We recently connected with Tina Vonn and have shared our conversation below.
Tina , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I am incredibly happy as a creative professional. I will admit there was a 3 month period this year where I had zero days off, worked 8-12 hour days and didn’t see my friends. But the fulfillment I get from my clients is something I’ve never had at any of my previous day jobs. Every photo I deliver has a bit of my heart in it. For the past 20 years I worked a multitude of various jobs, waitress, uber driver, restaurant manager, office worker, the list is endless and mindless. I never had a real desire or connection to them other than getting a paycheck. My photography is not only a form of expression but it’s something I genuinely enjoy. My clients mean more to me than just a paycheck. I am invested in their story, in their happiness and delivering something they can look back on and remember with joy. Not all jobs can give you that.
I’ve had regular jobs and I can say without a doubt that I felt like I was just meandering through my life. Until I found photography as a career I wasn’t sure what would become of myself. I felt lost and unsure. I had started and stopped my singing career, my acting career, I was lost. Most people had a plan, worked toward it and I had let my self esteem and imposter syndrome control my path. It wasn’t until Covid when I had been forced to stop working in a restaurant that I took a beat for myself to figure out what would really make me happy. I’m so fortunate to be able to make this into my career, as I know how many people don’t really love what they do. I can honestly say that I do. I am very proud to be a self employed creative professional.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My venture into becoming a creative professional has been a long, zig zaggy road of massive ebs and flows. I pretty much let imposter syndrome rule my head for a long time and massively avoided leaning into any successes that I achieved. It means so much to me that I’ve been able to build a successful and sustainable photography business, I’ve also been acting in film, tv and commercials and getting important eyes on scripts that I’ve written. I wish I could tell 18 year old Tina that it was possible!
My photography business really took off during covid of all times. I loved doing it and it had been a deep passion for me but I didn’t realize I could turn it into a lucrative business. My friends really encouraged me to do it even thought it was pretty intimidating having taught myself and not really having any business sense. I have to credit them for believing in me, it’s true that it takes a village. I have many friends in events, entertainment and fashion so them giving me a shot is what really helped me see my potential. Trust your friends, they want you to succeed and usually they’ll be pretty brutally honest. Gotta love your best friends!
I started my photography business shooting events with Fusion Events LA, and actor headshots at my home and now I’ve grown into a full service diverse photographer. I shoot weddings, engagements, family, mommy & me, fashion, portraits, food you name it I can do it! I’d love to lean into film and tv BTS, fashion and product photography, so I’m going to start building those portfolios next. I would call myself a documentary style photographer, I love sitting back and capturing the honesty of human interactions. That’s probably why I love shooting events and weddings so much. There’s always a high level of emotions and energy and it’s really a special thing to capture those moments in time and know my clients and their loved ones will get to relive them. I’m really grateful I get to be a sort of shepherd for beloved memories.
I’m also an actor and screenwriter and fortunately have been able to build a budding career in them over the past few years. I’ve been booking small film and tv roles, and a few national commercials. Something I had walked away from in my 20’s. I’m really blessed to be able to have found my way back and I’m excited to see where it grows!
As a screenwriter I specialize in horror and thriller. Which is pretty funny because anyone would tell you I’m the last person you’d think would write horror. I will literally happy cry watching cute puppy/kitty/animal videos. However I do have an addiction to true crime podcasts so, balance right?
I’m currently in preproduction for a dark comedy tv pilot I co-created with my incredibly talented friend Susan Rudick. We’re under the impression that you can’t wait to be discovered and there’s no reason why we can’t make our own content. Too many people wait for something that will never happen. This project is something I’m so very proud of, we’re so passionate about it because it’s about something every single one of us has experienced. Scammers. We all get those annoying scam phone calls, scam emails, either we know someone who’s been scammed or we have been ourselves. It’s surprising there isn’t more readily available information on how to avoid it. We created a tv show that exposes the VAST, endless types of scams in an entertaining, deliciously dark and funny way. We launched a crowdfunder to raise the money for production so hopefully soon you may be seeing it on your tv screens!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Something I’ve gotten pretty consistently is being questioned about my time management and price point as a professional photographer. I work 7 days a week. And people don’t understand why I’m so busy and also think that I must be doing something wrong and that I have terrible time management. People fail to realize that if you’re self-employed as a photographer, you’re not just showing up and taking pictures. There’s a whole bunch of time and preparation and after work that goes into every single shoot. I cannot stress this enough, I am a fully-fledged company smushed into a single person. All those emails, contracts, social media posts, marketing, phone calls, zoom meetings, equipment prep, actual shooting, editing, cleaning and upkeep of equipment, uploading photos to galleries, and organizing finances furthering my education learning new skills. I could go on and on, its a never-ending job. It’s a 7-day-a-week job. However the editing takes up the majority of my time, I’m editing every day, there’s never a time I don’t have a client I’m working on.
