We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Vasquez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I had no formal training in photography, I literally started by grabbing a camera and shooting a can of Coca-Cola on my desk, just trying to figure out how the thing worked. I looked for any excuse for checking it out from my school so I could learn more about how to use a camera properly. Any school assignment, any odd job I could take I’d run to get the camera.

Eventually I got my own camera, but I only knew what to do to take photo, and nothing about how the camera worked. I knew nothing about lenses and and lights, nothing about effective ISO or Dynamic range and this would cause me to be confused and frustrated on why my photos weren’t coming out as I envisioned.

As I learn more I hit that wall that everyone who takes up photography as a hobby or side hustle does. That photography can be very expensive. I ended up looking up every trick in the book to try to avoid saving money. While some tricks worked, many, many others didn’t and I ended up wasting time and money trying to avoid the issue.

I came to the realization that the only way to improve my equipment would be to make my hobby pay for itself. I had next to no disposable income so it was the only way. So I went on social media when the next comic book convention was coming around and offered to take photos of peoples costumes for $30 a piece. I after a few conventions I got a reliable stream of clients and was able to afford new lenses, simple lights, extra batteries, and have a real kit.

I also networked and asked advice from other photographers in the area, learning all I could from them. Many simple mistake were made along the way but I slowly improved, and eventually when normal work dried up, I had photography to help make ends meet. Till one day, photography was paying all my bills and I had people messaging me to schedule shoot and recommending me to others, which I still am very grateful to this day for.

If I had some advice for newer photographers is to focus on improving one thing at a time. It could be part of your skills or part of your kit, but pick that one thing, decided on what you achieve and make a plan of action to get there. And do your research so you know the correct way to improve. You’ll save yourself time, money and headache that way.

Jonathan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I originally got my start working for my college’s equipment library. I had to check-in and out equipment on a daily bases and was able to play around with the cameras they had available. One day a fellow student came to me with a offer to make money filming videos for music venues when they had nights hosting shows for the local college scene. It a crazy gig and I think in total I made less than $100 all together for like six or seven videos, but it was my first real experience as a freelancer.

Even thought I quit doing the music videos, I still had access to the camera equipment from my college. So I took it with me to a comic book convention downtown and started taking photos of the cosplayers that attended. Really just for fun I wasn’t pursuing photography, in fact I was mostly doing video. Eventually I graduated college and I bought my own camera, a Canon T3i. It was very limited and I want something better but I couldn’t afford much. So a friend encouraged me to start offering paid photoshoots at cosplay conventions. I started offering them for $30 a piece and eventually got flooded with photoshoots, I was able to buy more lenses and when I had too many request for photoshoots I had to raise my prices to $50. but I was still getting clients.

It wasn’t all roses, it was hard work and a lot of hard lessons. I’ve forgotten memory card, batteries go bad, and many, many no-show clients. I even had a drunk con-goer fall on me on a escalator and break a brand- new lens. It was a lot of stress but I learned from my mistakes and bingeing YouTube video during lunch breaks at work.

Over time I started landing bigger clients with the help of friends and connection, companies paying hundreds for a handful a photos. that combined with my day job as a designer and I was able to sustain my photography well, even when I switched from Canon to Sony cameras, which was pricey.

However in 2020 I lost my day job, and I had no money coming in I tried staying in the industry but no one was hiring. However, I had built up a good relationships with my clients and many of them started recommending me to friends of theirs for thing like engagements and wedding, some I swore I’d never shoot while I was employed, funny how my tune changed when I was broke.

Small gigs kept me afloat long enough to land a job with a small real-estate photography studio, New View Photography. one of my favorite jobs and my boss gave me so much time and resources to grow. It allowed me to experiment a try new equipment and techniques I never cold before. I loved it but one day I got a job offer at a company which would doubled my pay and although I tried to work their as long as I could, I had to leave.

Now, I work on my own time with a local cosplay community called the Variant, to provide free photoshoots to convention attendees. While I am no longer taking paid clients at conventions I still walk the con floor with my camera and gear I’ve gathered over the years and shoot with whoever I find that sparks for great shots, and share my work with them free of charge.

I’ve been experimenting with fashion photography as well as been laying the ground work for a series of short films I’ve always wanted to shoot, working with fellow local film makers to make it happen. I’ve also started traveling more across the U.S. so if you ever see me at a convention feel free to say hey and if you’re a model or a designer let’s work together sometime!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I never considered myself a professional photographer, and amateur at best, but just a dude with a camera. But when 2020 and Covid hit I lost my job as a designer. and had no income. I did odd jobs, like wedding and engagement photography among other things to make ends meet. But One day I submitted an application to New View Photography, a small photo studio that specialized in Real Estate photography.

It was an amazing learning experience and with one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. Shooting everything from apartments to multi-million dollar mansions on a daily bases, while learning about HDR photography and how to use a gimbal.

As we were editing photos one day I showed a Instagram account of a local photographer I admired to my boss, Woody. I told him “Man, one day I’ll figure out how to take photos like him, like a real pro”. Woody turn looked away from his monitor at me.

“Jon, what do you do here?”

“I take and edit photos of houses” I answered

He followed up with “And do I pay you for that?”

“Yes”

“So wouldn’t that make photography your profession?

And after a moment I followed up with “Yeeeaaaahhh… but you know, like a real professional”. We both laughed at that but he was right I was paying my bills solely with photography, by definition I was a professional.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have many goals, setting a studio is one, but creatively I’ve always wanted to make an independent film, I’ve bounced a few ideas in the past for a horror or action films in the past, but recently I’ve been looking into locations for a series of short fantasy scripts based of stories I’ve collected with the help of friends. It’s hard finding good locations in the U.S., and even harder convincing the property managers to let you shoot there, but I’ve started making progress in finding interested people who have the talent to make it happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jonvphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonv_photography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-vasquez-9aa52928/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonVphotos

Image Credits
Photo 1 (pink outfit): @kitbitcosplay – Instagram Photo 2 (swimsuit): @_caughtredheaded – Instagram Photo 3 (angel costume): @jessicanigri – Instagram Photo 4 (holiday costume): @ev_cosplay – Instagram