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

Tisha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I’ve embarked on in my photography journey has been creating a photography feature account on Instagram. The purpose of a feature account is to showcase artists in a particular genre in an effort to raise more awareness of their work. I had a vision for this feature account and asked two fellow photographers to join me as moderators. We started Authentic Vibrant Joy (@authenticvibrantjoy) in November 2021, and we currently have 2600+ followers.

Photography feature accounts aren’t a new concept, but we feel our focus is a little more specific than others. As the name suggests, we want to showcase images that focus on authentic joy with a vibrant editing style. But the most unique thing about our feature account is our Sunday Spotlight. Every week we put the spotlight on a photographer with less than 1,000 followers who encompasses joy, authenticity, and vibrancy in their work. Instagram is extremely saturated with photographers, and it’s often difficult to be seen and build a following. We want to help get more eyes on those with fewer followers by giving them their own feature post, as well as dedicating several slides in AVJ’s Stories to showcase multiple images of their work. We have received quite a bit of positive feedback from the photography community, and not just from those who receive the Spotlight. Our goal is to foster a positive community of photographers who can connect with, and encourage, each other.

We also have a broader goal of offering in-person events to help further foster that community. We recently hosted our first “shootout” in San Diego. A shootout is an industry term for a styled photo session with models and it provides attendees the opportunity to learn from others, try new techniques, and gain new content for their portfolio. We have more shootouts in the planning phases, as well as an educational workshop planned for 2023, with the goal of hosting multi-day photography retreats in the future.

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 am a Lifestyle Photographer specializing in families, couples, and seniors. Photography has been a part of my life in a variety of ways since I was 10 – from taking pictures of anything and everything as a kid, to taking photography classes in high school and college, to taking family, senior, and engagement photos for friends and family, to offering services at a professional level. Lifestyle Photography is a style of unposed, story telling photography. No two sessions look the same – it all depends on the family or person I’m photographing. Some families are playful, so images are full of movement and laughter. Some families have kiddos who prefer to snuggle, so images have less movement and are full of details like handholding, kisses, playing with hair. The goal of my photography style is to capture people as their authentic selves and to tell their story through images.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

As a photographer and artist, I feel there is always room for growth. On the technical side of photography, there is always something that can be improved upon. Camera technology and editing programs are two major areas where skill and knowledge are required. With the progression of cameras from film SLR to DSLR to mirrorless, there is a learning curve with every advancement, and editing programs are regularly updating and adding features that need to be learned. One of the resources I wish I had invested in earlier in my journey is an editing mentorship I did with Kayla Locke. She is well regarded in the photography community for her extensive knowledge of Lightroom, the most common editing program used in our industry. Despite trying to learn Lightroom on my own, and better my skills through online resources, I wasn’t able to dial in the technical settings I needed in order to bring my editing style vision to life until I invested in her mentorship. She was able to explain and teach in a way that really helped me to understand some of the components I was missing in my editing. Learning from online resources wasn’t wasteful, but having an expert teach me exactly what I needed to do to achieve my personal style was the most valuable investment I made for my business. If I had done that mentorship a couple years ago, I could have saved myself a lot of frustration and time!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is when clients love and value their photos. Of course, every creative/artist wants people to like their work, but it goes beyond that for me. As someone with a history degree and love for genealogy and family history, I believe the worth of any image you can pass on to future generations is priceless. There have been so many times I’ve gone through my own personal genealogy files and looked at 100+ year old photos and thought about how amazing it is that I have an image of an ancestor that I’ve never met, in a location I’ve never been to. I love examining wardrobe from a different era, details of an old farmhouse, or the old wooden plow a great-great grandfather is standing on. It helps me imagine what life what like for them and feel more connected to them.

Obviously, technology is so advanced these days that it’s easy to have thousands of photos stored on your phone. But how often do you print out any of those? How often do you snap a “quick pic” only to have it buried by 25 more the next day? When you purposely take the time to schedule a photo session to capture your loved ones, and especially when you print those images, you’re adding so much to your family’s visual legacy. Sure, the photo is for right now, but it’s also for the future. I guarantee in 50 years someone in your family is going to treasure having photos of family members they’ve never met because it helps provide a link between your generation and theirs. So when clients truly love their photos, send me holiday cards with images I took on them, or send pictures of images they’ve printed and hung in their home, it makes me feel like I’m contributing to their family in such a valuable way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tpowerphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tpowerphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tpowerphoto
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/authenticvibrantjoy/

Image Credits
Tisha Galloway – TPower Photo