We were lucky to catch up with Roy Cox recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Roy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
Coming out of college, I was originally interested in video/film production. I began my career in production as an editor, working for a small video company here in Baltimore city. I are up in the entrepreneurial environment. My parents were blue collar people with barely a high school eduction but they ran a small pet shop that was very successful from the 1970s throughout the late 1990s. I always thought that working for yourself was just what you did if you had an idea or a marketable skill. I was brought up thinking that I could do anything. I remember taking the job as a camera operator/video editor for this small production company and being nervous that I may not be as qualified as I thought I was. I sold them on my skillset but the interview was more of a “are you familiar with this editing system and camera setup?”. I said, “Absolutely!” I left the interview and began calling all of there major production companies in the Baltimore area to see if I could get a hold of a few manuals that would teach me what I needed to know about the camera system that I was “already familiar with”. I have always been this type of person. Confident, a salesman and fairly sure that I could handle anything just by doing it. I had production experience from college but doing it for real in my first job was terrifying. I did well in that company, quickly settling in and allowing my ability to “figure things out” to overpower my fear in doing just that. After a year and a half I realized that I was making the owner a fortune. She was never there and the producer and I decided to leave and start our own production company. We ended up doing just that. It was successful and I stayed in that company we built for nearly five and a half years. I started dabbling in still photography near the end of my time as a videographer/editor and fell in love with it. I mean its basically what I was doing but it felt more personal, meaning I didn’t need a huge crew, tons of people on set, etc. like I did in video production. My partner and had a falling out and I decided to sell out my part of the production company and head in a different direction in mid 2002. I had an understanding of lighting, composition, camera skills and with directing people so still photography seemed like a sensible route to take with my current skill set. At the time my girlfriend and I lived together in an apartment in the Baltimore area. She was making a very humble social work salary and I had a few thousand dollars of saved money left after paying off some debt and leaving my pervious company. I was scared but again confident that I could make the transition. The problem was that I had no idea what market there was for whatever it was I wanted to shot as a still photographer. I was in a book store and was browsing through books showcasing the works of famous photographers like Patrick Demarchelier, Annie Liebowitz and Steven Meisel and I came across a book of fashion photography work which showed some images of a German fashion photographer named Frank Wartenburg shooting in his Cologne based studio with his giant weimaraner dogs laying on the floor of his studio as he photographer a model. I instantly thought to myself, “wow, this is what I want to do!” I want to own a photography studio, have my beagle laying in its bed as I photograph my clients. Fashion, portraits, cd covers, magazine layouts, etc. This is the typer of work I want to do. I called a friend of mine from college that worked at a modeling agency in Baltimore city and asked her what type of things they hire photographers for. She gave me some advice and direction that started dialing in my proposed services. I could shoot model portfolios, actor’s headshots and then go from there. There was no social media, no google and nothing that made putting my digital shingle out to be easy. Out of our little apartment everyday after my girlfriend went to work, I would grab the phonebook and started calling every photographer that was listed in the Maryland /DC area and pretend I was a potential client. I would ask them about their services, their prices and I would take notes on. what I liked and disliked about their demeanor, their promptness in returning calls, etc. I realized after extensive research that the key players in the promotional photography scene at the time were older, lacked passion and I found that there was a lack of that New York style fashion/editorial style here in the DMV area. I started building a website, using mainly photos of my girlfriend and close friends that I showcased as “clients”. My friend that worked at the modeling agency sent a referral to me for headshots which became my first paying client. I was shooting in film at the time so I had to spend some money to try and make someone’s money. I purchased 20 rolls of film, called back my first potential client and sold them on coming to my apartment to take their acting headshots. I was confident but nervous. I had never photographed someone for money but Ive been on huge film sets so this had to be something I could do. I didn’t own any lighting so I used the nearby area around my complex and natural light to complete my first professional session. Everything went off without a hitch and the agency loved the work I did for their actress/model. My friend called me to congratulate me on the work I did and they added me to their photography referral list. I was underway but quickly realized that doing this out of my home was a bad idea. I had no business insurance, no branding, no professional space for people to come to and I seemed sketchy to have people coming in my home and changing their clothes in my bath and bedrooms. I mean I wouldn’t want to go to some guys house that had a mediocre website and do photos. I knew I needed a space but with very little income this was seemingly impossible. I called my mother who still lived about 30 minutes away in the area I grew up in Baltimore and told her my game plan. She said there was an old warehouse near her that just put out a sign saying they were renting affordable warehouse spaces. I knew that area well, having grown up nearby and because the area was a lower blue collar area, maybe they were actually affordable. I went down to meet with the building manager and she started showing me around the building. 3000 sf here, 6500 sf there, I mean these spaces were huge and obviously way to expensive for my needs and budget. I mean my budget was zero dollars a month hopefully! She walked me down a hallway towards another large space and she saw a set of doors that were not properly closed and locked. I could seen inside the room that the doors went to that it was tiny and unused. I asked her how much that space was per month. She laughed, pulled the doors closed and said, “that’s not a space, its a closet storage area for the space across the hall.” I asked if she could re open the doors so I could see inside. She opened them back up and what was revealed was an area that was about 460 sf, no windows and no nothing. Basically a concrete box. I asked, “how much is this space?!” She looked back and said it wasn’t for rent that she knew of. This space was perfect. I begged her to put a price on it. She asked if I could do 275.00 a month for it and I said, “yes!”. The other issue was that it had no heat and air conditioning. She told me that all of their rented spaces were one year rentals minimum. I looked her dead in the eyes and said, “If I sign a three year guaranteed lease, will you put an air unit in here for me?” She said she would have to talk to her partner and get back to me. I pulled out a thousand dollars cash and said, “here, take this as my first, my last and a bit extra and lets make this happen, I means a closet that you are now getting paid every month for.” I couldn’t believe it, she shook my hand, agreed to me deal and I was in business!
