts across simply, believing he genuinely wants not just individuals but the entire group to succeed.

Why Chris Pieta’s Content Is Genuinely Helpful

Chris Pieta’s educational content resonates with creative professionals for several compelling reasons that distinguish him from typical photography educators:

1. Business Systems Over Creative Technique

While most photography educators focus primarily on camera settings, lighting techniques, and editing workflows, Pieta recognizes these are table stakes. His content addresses the critical gap: photographers and videographers are often excellent artists but poor business owners.

Pieta teaches client acquisition systems, pricing strategies that reflect true value, sales pipelines with simple scripts to close more deals, and how to create high-ticket packages using structured systems. This comprehensive business education fills the void left by photo and film schools, which rarely teach the entrepreneurial skills necessary for sustainable creative careers.

2. The “Video Games Taught Me Confidence” Origin Story

Pieta’s personal journey adds authenticity and relatability to his teaching. He was a shy, unconfident kid growing up who played a lot of video games in high school. It was video games that planted the initial seed of confidence the concept that you could try things, fail, try again, get slightly better, and repeat until you got good.

When he discovered fitness in college, he applied the same principles: if I show up consistently, work hard, and track progress, I will improve. This mindset treating real-world skill development like gaining experience points in a game transformed his approach to everything. When he started his photography journey, he applied these same principles of consistency, measurement, and incremental improvement.

This background gives Pieta a unique perspective on teaching. He understands that skill development is a system, not magic, and that consistent action beats sporadic inspiration. His students aren’t just learning tactics they’re absorbing a philosophy of methodical progress that works across all endeavors.

3. Lead With Value, Close With Systems

Pieta’s approach to sales and client relationships focuses on understanding the client’s dream outcome. Drawing inspiration from business educator Alex Hermozi, Pieta emphasizes thinking about what the client’s grand slam outcome would be before sales calls.

Rather than selling photography services photos and videos Pieta teaches creatives to sell outcomes: increased sales for e-commerce brands, stronger brand presence on social media, higher conversions on sales pages, successful product launches. This outcome-focused positioning immediately elevates creative services from commodity to strategic partnership.

This shift in framing allows photographers and videographers to charge premium prices while genuinely serving clients at a higher level. Clients aren’t buying pretty pictures; they’re buying business results.

4. Accessible Free Content Across Multiple Platforms

Pieta doesn’t gatekeep foundational knowledge. He provides substantial free resources:

The Client Acquisition Playbook for Photographers and Videographers: Lists profitable niches, cold outreach systems, and exact pricing strategies.

Free masterclasses on pricing, client acquisition, and closing deals.

Access to the Creative Biz Builders Skool community: Free version where creative professionals can engage and discover trends.

80,000+ YouTube videos: Covering everything from niche selection to equipment recommendations to business strategy. His channel teaches how to start a creative business and scale it to six figures.

Creative Biz Launch Podcast: Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for busy professionals who prefer audio content.

This multi-platform presence ensures aspiring creatives can access Pieta’s teaching regardless of their preferred learning style or platform. The sheer volume of free, high-quality content demonstrates Pieta’s genuine commitment to providing accessible creative business education.

5. Personal Engagement and Community

Pieta is active on Instagram (@chrispieta), where he’s most responsive and replies to everyone’s DMs. This personal touch responding directly to aspiring creatives seeking guidance builds trust and demonstrates that he practices what he preaches about relationship-based business building.

His paid community on Skool offers weekly coaching calls with direct support from Chris, alongside peer community support. This combination of expert guidance and peer learning creates an environment where students can implement strategies, troubleshoot challenges, and celebrate wins together.

6. Real-World Testing: He’s Still Running His Agency

Unlike many business coaches who stopped practicing their craft years ago, Pieta actively runs Pieta Productions daily. His Linked profile explicitly states he’s “built @pieta.productions using the @creativebizlaunch method.” This means every strategy he teaches is currently being tested and validated in his own commercial photography business.

When market conditions change, when platforms update their algorithms, when client expectations evolve Pieta experiences these shifts firsthand and updates his teaching accordingly. His students aren’t learning outdated tactics; they’re learning what’s working right now in the trenches of commercial creative work.

Chris Pieta’s Unique Edge in Content Creation

Several factors give Chris Pieta a distinctive and defensible position in the photography education market:

The Scientific Method Applied to Creative Business

Pieta’s background in chemistry gives him a unique analytical lens through which to view creative entrepreneurship. Scientists are trained to form hypotheses, run experiments, collect data, analyze results, and iterate based on findings. This same methodology applies perfectly to business development: test outreach strategies, measure conversion rates, refine messaging, optimize pricing, track client acquisition costs.

