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

Karolina, appreciate you joining us 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.

How I got where I am now. In 2010 I quit my job as a teacher to follow my dreams to travel the world and work as a dive instructor. In Germany that means leaving a very secure life – teachers have tenure in Germany and great social security, best health insurance, etc.
This is also when I got into photography, mainly travel and underwater at that time.
In 2021 I came to Mexico on a one way ticket. 3 weeks later I spontaneously bought a tiny house in the jungle, because why not. I also felt like I wanted to invent myself new again.
During all my travel years photography had been a big passion and when I started getting booking requests in Tulum without even offering the service officially, I decided to go all in and create my photography business. I guess it’s a thing of trust, taking that leap of faith and following your passion no matter what.
Today, I’m very grateful that Tulum, Mexico is my home base and photography my full time job.

Karolina, 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 was born in Poland and grew up in Germany, where we moved when I was 1.5 years old. In 2010 I left my job as a primary school teacher and gave up my appartment and belongings to travel the world and work as a dive instructor. I lived in Greece, Egypt, Mexico, New Zealand, The Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Cayman Islands and travelled to over 60 countries.
In January 2021 I came to Mexico on a one way ticket and ended up staying. I bought a tiny house in the jungle and made Tulum my home base, which was a life changing step for me, as I hadn’t owned a chair in over a decade and suddenly I was a house owner.
That’s when I created @tulumphotography.by.larokina
Even though photography has been a big fascination from day one using a film camera, it became a true passion when I started travelling and living as a nomad full time. Back then I was using a simple point and shoot camera. One of these water and shock proof types that could handle my adventure travels. Even though the photos weren’t high quality it was all about capturing the moment and the essence of the place.

In recent years I upgraded my gear and took my photography to a professional level. After getting bookings in Tulum without even offering this service officially, I decided to finally turn my passion into my job, and have been doing this ever since. I’ve been truly grateful for this experince and every single photoshoot I had. Every client and photoshoot is unique and I’ve made some amazing friends along the way.
Currently most of my photoshoots are in the Rivera Maya, Mexico area. My next goal is to take my photography internationally and work with clients abroad as well.

You can also follow my adventures on my personal Instagram: @larokina

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Definitely social media. Instagram in particular. Most of my clients find me through Instagram. It feels like nowadays it’s more important to have a good Instagran page than a website. At least that’s what it’s like for me.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The passion for my job. I truly love what I do. I asked myself: what would I do if money wasn’t a thing. This led me to become the photographer I am today. I never went to photography school. Everything I know and do is self taught and it kind of happened over time. It’s like you have a hobby that you love and do all the time and suddenly you’re really good at it and people want to pay you money to do it for them.
Once you work from the heart everthing else will start happening.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tulumphotography.simdif.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tulumphotography.by.larokina/