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

Alright, Tommy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I have been creative all of my life, always leaning toward creativity and art. Any pathway involving creativity and expression was always an outlet I leaned toward and chased. In my many moments of reflection, I found myself fascinated with photography in its full art form. I admired so many artists and their photos, but never saw where I would fit into the photography world. It wasn’t until I ventured into sports photography that I found my place, I saw a hole in the industry, while it was filled with many great, hard working and dedicated photographers, in my eyes I felt a world of color and vibrance was lacking so with that I set off on my mission. I chased sports teams, and any opportunity I could to further advance my photo experience and style. Within a year of practice, through trials and tribulations, I developed a new found confidence in my new trade. I finally felt success and comfortability in my unique versatile style, and now I have clients who reach out to me because my style speaks for itself, and them favoring my approach to photography.

Tommy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I operate a small business in southern California with a focus mainly of breaking the current mold of photojournalism, with my passion for showcasing depth and art through photography. My aim is to take photos that showcase the feeling smy clients feel in those moments. I use colors, depth and a non-traditional approach to express that moment with the photo was captured, when I athlete finds success in their sport or the joy felt when doing a maternity or family photoshoot, I strive to do that beyond smiles and capturing the moment, I adjust colors and settings to focus the viewers eyes to really feel the moment as if you were there. Photos are a moment of time and I want my clients to be able to look back and these photos and relive that moment.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to curate unforgettable moments for my clients, monetary gains do not always last, and I have always found myself choosing this profession out of true purpose and love for capturing these small but yet significant windows into ones’ life. I find true satisfaction in seeing people post my work as keepsake for their precious moment. Witnessing all their loved ones viewing the moment as if they were present and express a variety of happy and supportive feelings brings an incomparable joy and fulfillment knowing I was able to give them a moment that lives beyond time or memory. These moment will last forever and that is the greatest payment.

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

I resource I wish I had discovered sooner was, how kind fellow photographers are, I recall experiencing the all so well known “imposter syndrome” while attending larger events, or in the presence of other photographers in general unfortunately due to the lack of knowledge I never could of imagined how accepting the community is, but thankfully along my journey, I had found myself arriving at the realization that other photographers are incredibly kind, they always are so willing to offer up advice accompanied by guidance, regardless of your level in comparison. I gained the knowledge that most photography is built through trust, sharing, and community. Also not to mention, most of us don’t make much money (despite the huge effort we put into our work) so the majority do this work out of a love for the craft so with that there is a strong camaraderie in the field.

I wish I had discovered sooner how how kind fellow photographers were, I remember feeling so much imposter syndrome going into bigger events or even when I saw other photographers in general, but then as my journey continued I realized these other photographers are beyond nice and are always so willing to offer up advice or guidance regardless of your level versus theirs, I learned most of us do this out of love of photography, most of us don’t make much money, if any at all for a lot of the work we do, but their is a camaraderie in this field that has us looking out for each other and that was been the best resource I have discovered in my journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dodd-studios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dodd.studios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dodd.studios