We recently connected with Jared Middleton and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jared thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear “toy photography”? Taking pictures of toys right? Well yes, you’re correct but it’s a whole lot more than that. There are very few creative hobbies or outlets nowadays for adults and children that don’t necessarily involve video games or Internet that are actually legitimately fun to do! Toy photography for many is a creative outlet they never knew existed! It’s an inspiring and addictive way to create and tell stories while also learning in developing valuable skills! One of my main goals in my creative journey with toy photography is to show as many people as I can, young and old, that this art form exists! There are millions of fans of toy photography out there, but they just don’t know it yet!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My Name is Jared Middleton, 32 years old living in Upstate New York. My passion is creating art using toys. I’m a toy photographer.

My goal is to create fun and engaging scenes with toys and photograph them. I use as much practicality as I can while creating each scene. I want every shot to awesome and to connect with people, but most importantly i always want each photo to look like someone was out playing with toys. With amazing realistic toys and fantastic technology these days, it’s very possible to these toy photos to look incredibly realistic, like they are real people! But that is not my goal, as long as the photo feels tangible, the charm and nostalgia of “playing with toys” will always be the heart of my photos!

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

I think the initial growth of my social media audience is based off of shock value and people thinking “why is this grown man setting off a firework next to an action figure? Is he crazy?”

Several videos of mine have gone viral when they include fireworks and I’m totally okay with that! I think it’s important to have a strong foundation on social media. Have a page that always looks 100% cool and follow able at all times full of content. And also put out constant short form content to catch people attention on “for you” pages, so they come in, see that page, then hit follow.

Toy photography is a new thing to most people, so when they see it it might really catch their interest if they are into pop culture or popular fictional characters.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

Toy photography open up several avenues of revenue streams. For me my top ones are YouTube, affiliate marketing and independent contractor work.

Creating fun, engaging and educational videos on YouTube has become my main work I focus on weekly. I’ve recently surpassed the 100k mark and it seems to be swiftly growing. I put out full 2-3 videos weekly, 1-3 short form videos weekly and and 1-2 live streams monthly. This has become a very steady and growing income for me.

Affiliate marketing can be a great thing for both parties involved! For me, I’ve become affiliated with many companies. Toy stores, photography equipment, etc. I’m constantly mentioning these brands naturally in my videos, and if someone using my code/link to go and buy a new action figure off of the Whatnot app, I get some commission! It can be a fantastic form of passive income.

Independent contractor work is the biggest form of income for me in the toy photography world, however it is the least consistent. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, BBC, and more. sometimes these jobs consist of large amounts of very specific photos needed within a very tight deadline, but it is always a massive honor to be recognized by companies, especially ones that hold the characters and franchises I love such as Star Wars and DC comics.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Sirdork.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sir.dork/
• Twitter: https://x.com/sirdork730
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/sirdork730
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sirdork730?_t=8pKklIQhTBv&_r=1