We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J. Mikael. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J. below.

J. , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk that I have taken as a photographer is opening up a 2,100 square foot studio space. After shooting for 5 years in an in-home studio, it got to the point where I was renting out my home studio to other photographers and had the intuition that it was time to expand. Soon after I found a 2,100 square foot commercial space that was perfect. 16 foot ceilings. Large windows. A large glass garage door that opens. Data reported that 20,000 cars passed by the space every day on the road. And it was poetic. The studio was on National Road, which was the first road that was built in America on the east coast to go west. And in my artistic journey I was heading toward my own “gold rush” of finding opportunity and a better life.

However, this opportunity and glimpse of freedom came with a cost. After calculating how much rent, utilities, insurance, internet, etc., a 2 year contract that had to be signed would cost about $72,000. That was a big risk. I didn’t have a lot of money but decided to take the leap of faith that for me when be the next milestone of my ability to transition from my full time job to being able to make a living full time as a photographer in the creative industry.

2 days later I signed the contract for the lease. Holy shite. Now it was time to sink or swim. It is true what they say – it takes a village to raise a child…or a business. I had a lot of help to move, paint, build, and we put A LOT of time and energy into building a beautiful, functional and good energy space that many creatives now call their home, as I also rent the studio out to other photographers and creatives. I have now owned the studio for a little over two years (since June 2022) and have earned the top rated and recommended photography studio on Peerspace. During our busiest seasons, we are fully booked all day from 10am-10pm with both our our shooting stages having photoshoots going on. We also host a quarterly free event for photographers, creatives, models, business owners, influencers, etc to come and have the ability to create using professional equipment and use the opportunity to grow their business.

In the end, taking the risk has taken my career to the next level. It took 8 months to break even with the monthly studio expenses and made it a staple of the community. It is a lot of work to maintain with cleaning, organizing, marketing, keeping fresh props and the many administrative duties that owning a studio entails, but it is worth it to me. It brings me joy to see the happiness the space brings to other people’s lives and the memories that are made in this space. This space we all call home – J. Mikael Studios.

J. , 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’ve loved creating digital media since I can remember. I began publishing content at 8 years old and haven’t looked back. I have run my studio business since 2015 and in 2022 was blessed enough to open my own brick-and-mortar physical studio location.

Clean. Fashion. Drama. These 3 words describe my style – along with an obsession to create the highest quality image possible. From camera/lens choice, lighting, to my specialized retouching process, every step of your shoot is done with one idea in mind: Luxury.

My passion is in creating luxe imagery and teaching others how to take control of their creative talents to monetize their passions. My goal is to make J. Mikael Studios the premier location for luxury photography & education. I am a big proponent of education, having 2 bachelor degrees is digital media production and a master’s degree in strategic business management.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist and creative is to be able to make a living from the heart. A lot of the 9-5 jobs that I’ve had in my past have been a soulless way of making money to survive. The soul crushing tasks of trying to trick people into giving me their money isn’t the way that I want to use my energy. And this is why being a creative artist is the lifestyle for me, especially with photography. I have the honor to be the medium through which people find self-confidence, self-expression, showcase their business to spread awareness and grow, and capturing memorable moments of our lives that we can look back and treasure forever – including weddings, anniversaries, maternity portratis, family portraits, graduation portraits and the seasonal joys.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A great story that illustrates resilience on my journey comes from the beginning of when I decided that I wanted to transition from doing photography as a hobby and begin operating like a serious professional business. The beginning of a business venture is always the hardest. Nobody knows you, you have a lot to prove to gain the respect and trust of the market, and most of all there is the internal struggle of your identity shift from someone who has fun taking pictures to someone who shoots professionally and gets paid. While these challenges sound tough, there is also the technical skill expertise and business acumen development that is growing at the same time. It can be very overwhelming. However throughout these obstacles, I began taking one shoot at a time with the goal of being booked for a paid shoot, which had never happened. I’m sure beginning photographers know the feeling – the feeling of friends and family always “expecting” you to take photos for free and not respecting your skills, experience and investments as a business. From this starting point I started booking collaborative photoshoots everyday – this was my strategy to build my skills, experience and expand the awareness of my business from the models posting on their Instagram page. My strategy was simple, yet elegant. I began booking as many shoots as I envisioned that I would like to be shooting paid shoots, and this got me into the mindset of being an experienced photographer. It took months of this day by day work until one day months later I received my prize for my hard work – an Instagram message from an unknown account that said, “Hey I love your work. How much do you charge for your work?” And this was the tipping point to the next stage of my photography business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jmikaelstudios.com
• Instagram: @JMikaelStudios
• Facebook: @JMikaelStudios
• Youtube: @JMikaelStudios
• Yelp: @JMikaelStudios

Image Credits

N/A, all the photos are mine.