Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jules and Noah Ehlert . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jules and Noah , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

Noah and I started this business with the intention of working together and being our own bosses, so that our creativity wasn’t in control of any one else. Photography is a very creative field and being able to freely express that creativity was important to us. When it came to building this dream we realized just how different creatively we were at times. When we were just starting out, we lived in New York City and most of our clients were young actors trying to break into the industry. We didn’t have a nickel to our name and so our advertising and marketing was on a strict budget. We both knew we needed to get more clients and one of the ways we were going to do that was to make flyers and take to the streets. New York is full of coffee shops, theaters and schools that young actors are hanging out and many of those places have bulletin boards to hang a flyer on.

I made a flyer showcasing our current work and the pricing of headshots, there were little pull tabs at the bottom. It was bright, with a white background and a clean cut design. Noah didn’t hate it but his taste wanted a different look. I had trouble scratching my whole design so instead he designed a flyer with the look he wanted. It was gorgeous with a black background and a moodier feel. At the time it felt scary, to not agree on something with not only my business partner but Noah and I were in the early stages of our relationship and still figuring things out about each other. We had to understand that the business decisions didn’t reflect our personal relationship and vice versa.

In the end we printed both. And from then on we realized that we don’t have to agree 100% on each decision. We reminded each other of the overall goal of our business and that was to keep our creativity at the forefront and to let each of our creative eyes shine.

I walked all over New York City and hung up both flyers, some places got mine and some got his. Sometimes I put both up on a board if there was space. The work was the same, the heart behind it was all the same, it just had variety and that’s something we have always kept in our efforts, making our differences compliment each other.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

When I was 24 I moved to New York City to study filmmaking. I’d been a hobbyist photographer and writer for a few years and wanted to see what would happen if you put the two together. I was young, single and ready to take a bite out of life. I met Noah within 6 weeks of being there, he worked at the New York Film Academy where I was studying.

Noah had been a filmmaker for the past 12 years, writing and directing short films, a feature and some music videos.

Our company started from the ledge of my window sill on the Upper West Side. We would stay up late playing cards and talking about how we were going to build a life together. We were both creative and when we talked about an ideal life it was either writing in a cabin in the middle of nowhere or creating visually.

Tiny Human Photography was born because it required just the two of us. No major crews, no scripts, just us and our cameras. In the beginning we were doing photography on movie sets and actor headshots. But we were craving more of a story. Friends of ours had gotten engaged shortly after us and we basically begged them to let us photograph their engagement session. We spent a couple hours with them in New York laughing and being silly and enjoying capturing a couple in love. It felt very much like a place we wanted to be, and had so much freedom for your creativity to run wild.

A few weeks later they asked us if we would consider being their wedding photographers and we of course said YES! That gave us our feet in the door to wedding photography and we did everything we knew possible to make their wedding a success. Between their engagement session and their wedding Noah and I had our first child, Avery. We were at this strange point in our business where some of the advice we were getting was to keep personal life and business life separate so I attempted to not talk about our daughter. But this particular client were friends of ours and not talking about our daughter was weird. When we went out to their venue to do a walkthrough, Avery came with us. Just as she had on some of those beginning photoshoots before weddings became the main focus.

This was important in how we operated. Noah and I wanted our company to look, feel and taste for what it’s worth like a family. We wanted clients who valued our story just as much as we valued theirs. I didn’t need to bring Avery to every photo shoot, but I wasn’t going to keep her a secret either. Getting to know us as normal human beings, on a personal level, felt natural to us and allowed our clients a connection to not only us but our work. It relaxed them and made working with us a place where they could share their story as well.

I always fought against us becoming a “brand”, because we’ve never liked fitting into a box, we’ve always loved being free to change up ideas and do things spontaneously. So our brand was more of a feeling and a commitment above everything else.
This year we’ve taken a big step and we are “rebranding” the company. With a new name and a fresh feel. It’s still us, the same work, but as we branched out into boudoir photography and other areas it felt like the cohesiveness of what we had been doing was all out of whack.

Our brand was and still is warmth and consideration. It’s about getting to know what’s important to our clients so we can work together to capture the people and the memories that are fleeting in the moment but forever etched in your heart.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Because we are a husband and wife team I feel like there have been many times we have had to pivot. Some pivots have been easier than others and more often then not we face every pivot head on. We discuss hypothetical situations quite a lot actually. We learned that talking through hypothetical situations helped us a lot, because then we knew how we would handle things should only one of us need to make a decision.

For example, I have had three children during the course of our career. Our first was born at the very beginning, so it didn’t matter too much to our clients, because we didn’t have many at that point. But a few years later when we were going for #2 we realized that I would miss a few weddings. We set out to find someone to replace me, and we were lucky enough to find someone who has been with us ever since. She even stepped in when I had our third child.

The best way to handle pivots is to communicate. With your partners, with your clients, with your family. Talk about what you want to happen and why and hear what they have to say as well. When we found out we were pregnant with our third baby I told some of our clients before I even told our family. It was important to me that our clients knew they would still be taken care of because their weddings fell right around my due date. Luckily I didn’t have any babies on a wedding day, but I know that our couples appreciated being a part of the conversation rather than just having a new person show up.

Now we are here, almost 5 years later and our biggest pivot has been the changing of our children’s lives and rebalancing how we spend our time to be parents and business owners. This pivot took us longer than previous pivots to figure out, it took a lot more communication between the two of us. But it’s been some of the most rewarding and I think our business is going to benefit from it in a great way.

You cannot be everywhere all at the same time and it’s important as a wedding photographer that you have the energy and care to be there for them and same goes for your family.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think it was our name had a lot to do with it at first. Tiny Human wasn’t a name like most of the other wedding photographers. I’d introduce myself at an industry function and someone would exclaim, “ohhhh you’re Tiny Human.”

It was funny, and we liked that it was memorable. We weren’t your run of the mill traditional wedding photographers and the name helped us solidify that. As we continued to grow we maintained our authenticity. In how we posted on social media, in how we interacted with our clients and others, in every way we stayed true to who we were.

I firmly believe that people can sense when you’re being some one other than yourself, or when you’re doing things because that’s what everyone is doing but you’re not really sure why you are doing it.

There are so many great photographers out there and social media makes it easy to know them without actually knowing them. Recently we went to a networking party and I was so pumped to be out there and get to know people. I was going to socialize and meet new people. But instead, I found myself hard of hearing over the music and drawn to the dance floor. That’s where I stayed for the evening, dancing along side a fellow photographer, singing at the top of our lungs with a few other wonderful people in the industry. I didn’t get business cards or do the whole process of introductions to our business. I danced. But you know, it’s been the most memorable time. Even days after I was getting messages about how fun it was to be on the dance floor and I do honestly think that was more meaningful than any small talk conversation I could have yelled over the music. I didn’t need to walk out with the names of every single person without the slightest clue of who they really were, I just needed to be sincere and real and make meaningful connections.

I think when you’re real with people and you don’t come at them with an angle, that’s when you leave a real lasting impression.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tinyhumanweddings.com
• Instagram: @noahandjules

Image Credits
The photo of us is by Caitlin Reardon of Cait Fletcher Photography All others by us Noah & Jules