We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexandra Thomas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alexandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories 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?
I’m entirely self taught in photography and videography. I learned to do what I do by going outside every single day from 2 years old-now at nearly 23 years old and just taking photos and videos of every pretty flower, sunset, wild animal, etc. that I saw and letting myself learn each camera that way. My great grandmother gave me a disposable film camera when I was 18 months old and I would toddle around taking photos of everything, eventually when I was maybe 4 or 5 I upgraded from disposable film cameras to my very own point and shoot, when I was 11 I was given a relatives old hand-me-down DSLR camera and by I think 14 I had saved up the money to buy my first professional DSLR (and now I shoot on a mirrorless camera since I do a lot of videography as well as photography). At 14 I slowly switched over from nature photography to concerts, portraits and weddings and officially started my business. By 15 I was jumping from tour to tour and shoot to shoot. Nearly a decade later I’ve photographed over 1,000 concerts and have done who knows how many portrait sessions and other events; and I have deeply loved every moment of it.
I don’t know if there is really anything I would have done differently to speed up my learning process. Having started my business as a literal child I can’t really go back and critique myself on my learning process. There’s a lot of things I could critique myself on now I’m sure but I’m such a big believer in no matter how much knowledge or experience you have in a field, especially an artistic one, you never will know everything. Every day there is time to try something new and to learn and grow. Maybe I could have been doing more portraits earlier on, but I know as a younger kid nature photography was so important to me as a way to just document life the way it was through my eyes, I wasn’t super interested in the idea of posed portraits at the time. Even now, as much as I really love working with models and have a deep admiration for the art form of posing people and creating this entire creative visual from scratch, I do very much so consider myself to still be more of a documentary style photographer. In all concerts and tours that I do, all the nature photography, weddings, events and even with family portraits I do I much prefer to not direct it at all and just let it happen naturally and capture those raw moments of life as they come. I have really come to love doing these more creative model portraits though, so there is part of me that wishes I would’ve seen the art and beauty in the created moments earlier on too.
What skills I think are most essential would depend a lot on what subject you’re photographing. I think in my personal opinion learning to photograph in EVERY light condition possible is important (especially if you want to get into concert photography, I will always suggest before shooting big arena shows with great lighting you start shooting at bars with no real stage or lights and things like that where it’s a very low light condition and let yourself fail a few times and learn how to handle tough conditions before going for the bigger but often times easier things). Another one that is big for me– and I know not all photographers or viewers want to have edited photos– but to me editing is a big part of my art and a big part of why people hire me over anyone else. I will always understand those who do not enjoy or maybe do not understand editing photos as far as changing the colors or brightness, but I like to look at it this way, it is another art form I can add onto my photographs to make them look the way that I feel them. It’s kind of like music, sure a song can be beautiful with just vocals, but once you add a guitar and drums and whatever else, it brings it to life that much more and helps you really feel it.
What obstacles stood in the way for me in the way of learning? Hmm. I think I’ve been very fortunate throughout my journey. Having the money to get myself better gear earlier on and even now would’ve been nice but I can’t say that is truly a necessity or that it’s ever held me back, you learn to work with what you have and make the best of it. I will say when I was younger and just starting my business I had reached out to some older established photographers for any insight they would be open to sharing on how I could better myself as an artist and I got yelled at by them for asking for advice, which wasn’t fun, but that just taught me to depend on myself and trust myself to learn and grow as a creative on my own which I think was an important part of my journey. And I’ve used those negative experiences as a child to be a better artist to my fellow creatives as an adult, I have so much fun sharing advice and insight with new and even experienced artists and really want to get more into mentoring new photographers.
Alexandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m Alexandra (Alex) Thomas, I started my photography, videography and digital marketing business called AETPhotos when I was 14. I love to do photography and videography of all sorts including concerts/tours, music videos, documentaries, creative portraits, family portraits, weddings, events, and nature. I do digital marketing including social media management, branding, and website design for businesses and bands. I run my own music publication, Tour Life Mag, with an amazing staff of women, LGBT+ and POC photographers and writers from all over the world helping them get their foot in the door in the music industry. I also just started a mental health video series, Life With, that you can watch on my YouTube channel where I interview people from all walks of life about their personal experiences with different mental health conditions so that we can learn more about how different these conditions are experienced from person to person, help people feel less alone in their own struggles, help us learn how to better treat one another as human beings in our day to day lives and in the description of each episode lists resources where you can read more about each condition, some have mental health worksheets and tips to help those struggling, and they all have links to non profits that everyone can donate to if they would like that help people struggling with mental health.
I’ve been creating photographs and videos since before I could even walk and I started doing digital marketing for businesses and bands when I was 14. I’m also an autistic woman with OCD who has been running her own business for nearly a decade now while only being not even 23 years old yet, which I think tends to set me apart from others– or at least that’s what everyone tends to comment on when we first start working together hahaha. But yeah, I really love what I do, I love to document life for others, I love to get to be so creative with my clients who quickly become my friends, and I’m very grateful people have trusted me for so long to capture all of these moments for them from such a young age.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
When working with a client on music videos, digital marketing, or creative portrait shoots I always want to just be the tool to bring their dream vision to life. There is nothing more rewarding than when that’s done successfully and the client walks away with exactly what they dreamed of. Especially spending the last decade in the music industry where I see artists have very little or even no control of how their music videos look or what their album art looks like or whatever. So any time someone reaches out to me about things like that the first thing I do is ask them what they want it to look like and I do everything I can to bring their vision to life. I love projects like that so much and love knowing I was able to help an artist or business tell their story in a visual manner that they feel actually represents them, because they rarely get that chance. As for other photo/video stuff like family portraits, weddings, tours, documentaries, etc. I much prefer to be considered a fly on the wall and just be there to capture the moments as they really happen. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the clients’ reaction to these photos or videos of their kids genuinely laughing, the bride and groom looking at each other with tears and love in their eyes, bands telling jokes backstage and genuinely laughing together, fans crying happy tears in the crowd and moments like that. I love capturing these unforgettable once in a lifetime moments for people.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think people see that this is what I love most in life and that I’m not there with the purpose of making money or using them as a stepping stone in my career, and because of that, I really work crazy hard at every single gig and I really always try to go above and beyond for every client. I also think it helps that I’m usually kinda quiet– again I try to be a fly on the wall at most shoots and be there to capture the real moments as they come– but that I can be very personable and very understanding of every situation. I’m really good at noticing when someones feeling a little off and having a bad day on tour or at a shoot or whatever and always try to take them to the side for a moment to make sure they’re okay and do what I can to help them before returning to work. I really want every client relationship to feel like a close friendship over anything.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AETPhotos.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AETPhotos
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AETPhotos/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7TKF5ujXgPa8jrBzlpSwqA