Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mercedes Chircop. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Mercedes thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Believe it or not I’m self taught. I didn’t have anyone telling me what or how to do something unless I went to Youtube and watched a handful of videos on a new skill technique. Most of my days were spent learning how to edit and properly compose a photo. I’m a visual learner so for me I would look at a picture and think ‘how can I make this better’ and go from there. I would look at what some of my favourite photographers were doing and try to replicate that same photo or put my own creative spin on it. Knowing what I know now, it probably would’ve helped if I had a mentor or a network of photographers who were ultimately better than I was. Not to learn ‘industry secrets’ but to learn the ins and outs and things I need to be looking for when taking a photo or editing. The skills I think that were most essential is learning how to properly compose a photo in camera. Anyone can be an editor and make a photo ‘look’ better, but nothing beats capturing the perfect photo in camera and not needing to do any major edits later. For me my obstacles were not asking enough questions and being shy about my work. If I was more confident in what I was doing and just asked others what they did I probably could’ve learned a lot more early on. But I think a lot of that shyness came from just not knowing what a person’s reaction will be considering there are lots of people in the industry who tend to ‘gatekeep’ (but that’s a topic for another time).

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a freelance photographer and graphic designer. My main genre is working with musicians, concerts, and sports. I used to work with modelling agencies and photograph beauty campaigns but the work wasn’t steady enough and I have more of a passion for music. I started photography when I was 15 years old when my dad came home with a LUMIX camera. I used that camera to take majority of the sports photos for my high school yearbook and funny enough I wasn’t even in the photography class offered at the school. In University, I got into shooting portraits and working with people where I then created my own studio in my parents basement after many tries of convincing them to let me do it. It wasn’t until after University where I started to work professionally and really dive into the music industry. I immediately started working with a music publication that opened a lot of doors for me. I would shoot anything and everything and was photographing in the darkest, smallest clubs. But that’s where I really learned how to photograph concerts properly as you don’t always have good lighting to work with like in a studio. Over the years, I got the attention of LUMIX which led to an ongoing partnership with them, which also helped me up my game and grab the attention of some other brands and music artists as well. I’ve photographed live events such as the JUNO awards, Canadian Country Music Awards (Ontario), and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. I pride myself in treating every photoshoot/gig as if it’s the most important thing no matter how big or small the event is.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is to open up my own studio. You could argue that I already have one but what I mean is I want a space where creatives can feel at home. A space where everyone can come and create whatever they want. A space where I can foster my talent and really let my ideas shine. So many times I get caught up in what other people want for themselves and how I can help them achieve it, that I forget what it is that I want. I’ve also never really had a space that was ‘my own’. I’ve always rented, or shared a space but nothing that ever truly felt like this is mine and no one else’s. Maybe that sounds a little bit selfish but I’ve had this goal since I started photography back when I was 15 and it’s never gone away.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I may not have thousands of followers but I do have quite the community on my Instagram. Majority of that came from networking and meeting people in person but some came from finding people with similar content as me on Instagram. There are a lot of concert photographers in Toronto so it’s very easy to get the conversation going about techniques, shows, or music in general. However my advice would be to foster relationships on and off social media. When you meet someone in person and get their socials, I always like to send a quick message to them when I get home and say how nice it was to meet them. It’s simple, but it shows you cared about the conversation you had with them in person. I’m also a fan of commenting on peoples posts. This just shows you engage with their content which makes them more inclined to engage with yours.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mercedesalisa.mypixieset.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mercedesalisaphotos
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mercedesalisaphotos

Image Credits

Mercedes Alisa Photos