We were lucky to catch up with Tia Reiser recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

It all began with a peanut butter smoothie and what would later become a year-long battle to learn how to collapse a circular reflector disc. But let’s backtrack for a minute, first!

In January of 2020, a friend asked me if I was interested in assisting her first restaurant gig. After running through many different ways I could decline the offer because “change is scary”, I simply replied, “of course”! After accepting the offer, I began to dive deep into everything and anything restaurant photography, food photography, and beverage photography. If it weren’t for Google, I’d have been pretty darn lost and exceptionally frantic. But with tips on camera settings, artificial and natural lighting, best angles, and basic composition techniques freshly ingrained into my brain, I assisted the shoot, got paid via peanut butter smoothie, and struggled to fold up a collapsible reflector in the middle of the restaurant parking lot. Needless to say, I enjoyed the entire experience!

For the rest of the year, I delved further into camera gear, storytelling, food styling, and editing. I want to mention that, at this point, I never even joked about “being my own boss”, I simply enjoyed learning, experimenting, and being creative in a way I had never experienced before through the personal projects I was assigning myself. And this point right here is exactly why I knew that this endeavor was one which would be worthwhile – It’s hard to quit or fail at something you aren’t willing to give up on!

Eventually, I had personal food shoots planned 3-4 times a month. I planned each shoot around a particular subject, a color scheme that I wanted to practice, or a new skill that I wanted to learn. In the midst of planning, shopping, and preparing each of these personal projects, naturally and unintentionally, I started working on what would soon become my business plan. During the days of working on my business plan though, (this takes us into 2022) I became a bit burnt-out baking and cooking everything I was photographing. Eventually, I gravitated towards photographing the products I had in my house. Between my love of skincare and my mom’s bad habit of buying a new makeup product every time she walked into the store, I slowly began to build my product portfolio.

Not too long after, the only thing I had left to do was to legally start! I decided to put my name out there to family and friends, start promoting my work on social media, and began pitching myself to small brands and businesses who I thought my style and values aligned with.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

How I got into photography isn’t all that complicated or interesting, but that’s what, I think, makes it special – it just kind of happened very naturally. I was the kid who got a point-and-shoot camera for Christmas at like age 9 and then proceeded to bring a camera with me everywhere I went until I was in college. Up to that point, nature and fine art style images were where my interests lied until I started an internship with a local wedding photographer – This photographer later became the friend who brought me on to assist them on my first food photoshoot! If it weren’t for her, my interest in food and product photography and my business as a whole might not have ever happened!

I’m super thankful that I was given the chance to turn my creative interests into a real career. If you had told me at any point in my life that I’d be working for myself and doing “the thing”, I would have never believed you. But now I’m in a position where I can help brands and businesses communicate their authentic values through imagery that is high-quality, story-driven, and completely unique to them. Using my camera as a way to create work for and connect with other creatives doing the unimaginable, turning their heart’s desires into real, tangible things, is such a gift. This is something I’m most proud of – having built my business as an extension of my passion to connect with those who put their all into whatever they do whenever possible and working towards remaining someone who will wholly invest themselves into whatever projects come my way.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Let your work speak for itself! More often then not, my clients tell me that they reached out to me due to my portfolio. I get that this might sound totally basic, but it really is the foundation of building a clientele. I’d recommend putting the time in to making sure that, once you find your niche, your portfolio covers a wide range of subjects, styles, and moods. For example, if you’re a product photographer make sure your portfolio visually represents your skillset through work that is and/or minimal and stylized, moody and bright, modern and kitschy, or even vibrant and monochromatic. Show potential clients that you not only specialize in a certain type of photography, but that your are creatively versatile within that niche. Once you have a portfolio you feel accurately represents your brand and skillset, its time to give it a platform to actually communicate it’s value! Share your work on your website, post it on social media, and send it out to potential clients in cold pitches via email. No matter how stellar a portfolio may be, if it isn’t given a chance to communicate its value, you won’t be able to communicate your value to potential clients and grow that dream clientele!

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

These aren’t necessarily resources, but are bits of advice I think would’ve done me and my business well had I learned them a lot sooner. The first would be that “time takes time”. I wish I had become more familiar with and welcoming of trial and error earlier on. If I had known sooner that making progress was a process, I think I would’ve enjoyed expanding my skills and leaving my comfort zone much more! The next would be to invest in yourself! I wish I recognized sooner that education is the key to growth. Whether you are feeling burnt-out or have some down time, I’d recommend learning something new/expanding upon the skills you already have. I know it can be daunting to spend money when you don’t “have to” but being a continual learner and learning from those who know more than me has been crucial for my business success.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tia.marie.images/

Image Credits

Tia Reiser of Tia Marie Images