These also double as the reason why photographers charge so much.
We have at any given time approx 2-4 camera bodies, $2K-5K. EACH.
Our lenses are approx $1k-3k EACH.
Our hard drives, high speed computer, editing software, lighting equipment, sd/cf cards, batteries, just a plethora of equipment we have to have in order to do our jobs correctly costs in the thousands. I wish I could list them for you but no one wants to read a spreadsheet in an interview.
After I calculate my editing, prep, travel, shoot, other time you’d be surprised how low my hourly rate really is.
I have been struggling to price myself properly and appropriately and it’s been a real learning curve figuring out how to do that. I can guarantee I have put more money into it versus what I’ve made back. My taxes would cry if they had eyes. So when you see how much we charge, please remember all of the tens of thousands of dollars we’re investing each year in order to do it. And if you ask for a discount, I hope you realize that your photographer most likely is losing money to give it to you. Again unless they’re a 6 figure+ earner.
We put all of ourselves into this work, most people clock in and clock out, only work 5 days a week. Photographers, (unless you have a 6 figure business and/or have employees) cannot do this. I don’t get holidays, weekends, time off. I shoot most weekends. I am not complaining in the least about this as I explained earlier I LOVE my job. But this is something that many people don’t realize and I hope I’m able to give clarity on. If you want to go into this as a career just know your personal time will be something you will lose. I am still beyond happy with my decision to do this for my career, being able to be my own boss and make art for a living is truly fulfilling. I love being a photographer!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
One of the things that bugs me most is people saying that art isn’t a career. It’s a lazy career. It’s not a real job. No. Art is a skill. Not everyone can do it. No matter what form it comes in. There are a few different kinds: sculpture, installation, architecture, literature, theatre, cinema, painting, and music. Each one is unique and requires a different set of skills. Some art forms are not able to be taught, some require instinct and natural ability. It’s something to be appreciated and yet in this era of streaming and social media most times the artist themselves are an afterthought. Especially with AI now hovering the art world, artist’s livelihoods are being threatened.
For photographer clients, one thing you can do to support your photographer is just share their work and their name/info. When you post on social media TAG THEM!!!!! It is such an easy thing to do. Your photographer will LOVE you!!! Please give them credit, they deserve it!! 99% of my clients come from referrals and from being tagged!!
Please, don’t throw an ugly Instagram filter on top of the incredible editing they’ve done on your photo. Photographers spend a great deal of time and money editing and it’s extremely disrespectful, really a slap in the face actually to change the edit they’ve done. You chose them as your photographer for a reason, you’ve seen their work, do not change it. I can guarantee they are dry heaving at the clients who do that.
You have no idea how unappreciated we artists feel most of the time. Imagine working on a film or tv show for months, working 12 hour days just to have Netflix or Amazon cut the credits. I stay and watch the credits every time I watch a movie in the theatre. I actually think it’s pretty brilliant to add after-credit scenes because it’s a chance to allow everyone who contributed be seen. They do the thankless jobs. Especially when your name is amongst 100 other people in your field. Stay and watch the credits, don’t skip past them.
Another thing that bothers me is artists being told they don’t deserve the pay they ask for. Please pay them what they ask for. You are paying for years, sometimes decades of experience, time, skill, and money they have put into it. You get what you pay for so don’t complain about it if you’re choosing to be cheap. Would you not pay your mechanic or plumber what they ask? It’s so funny to me how many people ask for discounts or free work from artists as if the “exposure” is going to pay the rent. I’ve heard stories of MILLIONAIRES/BILLIONAIRES asking for free work for “exposure” from fellow artists. It is mind-boggling to me how disrespectful some people can be, when a lot of them have made their money off the backs of artists. Wish I could name, names but you could probably just google it and a list of people would probably show up. I’m sure Buzzfeed has done an article about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tinavonn.com
- Instagram: @itstinavonn and @tinavonnphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1.tinavonn
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-vonn/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tinavonn
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tinavonn/featured
Image Credits
Tina Vonn