While many creative business educators rely on intuition and anecdotal evidence, Pieta brings a data-driven approach. He thinks in systems, processes, and repeatable frameworks exactly what struggling creative entrepreneurs need to transform sporadic success into consistent results.

Specialization in Food & Beverage Photography

Rather than being a generalist photographer who shoots everything, Pieta carved out a specific niche with Pieta Productions: food and beverage brands. This specialization provides several advantages:

Deep expertise: After shooting 50+ food and beverage brands, Pieta understands the unique challenges, aesthetics, and success metrics of this industry better than generalists.

Refined systems: The 5-step process is optimized specifically for food and beverage product shoots, resulting in faster turnarounds and more predictable results.

Network effects: Success with one food brand leads to referrals within the industry, creating momentum and authority.

Teaching credibility: When Pieta teaches niche selection, he’s speaking from lived experience of how powerful specialization can be.

This real-world demonstration of niche strategy gives his teaching on this topic unparalleled credibility.

The “Grew Up With Video Games” Positioning

Pieta’s admission that he was a shy, unconfident kid who played a lot of video games resonates powerfully with his target demographic: millennials and Gen Z creatives who also grew up gaming. This shared cultural touchstone creates immediate rapport.

More importantly, his framework of “real life is like a video game where you gain experience through consistent action” provides a mental model that makes business development feel less intimidating. Framing client outreach as a quest where you level up through repetition reduces the emotional weight of rejection and failure.

The Corporate-to-Creative Narrative

Pieta’s journey from corporate America to full-time creative entrepreneur is aspirational for his core audience: photographers and videographers who are currently working day jobs while building creative businesses on the side.

He’s lived the exact transition they’re attempting: nights and weekends learning, building a portfolio while employed, making the scary leap to full-time creative work, and ultimately building multiple six-figure businesses. This experiential authority makes his teaching particularly relevant for his audience’s specific situation.

Multi-Business Model Demonstration

By simultaneously running a successful creative agency (Pieta Productions) and a thriving education business (Creative Biz Launch), Pieta demonstrates portfolio career thinking in action. He’s not just teaching theory about diversifying income streams he’s modeling it daily.

This dual-business approach also provides insurance: if one business faces challenges, the other provides stability. For students watching their mentor navigate two businesses successfully, the lesson is clear: creative entrepreneurs don’t need to bet everything on a single venture.

High-Touch Premium Offering

While Pieta provides extensive free content, his premium offerings include one-on-one mentorship with a $5,000 initial investment for selected applicants. This high-ticket coaching option positions Creative Biz Launch as a serious business investment, not just an online course.

The application-based selection process also creates exclusivity and ensures committed students, leading to better success rates and more impressive case studies which in turn attract more qualified students. This virtuous cycle elevates the entire brand.

The Commercial Photography Industry: Exceptional Opportunity

Chris Pieta’s decision to specialize in commercial photography and teach others in this space is strategically brilliant. The industry data reveals massive and growing opportunities:

Market Size and Robust Growth

The global photographic services market demonstrates impressive scale and momentum:

• The global photographic services market was valued at $35.78 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $64.68 billion by 2034, growing at a 6.10% CAGR
• Alternative projections show the market at $60.6 billion in 2025, expected to reach $93.11 billion by 2035 at 4.4% CAGR
• The U.S. photography industry specifically was valued at $15.8 billion in 2024, having grown at a 5.8% CAGR between 2020 and 2025
• Business photography services specifically were valued at $55.12 billion in 2024 and are projected to reach $77.39 billion by 2032 at 5.1% CAGR

These figures demonstrate that professional photography services represent a multi-billion dollar global industry with consistent growth trajectories across multiple forecast models.

Commercial Photography: The Dominant Segment

Within the broader photography market, commercial photography holds a position of strength:

• Commercial use accounted for 70.2% of photography services in 2024, underlining the growing need for professional photography in businesses
• Commercial and advertising agencies commanded 32.21% of revenue share in 2024, with corporate and industrial applications growing fastest at 7.52% CAGR through 2030
• Professional photography services are projected to expand at 7.02% CAGR through 2030, one of the fastest-growing segments

This data validates Pieta’s focus on commercial work particularly for food and beverage brands as these B2B clients have larger budgets, more consistent needs, and greater willingness to pay for measurable business results compared to consumer clients.

The E-Commerce and Digital Marketing Drivers

Several macro trends are driving sustained demand for commercial photography:

E-Commerce Explosion: Companies increasingly recognize that quality product photos directly impact online sales. The rise of e-commerce creates insatiable demand for product photography that showcases items attractively and accurately. Businesses understand they can’t afford to skimp on visual content when competing in crowded digital marketplaces.

