Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tyler Smiley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tyler, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
The biggest risk I would say I have taken was going full-time into photography in November 2022.
Prior to that, I had been working in a traditional 9 – 5 job for a local real estate brokerage as the marketing/administrative/HR/IT guy – I actually described myself as the swiss army knife of the brokerage. In addition to that position, I was able to practice real estate sales as well, and completed two transactions during my time with the brokerage. While there were things I really enjoyed about working there, there were also plenty of things I disliked – one thing for example being that there seemed to be no direction with the postition. I was expected to go so many different ways and complete so many unrelated tasks that it was difficult to do any one thing to the best extent possible.
This position lasted a little over a year and a half from the time I took it to the time it was eliminated by the company, and at that time I needed to figure out what came next.
In talking with one of the agents at the brokerage around September when I was told the position would be eliminated, she encouraged me to consider pursuing photography full-time. Up until that point, wildlife and landscape photography had always been more of a passion-project or side hustle. It didn’t generate a lot of income, but it was something I enjoyed doing and put a little spending money in my pocket. This agent suggested that I also add real estate photography services, as there is a lot of opportunity in that space.
So, I spent the next two months formulating a plan to make photography work.
I leveraged the time I had left with the brokerage to build a small portfolio. I put the entire commision from my final transaction, plus some money from my savings toward eliminating my student loan debt. I researched additional sources of income to ensure I could pay my other bills while working toward establishing photography as my primary income. There was a lot of time that went in to planning everything related to getting started with photography so that once my position was eliminated, I could hit the ground running.
November 11th rolled around, and that was my last day with the brokerage. November 14th, I was up and running with photography. It was a huge risk because there was absolutely nothing guaranteed, and I had enough money to keep me afloat without anything coming in for about five months.
There were countless hours spent building email lists from scratch and other marketing materials like media kits – all to work on getting my name and contact information out there. I’ve taken calls from realtors just looking for rates, offered free jobs, and so much more to build a reputation and client base with the uncertainty of it panning out and being a sustainable business.
Fast forward to now, and I am finally starting to see the time and effort I put in pay off. I’ve done a few jobs for local hotels and realtors – including the one who encouraged me to go this route – and have landed a repeat client in Ocean City, Maryland. In addition to real estate photography, I’ve landed partnerships with the Pennsylvania and Delaware chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and the Cape May County Zoo.
Little by little, the risk is starting to pay dividends. I am so happy I decided to take the risk and pursue my passions. Not only does it make me excited to wake up in the mornings, it has led to a happier, healthier life despite all the challenges and risk that came along the way.
Tyler, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
So, I got into photography a few years ago. It all started when my family – parents, brother, and I – would go out boating on the Delaware Bay. Me, being the typical teenager worried about something happening to his cell phone, would leave my phone in the car while we were out on the water. Whenever I wanted to take a photo of something, I used either my mom or dad’s phone.
I had one or two really cool shots, and that sort of started the spark and itch for exploring photography even more. After my sophomore year of college, I decided to move from cell phone camera to a traditional camera – which at the time was an 8 – 10 year old Kodak point and shoot that had the look and feel of a DSLR. After a year of using that, I decided I could justify spending the money on a true DSLR, so I did. In the summer of 2017 I spent the money and got my first Canon DSLR camera and the rest is history from there.
Most of what I shoot when I am taking pictures are landscapes and wildlife. The area where I live in Delaware is surrounded by beaches that offer amazing sunrises and sunsets, nature refuges and state parks that have such diverse wildlife, and so many other opportunities to capture fun and unique images in those niches. Being more of an introvert, wildlife and landscape photography is also a great opportunity for me to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and recharge – something I really appreciate.
To supplement that, I do also offer real estate photography. This is more of a new thing for me, so I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet and have some room for improvement, but it is still among the services I offer.
