We recently connected with Tim Beiber and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

When I was in school(graduated in 2009), schooling seemed to be setup based around the jobs. Meaning, once you pick a job you might want to do, then you learn about that industry. I went to the vocational school for welding for my Jr and Sr year of high school as a backup option for the music I was doing at the time.

Looking back after working a bunch of different types of jobs over several different industries, I really think this needs flipped in school.
I think there would be a much higher success rate in schools if there was more time spent in elementary/middle school in exploring different kinds of interests while learning the core base level skills that apply over everything. This gives more time to really let kids figure out what they’re interested in, good at, and enjoy doing. Once you start learning about the wings you like and care about. You’ll be much more invested in it.

Then, by the time middle/high school comes around. You can start settling into the areas that apply to the fields you’ve already been getting into.

I never thought about photo or video the whole time in school or even the next 10ish years. It kind of came up on accident. That tends to be a common thing in this industry. Or it being a side step from marketing or graphic design that photography and Videography are skills that help with those other industries.

I’m glad this happy accident has turned into something I really enjoy and also is making a living for my family and I.

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’m a photographer and videographer in Ohio that mainly does weddings and branding/marketing content. I started 11 years ago when I bought my first camera the day before my daughter was born to keep track of her growing up. Eventually, I did a family session and some product photos and started working with a portrait company for dance studios right when COVID hit. Then the portraits got shut down for and unknown amount of time until things started opening back up again about a year and a half later. That’s when I really started doing some more product photography and shot my first wedding for a friend from school.

I really enjoyed the variety of different elements involved in a wedding day and started 2nd shooting weddings the next year. Each year after that. I started working with more people and doing twice as many weddings a year while starting to get more weddings of my own. I was lucky enough to get to work with a variety of people with different styles and was able to learn a lot. It also got me into doing a little bit of video.
Video seemed like a good pairing with photo so I started offering that 3 years ago and it’s taken over more than half of my work in just 2 years.

Over that time, I’ve gone through a few different styles and started to focus on some things I really think are important for a wedding day.
1. It’s not about me or my style. I know this is one of the biggest moments in your life and so much time, money and effort has been put into all the decor, venue and every element. I want to stay true to color so you can look back on the day and really see what you put all that work into and enjoy it. I also want to make sure it’s unique to you, your style and fits the aesthetic and feel of the day. That plays into the artistic style of the photos and videos. I like to add a little flair but I’m really careful with making sure that fits with everything else in a subtle and tasteful way.
2. Low stress. I want to keep things as stress free as possible for everyone on the day. It makes for a better experience as well as more relaxed, natural reactions from the couple and guests. This is helped with timeline assistance and just making sure everything is planned out as much as possible before the day. I want us to both be on the same page. I also understand that things happen and can change in the moment. It’s no big deal, I’ll work around it. Just do what you need to do and we’ll circle back or readjust for it later. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
3. Do what YOU want. If you don’t want to plan your wedding around what your parents or friends did because that’s the only reference to a wedding you have, then don’t. I love seeing the uniqueness and interests of the couples in what they decide to do on their day. Those are the little touches that make everything stand out from each other. Do whatever you want and don’t do something if you don’t want to. This also brings both previous points full circle. It gives me more unique to capture for you and helps reduce stress and adds emotion because it’s actually something you’re excited about and interested in.

I’m also always open to the couples for help. Even outside of my field because I have a really great list of resources I can pull from or give them other names to check with about various things that don’t really apply to me.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

This was very much a story of turning a side hustle into a main job. I started actually making money with it through the portrait company I worked with and 2nd shooting weddings.
I started making as much in 1 day of 2nd shooting as I would make in a week at my full time job. The only catch was that it wasn’t as consistent so I couldn’t always rely on just that to support my family. Eventually, I started getting some of my own inquiries but couldn’t always commit to them because I didn’t know what work schedule would be by then. It finally hit me that I was really missing out. I started looking ahead to the dates I had booked for myself and 2nd shooting and saw that I could at least hold myself over through the summer and fall from just weddings.

That’s when I decided to pick a date the week of my first wedding of the year to quit my full time job and just do photography for the summer at least and see how it goes. I was still making the same amount of money as my full time job but literally only “working ” 4-6 days a month instead of 20. Just the time:money ratio was worth trying it.

Eventually. I kept having some more last second bookings I could actually take because my other job wasn’t in the way of that. I also had bookings through the winter and wondered if I could make it all the way through the next wedding season.
That year, I actually did it! It was definitely tight and scary at times but I was able to get through Christmas on my own and had some other different kinds of bookings along with spreading out my wedding payments to hit during slower times. It also helped break up and spread the wedding payments out for my couples too.

Now I’ve been doing it for 5 years and it keeps growing at a steady rate and I’m really happy with where things are. Now I just keep trying to improve and change things to fit what people are wanting and match it with what I’d need to provide that outcome for them.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I still work with several amazing people and get inspired all the time. Looking up different things and taking inspiration from the couples has also been a really great way to come up with new ideas.
I really don’t have a firm goal in mind. I just want to be more financially stable and happy with the work I do while still having more time for my kids. Luckily. This career has provided that. As long as it keeps going how it has. I’m really happy. Of course I’d like to be busier sometimes but I’m definitely not complaining.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.timagesphotoandfilm.com
• Instagram: @timagesphotoandfilm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063595419604&mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@timagesphotoandfilm?si=sGHW7rPXDv0b64IK

Image Credits

Timages Photo & Film