Visual Storytelling Emphasis: Corporate marketing strategies increasingly prioritize visual storytelling across digital channels, creating sustained demand for professional photography. With attention spans shrinking and content volume exploding, businesses need compelling imagery to cut through noise.

Social Media Dominance: WhatsApp facilitates approximately 49% of the 14.1 billion daily image shares globally, fueling demand for professional photography. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms have made visual content non-negotiable for brand building.

Content Marketing Requirements: Businesses need constant content for websites, social media, email marketing, advertising, presentations, and more. This never-ending content appetite creates recurring revenue opportunities for photographers who position themselves as strategic partners rather than one-time vendors.

Geographic Market Leadership

North America dominates the photographic services market:

• North America contributed 36.62% of global revenue in 2024, while Asia-Pacific is forecast to grow at 6.58% CAGR through 2030
• North America holds 45% market share, followed by Western Europe at 25% and Asia Pacific at 20%

For photographers based in North America like Pieta, this represents a structural advantage: operating in the world’s largest and most mature market for professional photography services, with clients who have established budgets and appreciation for professional visual content.

Specialization and Niche Opportunities

Market analysis reveals growing opportunities in specialized photography:

• Event photography maintains a 32.5% share of service types, highlighting growing demand for experiential visual services
• Market saturation in traditional segments like wedding and portrait photography is pushing professionals to explore niche markets such as aerial or underwater photography, fostering innovation
• Corporate and industrial applications are growing fastest at 7.52% CAGR, indicating strong B2B opportunity

Pieta’s specialization in food and beverage photography exemplifies the power of niching down. Rather than competing with thousands of generalist photographers, specialists can command premium prices and build reputations as category experts.

Technology Integration and Efficiency Gains

Technological advancement is enhancing rather than threatening professional photographers:

• AI and editing software improvements are cutting post-production time, allowing photographers to shoot more and edit less
• In December 2024, Imagen partnered with Pic-Time to launch an automated “Edit to Delivery” workflow that cuts photographer editing time by up to 96%
• Advanced equipment like drones, mirrorless cameras, and sophisticated lighting systems enable photographers to create higher quality work more efficiently

These technology gains benefit photographers who embrace them strategically using AI for tedious editing tasks while focusing human creativity on composition, art direction, client relationships, and strategic planning. Pieta’s emphasis on systems and efficiency positions his students to leverage these technological advantages.

The Longevity and Freelance Freedom

Photography offers career advantages beyond just market size:

• Over 70% of professional photographers work primarily as freelancers, providing flexibility to build businesses around life priorities
• The employment growth rate for photographers from 2022 to 2032 is projected at 10%, faster than average for all occupations
• About 35% of professional photographers earn additional income through workshops and tutorials, creating multiple revenue streams

This freelance-dominated structure means photographers can design lifestyle businesses that prioritize freedom, creativity, and personal values exactly what Pieta models with his approach to creative entrepreneurship.

Consolidation Creating Opportunities

Recent market activity shows both consolidation and opportunity:

• January 2025: Getty Images acquired Shutterstock for $3.7 billion, targeting $150-200 million in cost synergies while maintaining distinct brand identities
• January 2025: Axcel acquired medium-format camera producer Phase One for $230 million, expanding its imaging technology portfolio

While large players consolidate in stock photography and equipment markets, this creates opportunities for independent photographers and small agencies like Pieta Productions to serve clients who want personalized service, specialized expertise, and direct relationships advantages that corporate consolidation can’t replicate.

The Digital Photography Market: Supporting Evidence

The broader digital photography ecosystem also shows robust health:

• Global digital photography market valued at $109.83 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $161.82 billion by 2032 at 4.4% CAGR
• Digital photography market valued at $49.82 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $65.32 billion by 2032 at 3.80% CAGR
• Photography equipment sales worldwide increased by 12% in 2023 compared to the previous year

The emergence of social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest has been a major factor driving global digital photography market growth. The practice of sharing photographs across numerous platforms continues accelerating, creating demand for both equipment and professional services.

Industry Challenges That Education Addresses

While the market opportunity is substantial, photographers face real challenges challenges that make educators like Chris Pieta invaluable:

Business Skills Gap: Most photographers excel at artistry but struggle with business fundamentals like pricing, marketing, sales, and systems. Photo and film schools teach technique but rarely cover entrepreneurship.

Commoditization Pressure: With everyone having cameras in their phones, distinguishing professional services from amateur work requires strategic positioning, specialized skills, and business acumen.

Income Volatility: Freelance income can be unpredictable without proper client acquisition systems, pricing strategies, and business processes.

Overwhelm and Burnout: Talented photographers often work too many hours for too little money because they lack efficient systems and proper pricing.

Pieta’s teaching directly addresses each of these challenges through systematic client acquisition, value-based pricing, efficient workflows, and business automation. His students learn not just how to take great photos, but how to build sustainable businesses that support their desired lifestyles.

