Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natasha Swanson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Natasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Believing in yourself and trusting God’s plan. There were so many times in my career coming up that I would doubt myself because of what other people said about my dreams. I had plenty of people telling me that I will NEVER make a living off of just photography and that I needed a plan b. But see once I started seeing my potential in this industry, I really believed in myself that I can really make this work. I knew I could really make a difference in this world with just my photos and how hard I work to make my dreams come true.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Many people call me Tasha, I am a freelance sports photographer located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sports have always been apart of my life growing up, from watching them with my family to playing them while in school. So combining my love for sports and photography was only the right move when I got into high school. In my career I have worked big time athletes, schools, companies and teams. But that hasn’t been my favorite part of my job. It’s the people that I get to meet along the way, the places that I get to see and the people that I get to help create memories for.
The one thing that sets me apart from others is the way that I work. Most people in this industry is all about having the fame or clout. They are always looking for the big time athletes to photography or work with so they can get some kind of clout on social media. I want nothing to do with that. I like to build a relationship with the people that I work with and show people the real thing no matter how big the athlete is. I also have no problem with showing people what really goes on in my life. Social media this day usually shows only the good parts of someones life but I am the one that will show you the bad parts of my life. I like to use the things that I go through while working in this industry or just my everyday life to help others learn what I have learned. I will always stay true to who I am with whoever I speak with or follows my journey. God has given me a testimony with this life that I live and it is my job to share my story.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
One of the most rewarding things from being a creative is helping others that inspire to do the same thing as me. When I was getting my foot into the sports industry with doing photos, there was no women sports photographers at the time that I could look up to and ask for advice from so being able to be that person to mentor other young girls or even boys that want to be a sports creative means a lot to me. My dms are always open for others that want to learn.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I use to deliver pizza everyday for 6 years to fund my side hustle doing photography. I would work at Papa Johns durning the day then go straight to a photography job afterwards. I knew someday in my career I would be able to make photography my full time job but it took a lot of time and energy to work jobs that I did not want to just so I could have the money to make photography work out for me. I took the leap of faith to move to Charlotte in November of 2021 and was let go from the job I moved here for in January of 2022 so I was in a really sticky situation with trying to find something different to help me pay bills and continue to live in this big city of Charlotte. Almost every day of January I was searching and apply for different jobs and in February that was when I realized that I could really make this freelancing full time. In the past months I have freelanced with many pro teams, colleges, athletes and companies and live fully off of my photography.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nlssportphotos.com/
- Instagram: _youngtash
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashaswanson/
- Twitter: _youngtash
Image Credits
Taylor Banner, Max Molina, Reagan Lunn