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

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

So I’ve been shooting for the past 8 years but my business officially started last year with the formation of my LLC. Since then, I’ve been consistently wishing that I had started much sooner. There are many but the biggest reason was because I wish I had more time to really establish and promote myself within the community. Starting the business definitely changed my mindset on how to get my name out there because that was something I didn’t even think about while I was working for other businesses. I spent so long doing work for hire, that I had years worth of content that I wasn’t even legally allowed to use to advertise my services and that was a tough realization to have.

If I had started sooner, I would have put a lot more time and effort into truly creating my brand and getting a good foothold within the industry. With amazing creators out there doing that exact thing while I was working on someone else’s vision, I tend to feel like I put myself at a disadvantage

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

I picked up my first camera in 2013, simply wanting to jump into street photography after discovering the amazing work of Gordon Parks. Soon after, I began my career as a photographer with an internship for a small magazine where I mostly focused on covering events and Behind the Scenes moments. After that internship ended, I slowly started to expand my skillset into videography, color grading, and eventually even piloting drones. What started out as event photography quickly expanded to music videos, real estate photography, wedding photography, working on film sets and so much more. I find myself being a jack of all trades when it comes to anything with a camera but my heart still lies with a photojournalistic approach to whatever project I work on. My business, Cozy Capture Studios, was born out of that passion to capture real life in its purest forms. I specialize in sifting through the chaos of a wedding day or a red carpet event and finding those moments that truly matter to my clients.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot of my career was honestly starting my own business so that I was working for myself full-time. After spending 4 years working with a wedding company, I realized it was time for a change. I was started becoming frustrated with management for things like lack of a work life balance, being underpaid, and many more reasons. After spending so much time studying best practices and learning my craft as a photographer, I learned that I wouldn’t be happy unless I did it myself. It was the best decision I ever made. I am in complete control over my entire life now and I wouldn’t have it any other way

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I found my business partner, Tim Lowe, while working what was probably one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had. We had signed on to be in house photographers for a brand new studio in Atlanta. What we thought would be simply showing up to shoot in a controlled studio environment quickly turned into showing up at nightclubs at 1am to shoot celebrities just to turn around and have the photos edited by sunrise. All this during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We realized we were on the same wavelength when we simultaneously decided our time with the studio needed to end. We kept in touch to work on small projects and even started working with another studio together. Since then, we’ve have been each others biggest supporters in the community, whether it be a second set of eyes to go over an edit or planning concepts for short films and movies we’ve directed and shot together.

Contact Info:

• Website: cozycaptures.com
• Instagram: @cozycapture.s
• Facebook: @cozycapturestudios
• Youtube: Cozy Capture Studios

Image Credits
Photo of Me: Tim Lowe