One of the things I am most proud of with my photography business is that I established a program called the Photographer’s Promise where I donate anywhere from 15 – 25% of the profits from print sales to a non-profit or charitable organization that focuses on wildlife conservation and natural preservation efforts. For starters, I am a huge believer that any business should use their platforms to give back and do good. When the opportunity presented itself to include something like this in my business, it was a no-brainer. Organizations that focus on conservation and preservation were a perfect fit for what the program donates to being that I take primarily landscape and wildlife images. This way, I can capture a moment now and share it with the world in the present, but also leave a more permanent, lasting impact through my work as well.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
I have a mixed view on NFTs and that is speaking from having given them a try myself with no success.
Personally, I definitely think there is a lot of opportunity in the space. Having followed along with it for about a year and seeing the success other have had generating sales, there is clearly proof of concept. I also appreciate the social aspect of NFTs – there is a huge community of creators in the space on platforms like Twitter and Discord that is so uplifting of one another and enthusiastic about anything and everything. It truly is awesome to see.
That said, I think the downside of NFTs is that it is incredibly difficult to get your work noticed and the people who are collecting NFTs tend to focus mostly on the creators who have built big names for themselves (which in turn, creates burnout for smaller creators trying to keep up and also jealousy). For example, I minted a collection on OpenSea’s platform called Backyard Bugs in 2021 – it was a series of macro photos of various bugs I found around my backyard that really helped me through a dark time when I actually thought about giving up photography completely. The original iteration of Backyard Bugs was on OpenSea for a little over a year when I decided to re-edit some of the photos and swap some out for different ones. Neither version yielded any sales, nor did they get a lot of views – I believe, as of right now, the one with the most views has maybe 15 – 20 views.
As far as the focus being on those who have built big names for themselves in the space, that was pretty clear by all of them continuing to pop up on my Twitter feed saying they got one sale after another, after another, after another. Meanwhile, I was scraping by just to get one. Speaking from experience, this definitely can cause burnout and envy. I got so frustrated trying to keep up with the pace these larger creators were selling pieces at and envious of their success, that I actually began to undervalue my work. It actually got to a point where I decided just a few months ago in December that I was going to take a step back from NFTs for the time being and focus on growing as a photographer and learning new skills as they relate to photography. I was so burntout from it all and the realization that I was beginning to undervalue my work pushed me away.
NFTs are definitely here to stay, that’s pretty clear. BUT, after all the experiences I have had with them myself, I think there is plenty of room for improvement and changes in the space as well.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
As a photographer, I think one thing non-creatives fail to understand is all the time and effort that goes in to creating an image and the human aspect of the photographer behind the lens.
I see it all the time on social media. People comment things like “I bet I can take a photo that’s at least that good if I had a camera” or even “My phone can recreate this exact same photo”. Don’t even get me started on the dreaded, “Wow, your camera takes such good photos” either.
Yes, your phone as a great camera in it and is capable of amazing things. I follow photographers on Instagram who work exclusively from cell phone cameras and they put out amazing work. Yes, the camera allowed me to take this amazing photo, but it only allowed me to capture that exact moment in time you see in the image.
If you forget about the human aspect of photography, you’re missing the whole point. Different photographers can go to the same location, at the same time and still manage to create different images all because of that human aspect.
The photographer behind the camera has to drive to the location where they are shooting, make sure they have the right equipment, etc. all just to capture an image precisely how they imagined it. Once they’re done, they have to edit the photo which can take anywhere from a half hour to days or even weeks in some cases – all to add their own human touch and style to a scene they are sharing with you.
Photography isn’t just about the camera you’re shooting on. It’s also about the human behind the lens and the feelings they are trying to evoke with an image.
Contact Info:
- Website: tylersmileyphotography.com
- Instagram: @tylersmileyphotography
- Facebook: Facebook.com/TylerSmileyPhotography
- Twitter: @tysmileyphotos
- Youtube: youtube.com/@tylersmileyphotography
Image Credits
Kevin Lynam Photography (Photo of me with my camera) Tyler Smiley Photography