Why Chris Pieta’s Systems Approach Matters for the Future

Several converging trends make Pieta’s systems-driven, outcome-focused approach increasingly valuable:

The Professionalization of Creative Work

As the creator economy matures, clients increasingly expect professional business practices from creative service providers. Responsive communication, clear pricing, efficient workflows, consistent quality, and measurable results are becoming table stakes.

Pieta’s emphasis on systems, CRMs, sales pipelines, and client onboarding prepares photographers to meet these elevated expectations. The creatives who treat their work as serious businesses will increasingly outcompete talented amateurs who lack professional infrastructure.

The Relationship Economy

In a world where AI can generate imagery, the human relationship becomes the competitive advantage. Pieta’s teaching on personal connection hopping on calls instead of just emailing, using CRMs to nurture leads, building long-term brand partnerships positions his students for an AI-resistant future.

Clients will always need strategic partners who understand their business goals, provide creative direction aligned with brand identity, and deliver measurable results. These relationship-based services can’t be automated or commoditized.

The Outcome Over Output Shift

Pieta’s framework of selling outcomes rather than outputs selling increased sales rather than selling photos represents the future of creative services. As clients become more sophisticated, they increasingly evaluate creative work based on business impact rather than aesthetic preferences alone.

Photographers who can demonstrate ROI, track conversions, and directly connect their work to client revenue will command premium prices while amateur competitors race to the bottom on price.

The Portfolio Career Model

Pieta’s dual success with both a creative agency and an education business models the portfolio career approach that’s becoming standard for creative professionals. Multiple income streams provide stability, creative variety, and insurance against market disruptions in any single area.

Teaching his students to think about multiple revenue streams client work, stock photography, education, digital products, affiliate partnerships prepares them for long-term sustainability in a rapidly changing market.

The Specialization Advantage

As markets mature and competition intensifies, generalists struggle while specialists thrive. Pieta’s food and beverage focus demonstrates how powerful niching can be: developing category expertise, refining specialized workflows, building industry networks, commanding premium prices.

His teaching on niche selection helps students avoid the generalist trap and instead build distinctive positioning in specific verticals where they can become known as the go-to expert.

Conclusion: Systems as the Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Chris Pieta occupies a unique position in the photography education landscape. He’s not the most famous photographer, doesn’t have the largest following, and doesn’t showcase the flashiest portfolio. Yet his impact on the photography business education space is undeniable because he teaches what matters most: systems.

His journey from shy video game enthusiast to corporate chemist to six-figure creative entrepreneur to educator helping hundreds of others replicate his success embodies a powerful narrative: success isn’t about talent, luck, or connections it’s about systems, consistency, and methodical improvement.

The industry statistics support his timing and focus. With the global photographic services market growing from $35.78 billion in 2024 toward $64.68 billion by 2034, with commercial photography commanding 70.2% of market share, with business photography services projected to reach $77.39 billion by 2032, and with employment growth for photographers at 10% through 2032 the opportunities are substantial and growing.

But opportunity alone doesn’t build careers. Systems do. Client acquisition systems that reliably generate leads. Pricing systems that ensure profitability. Sales systems that close deals without being pushy. Production systems that deliver consistent quality efficiently. Onboarding systems that create smooth client experiences. These systems the boring, unglamorous infrastructure of successful businesses are what Chris Pieta teaches better than almost anyone in the photography education space.

His unique edge comes from multiple sources: scientific training that brings analytical rigor, real-world experience running a successful commercial photography agency, specialization demonstrating the power of niching, genuine care for student success evidenced by personal engagement, and comprehensive free content that makes core knowledge accessible to everyone.

For photographers and videographers tired of the feast-or-famine cycle, frustrated by underpricing their services, overwhelmed by business tasks they never learned, or simply dreaming of ditching the 9-5 to pursue creative work full-time Chris Pieta offers a proven roadmap. Not a shortcut, not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a systematic approach that transforms creative talent into sustainable business success.

His tagline says it all: “I grow creative businesses w/ systems.” In an industry where most photographers focus exclusively on gear, technique, and aesthetics while their businesses struggle, Pieta’s systems-first approach is refreshingly pragmatic. And the results from his own six-figure businesses to hundreds of students landing clients, raising prices, and building profitable creative careers prove that systems work.

The photography industry’s $60+ billion market will continue growing, driven by e-commerce, social media, visual marketing, and corporate demand for compelling imagery. But only a fraction of talented photographers will capture their share of this opportunity. The difference between those who thrive and those who struggle won’t be camera skills or creative vision—everyone has access to great equipment and can learn technique.

The difference will be systems. And that’s exactly what Chris Pieta teaches.