We recently connected with Ty Harris and have shared our conversation below.

Ty, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

I’d say the best investment for me, was time. I was never into drawing or photography, until one day I took a picture with my moms camera & submitted it in a local city photography contest. Ever since then, I was hooked. I invested in a camera that I had bought off some guy for $350. I was new to the game. For me, $350 was a lot of money, but I knew I couldn’t afford a new one. So from that day on, my love for standing behind the camera grew. I kept shooting whatever I could because I just loved the feeling. Whether it was animals, people, landscapes, city shots. Literally, whatever I could see, I would shoot. From there, I wanted to learn lightroom, since ever I was a kid, I loved technology anyway. I never took a class, I never went to school. I just sat in front of the computer and looked at google and youtube & self taught myself everything I know now. The only lessons I learned along the way, was I should have started sooner & to never give up. So here we are today.

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

My name is Ty. I’m just a normal guy, living in the city still working a 9-5 like everyone else like me. Like I said in the last question, I never was never into photography or graphic design before. One day, I took one photo, entered it into a local city photography contest, won 2nd place & ever since then I was hooked. It wasn’t till about a couple years later, I started messing around with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator. Watched youtube videos, and taught myself the ins & outs of what I needed to know. I started creating album/single cover arts for local artists from different cities. I felt like I couldn’t go wrong with the two things I loved doing, being hand in hand with each other. I started pushing my self more & expanded to drawing digitally. From there, I had no limits. From photos I was taking, drawings I was drawing, or clients I was getting, it all led to a perfect pathway. I was able to get my foot in the door with a whole new world. I started messaging & getting in contact with artist managers & teams to shoot their concerts. I’ve now shot 3 festivals and over 20 different artists.

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

Consistency, networking & social media. They all go hand in hand. Social media gives you the opportunity to share your work with the world, allows you to meet creatives just like you or future clients. But, in order to do any of that, you have to go out there & not be afraid to speak to people & build relationships. Also, consistency, you have to be consistent in your creative works, always pushing it out there & making sure there’s not a gap in between, because theres where you start to lose interest in your work. Consistency also makes sure you have a steady amount of work that you can showcase to people to show you’re serious & that’s when they will take you more seriously as a partner they would want to hire.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I just posted & kept on posting everyday. Researching on the internet the best times to post, which hashtags to use in the posts & what content people liked the most. Consistency will always be key, but so will quality. Also, don’t be afraid to get out there & find people & businesses like you and comment. That will show other people liking and commenting on those posts and see your name & brings them to your page. Another way was to make some business cards, put my social media handles & contact info on there and give them out to people, whether it be in a mall, sporting event, school. The more you put your name out there, the more people there will be that come back to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://justtyh.wixsite.com/thvisuals
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thvisuals

Image Credits
Timothy Alsbrooks (Credit for the black and white picture of me) and all the rest of the photos are taken by me.