We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Charnell Timms. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Charnell below.
Charnell, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?
Last year I received an enquiry from a mother looking for a photographer to take her son’s graduation photos. She was determined to find a photographer who would be up for the challenge of photographing her transgender son as he was in the process of gender-affirming surgery. She mentioned that after perusing my profile she felt I had the right blend of personality and experience in photographing a diversity of range of people. I could sense from her email that she was a little nervous and sensitive as she just wanted her son to have a positive experience, so I offered to phone and chat with her.
A month later we did the photoshoot and the next day I got an upbeat email from ‘mom’ telling me how much her son enjoyed the photo session. It was at that point that I decided to print two (8×10) Metal Prints that were not included in her son’s photography package. I added a note to say THANK YOU to them both for ‘choosing me’ as their photographer and giving me the privilege of photographing a day in the life of her son’s extraordinary life.
When she received my package and note, she phoned me back. When I initially saw her name pop up on my phone screen, I just assumed she was phoning to thank me for the 2 x metal prints. I had given them. Instead she broke down in tears upon hearing my voice and thanked me for the most precious gift anyone could have given her son in his senior year, and that was, she uttered through the tears, the gift of normality. She then reflected on her son’s sentiments and said what he enjoyed about the photo session the most, was that for the first time in ages he felt absolutely normal –no past, no future, just enjoying the moment as it unfolded.
I often reflect on the wonderful simplicity of this wonderful experience, and am reminded that while people may forget all the photographs that were taken during an photo session, they will never forget the feelings they had whilst being photographed.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When I was in high school my father went on a business trip to Australia and returned with a present that would jumpstart my portrait photography experience…..the most powerful playtoy ever in the form of a shinning new Pentax camera. I was extremely sporty at school and so often went on school hockey, tennis and squash tours. Just imagine 15 high school students all bunched up in a school mini bus for a week at a time, and me lapping up all the excitement through my lens. It was pure bliss.
Fast forward to University after I graduated with a post-graduate honours degree in Psychology and started my professional photography career.
At first glance, it may seem like a stretch to connect me studying psychology or photographing a group full of raucous teenagers in a bus, but those two areas both taught me valuable lessons in reading the more subtle non-verbal cues in my clients.
Whether it be a general level of discomfort in front of the camera, or a dislike of a certain portrait pose-reading these subtle non-verbal cues, and moments of discomfort remain one of my greatest assets as a portrait photographer.
Experience has taught me that someone is far more likely to ‘look better’ in a photograph when they ‘feel better’ as the photograph takes the photo, so establishing a connection with my clients is always the springboard to any portrait session.
It’s also why I love capturing not only portraits, but both traditional and LGBTQ+ weddings. LGBTQ+ clients often feel a little unsafe in a world filled with judgement and so making them at ease and relaxed is the biggest challenge and one of my greatest assets.
When one is extremely comfortable in their own skin, it’s the easiest way to transmit those vibes to your clients too and probably one of the reasons that I remain one of the few photographs sporting an equal amount of traditional vs LGBTQ+ wedding on my portfolio
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
One of the moments that I feel really shaped my sense of resilience was during first week of Covid. The sense of doom and gloom that followed every time I walked to my computer to check emails only to be greeted by a constant flow of wedding client cancellations. One of the days, I recall heading downstairs to make myself a smoothie. The afternoon sunlight had just started streaming in and as I placed my smoothie glass on the surface, it reflected with the soothing light in the most gorgeous of reflections. In an instant I was struck by a ‘lightbulb’ of an idea, to create my own cookbook.
Thankfully, at the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was signing myself up for and little did I realise that cooking and photographing my recipes would be the ‘easier’ of tasks in comparison with the steep learning curves and endless frustrations that awaited me in the world of ‘food styling’ and learning how to plate my food in creative and mouth-watering ways.
The sheer volume of tips and tricks I had to learn and the amount of times I failed at every corner was mind boggling. It’s one thing making a mistake but when your mistake entails recooking an entire recipe, it brings the experience of ‘mistake’ into a league of its own.
Despite all the challenges and raucous voices in my mind telling me to save it for ‘the professionals’ I pushed on diligently, trying to master the magic of light and all the endless lessons it had to teach me about food photography and after eight months of endless slog, Im happy to sayI received my first printed copy of “EAT in our Kitchen”.
When I think back I am thankful for the grit and determination that this process taught me, as more than any other photography project I had undertaken it taught me the value of fluidity and how important flexibility is if you want to succeed. One example was my ‘Flying Burger’ photograph which took me 12 hours to conceptualise, prepare and shoot, including three separate trips to the grocery store, where I learnt valuable lessons about what type of lettuce does best when draped over two precarious pieces of fish wire.
Lastly, with a smirk on my face, I have to be honest and admit that during all my failures and learnt lessons, of which there were many, I don’t think I have uttered soooo many swearwords in quick succession in my entire life.hahaha.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My photography career started in my home country of Cape Town, South Africa, so when I got married to my Minnesotan spouse, and had to uproot myself, my career and my business were close to follow.
Traversing my new business landscape required a massive pivot especially in relation to developing a brand new marketing strategy. Because I was a known entity in Cape Town with ‘word of mouth’ marketing garnishing a substantial amount of my business, I had to reboot and refocus my marketing in a systematic way, starting with my immediate geographical area Maple Grove. I started attending local events like Farmers Markets and took photos of as many of my family’s sporting events, family photos to extend my reach.
In practical terms I also had to change my way of thinking when it came to scheduling the specific’s of how wedding day photo sessions unfold. Case in point were my wedding couple’s portrait sessions. In South Africa weddings typically occur around 5:30pm and couples rarely see each other until they walk up the wedding isle, and hence the couple portrait sessions typically occur immediately after the wedding ceremony around the most perfect sunset hours. Here in Minnesota, I had to adjust my thinking dramatically, as weddings often occur during the hottest and brightest sunlight hours, and its typical to include a couple’s ‘First looks’ photos which , often coinciding with the strongest and most unattractive daylight hours.
Ultimately and perhaps paradoxically, I had to remind myself, that for all the change needed, one thing has to remain the same and that is me–I am the epicentre of my business and all change revolved and pivoted around that constant fact.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.charnelltimmsphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charnelltimmsphotography
- Facebook: www.facebook/charnelltimmsphotography