Roy, 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 am a Baltimore based promotional/commercial photographer. I opened my first studio in 2002 in the Baltimore area where I grew up and am still in Baltimore today, 21 years later. My work is mostly recognized for his cinematic lighting and composition and as of 2022 I have photographer over 14,000 people! I work with companies on ad campaigns, musicians, artists and individuals on images for their branding and advertising. I own the studio and do the photography, my wife also works with me full time, running the business and our dog Indie comes in everyday and provides love and greetings to all who come through our doors. My work has been shown in hundreds of magazines, billboards and advertising mediums all over the country over the last two decades. People come to us for us! Lots of people provide photography services nowadays but our clients love coming here because of how we are to work with. This business is all about the people. We also have an internship program that has seen more than 800 students and working adults alike come through the studio to learn photography absolutely for free. When I started my career in photography, there was no social media, no YouTube, no google, etc. I called a few photographers and asked them if I could shadow them in their studios and they all denied me. I swore that if I ever got to where I wanted to be that I would help anyone who needs help getting started so that’s just what I did and I continue to teach interns to this day! Being able to stay full-time in this business, continue to grow through nationwide financial swings, pandemics and market trends is one of the things we are most proud of. I have one of the largest privately shot in studios in all of Baltimore and our client base continues to grow every year!
Have you ever had to pivot?
I began my photography career in 2002. Back then it was much more difficult to be a photographer professionally. It was way more expensive to get started and you had very few avenues for self promotion and marketing. It was all word of mouth mainly. For the first ten years that I was in business we had very few significant competitors unlike now where the market is so saturated that it seems unlikely that a new photographer can rise above the white noise of photographers out there pushing their services. I mean every person with a camera and an instagram page is marketing themselves as a professional it seems. This amount of competition started me down a dangerous path of worry, fear I would lose my edge, my name and mainly my business. I was afraid that maybe I’m not as good as I used to be or maybe the market was just over me after all this time. These kids were banging out images on social media that looked like a million bucks and they were doing it as school projects. Where do I fit in now, am I still popular, am I still wanted and am I still the same Roy Cox that everyone wanted their photos done by. It took years for me to settle back into my day to day flow and just continue being me. Doing my work, my way like I always did. There will always be competition but there will never be another exact me. It took me a long time to realize that I just have to keep putting out the good work I do, one person at a time, not worrying about who else is out there and what they are doing and be thankful for each and every person or company that I do have as a client.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Over the last two decades Ive become one of the main goto names in the DMV area for promotional photography. The best advice I give my interns when it comes to building up your reputation is to take a slow steady approach filled with substance. I can’t believe, to this day, how may clients I get because someone some other photographer cancelled on them or was late or didn’t deliver on time, or maybe ever! The biggest thing I teach is to control the things you can control. You can never guarantee that a client will love their images or themselves in your images but at least you can control the things you can control. Be on time, deliver on time, have a clean safe space to bring your clients into that is professional and representative of you and your brand. I joke with my interns all the time saying, “don’t mess up for Ill take your clients and once I get them you don’t get them back!” In 21 years I have never been late for a shoot, not once. I have never cancelled on a client for a higher paying job elsewhere with a different client. I have never not delivered a client’s final product in a manner that was too untimely. These are the things you can control so start there, giving that great service to each and every person that you are lucky enough to get as a client. The bigger my brand and reputation got as I weren’t along never made us give less to our smaller clients. Every job I do is the sum of my business and career. Too many photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, etc. push aside their smaller clients if there is a better opportunity elsewhere. This is a mistake. As my business grew we also never unfairly priced my services so that the smaller clients I had could no longer afford me. Our pricing still remains fair and competitive. I didn’t allow my ego to push my pricing into a situation to where only my biggest clients could come and be photographed here. This is why we are still here today. Every single client is important o us. Big or small.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.4-optic.com
- Instagram: @roycoxstudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyCoxStudio
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-cox-9a4b6889/
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: n/a
- Yelp: Roy Cox Photography
Image Credits
Roy Cox