10min chapter

The Beginner Photography Podcast cover image

470: Annemie Tonken: Avoid the Overwhelm in Photography by Creating Systems

The Beginner Photography Podcast

CHAPTER

Evolving from a Passion to a Successful Photography Business

The chapter chronicles Anami Tonken's journey from capturing her own kids to thriving in the family photography business, highlighting the growth and development of their photography career. It explores the pivotal moment that sparked the transition into photography professionally, the challenges and rewards of building a photography business, and the speaker's successful shift to becoming a full-time photographer.

00:00
Speaker 2
Anami, last time you were on, we talked a lot about pricing, right? And pricing is obviously a very big thing for new photographers. It can be difficult at times. But before we get on into our conversation today, can you tell us kind of how you got started in photography in the first place so that we can figure out where we
Speaker 1
are today? Sure. Yeah, no, I actually went back and re listened to our last episode just because I always find it's helpful to like reorient myself. So I'm not telling the same stories over and over again. And it has been, I mentioned my kids at the time and it's been two years. So it's great to be back on the show. Thank you so much. And yeah, my name is Anami Tonkin. I live in central North Carolina. I'm in the Chapel Hill Durham area and I have been a family photographer here since 2010. I got into photography like a lot of family photographers do. It was sort of, I was photographing my own kids when they were very little. They are not little anymore. My 16 year old that I mentioned on our last show is now a bonafide adult. And yeah, so I was photographing them and kind of obsessed with the process and learning how to edit and all those different things. And then other people started asking me to photograph their kids. And at the same time, I wasn't really loving my career trajectory before. And so, you know, dot, dot, dot, here we are. And it's been almost 15 years that I've been officially in business. And I have been doing a lot of education on the business side of things for the last four years. So that time snuck up on me too. So yeah, that's kind of my story in a nutshell.
Speaker 2
It's so funny when people send me an email about like, I just listened to the first episode of the podcast or whatever. And in that first episode of the podcast, my son is like a toddler. And it's just like the biggest voice you've ever heard in your life and interrupting all the time. And now he's 11. Like he's about to think about so I totally understand totally understand. So being focused to kind of more in the business world there. Again, I know that a lot of photographers are kind of in that transitional phase because as you mentioned, you get into photography, somebody asks you for some photos and you're like, yeah, I guess I'll do this. And then like, over time, it grows into an official business. But it's that over time that people seem to get the most stuck. Right? Sure. So for you, can you briefly explain like, what was the process between like, when did you first know, oh, I could actually turn this into a business to when you actually maybe took a full time or actually felt like a bona fide business owner?
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that a funny thing? It's like you are you typically are a bona fide business owner long before you feel like, yeah, I mean, and of course, the longer I've been in this and especially now as an educator, I talked to photographers all the time. And almost universally, we get into this sideways, right? Like with it's almost an accident that we end up running a business because really all we ever wanted to do was monetize the thing that we love doing. And we just kind of say, oh, well, I mean, my podcast and my education platform is called This Can't Be That Hard because literally when I was starting out, that was my I was like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm good at taking photos. I'll charge some money. And this can't be that hard. And then, haha, jokes on me, it's a little more complicated than that. Yeah, I mean, it was it was one of those things I was working as a nurse. I was in a master's program. And very much enjoying taking photo photos of my kids. My older son was like two at the time. I was pregnant with my younger son. But my master's program was kind of a nightmare. I like couldn't stand it. And I had nursing was actually a second degree for me. So I was like, what is happening? I'm 30 years old. I don't, you know, like I can't change careers again. I'm too old for that, which makes me laugh now. But I really just wasn't feeling any satisfaction there or happiness there. And it was in a conversation with someone where I was talking about that. I don't even know what I would do if I were to stop doing what I'm doing. Like, I don't really have an idea. And they said, well, you're you're great at taking photos. And I almost laughed. Or I probably did laugh. It was like, yeah, but that's not a career. Thanks so much for the pro tip there. But that as soon as that little seed was planted, it took major root. And very quickly, I was taking business classes and taking photography classes, because I figured if I was going to do it professionally, I needed to make sure that I knew what I was doing. And sort of exploring that as a mental exercise, I took some time like I took a semester's leave supposedly from my master's program and never went back. And yeah, it was sort of the beginning. I kept my nursing job and nursing is such a great sort of place to start another career from because you do I mean, I was working three 12s a week. If I was working night shift, oftentimes I was a labor and delivery nurse and we would you know, it's like it was either slammed or it's pretty quiet. And sometimes I'd be like babysitting my sleeping patients and working away on the, you know, on the computer on my business. I did that for about two years. I kind of moved from full time to part time to per diem, which anybody in the healthcare field knows what that is was just a couple of days a month. And then I finally sort of made that leap once I got to a place where I, my inquiries were consistent. My pricing was such that it was going to, if I was working full time, replace my salary. It's always a leap of faith. I felt really lucky to be able to kind of stage myself out of my quote unquote real job and do that kind of safely because I didn't have an option. It wasn't the my income was very much like part of the family income. I was not able, I was going to say allowed, but it wasn't even a loud thing. It was just a matter of like, if I wasn't making my salary, we weren't going to be able to pay our mortgage and our bills and all that sort of
Speaker 2
thing. Could you tell me how approximately how long was that transition from when you thought I'm going to do this to when you actually left the
Speaker 1
hospital? Yeah, it was just under two years between when I formed my business as an official, you know, like went and registered my paperwork to when I worked my last shift. That is that
Speaker 2
is impressive. I would say that's probably I would say that that's probably quicker than most people who are working a full time job transitioning into photography are able to do that. What do you think are some of the reasons why you were able to do it
Speaker 1
relatively quickly? Well, part of it was that fact that I was sort of able to wean myself off and had a fair amount of time. I mean, I laugh. I had two little kids at home. It wasn't and I was working 36 hours a week. It wasn't like I was just sitting around working at my business all the time. Yeah, eating bonbons. But it was definitely anyone who knows me or I get I'm like a terrier of some sort. Like I get my mindset on something and I typically go after it until I've got it. And so yeah, I mean, there was a ton of work. The beautiful thing and we talked about this a little bit again, it's fresh in my memory because I just re listen to our conversation. But the thing that is so lovely about the beginning phase of your business is that you're just so excited. Like every even kind of the tedium or at least that was me even the tedium even the editing whatever it was like I was just I loved it so much. I would nerd out on like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe look at the before and after of this like this crazy or you know, I went out and I figured out how to do this particular technique with my camera that I have been trying and I nailed it this time. Like that excitement really can carry you through. And with the like late nights and all that sort of stuff, it still felt like play and the idea that that could be my career was such like it lit such a fire under me. So I as soon as like I that was my goal, I was just after it until I got there.
Speaker 2
So what like where was your focus though, right? Because obviously you have to get to a point to where inquiries are more consistent, where more money is coming in, you're raising your prices. So where was your focus outside of the technical
Speaker 1
side of photography to to be able to start and grow you to business? Yeah, and I mean, I've said this a million times. If I've said it once, I said it a million times I very much took to heart some advice that I got early on, which was that if I wanted to make a real go at it, I needed to focus at least as much on the business side as I did on the photography side. The thing was by the time that I decided that photography was something that I was going to pursue, people were all ready willing to pay me to do it. You know, obviously my prices adjusted once I decided that this was going to be something that was going to like replace my career. But but it was like I had some photography knowledge. I gained more pretty quickly. And and so I focused a ton on the business side of things. And what has been fun over time is realizing that that is I love that as much as photography. I find it to be just as much of a creative outlet as photography. So yeah. And so now the reason that as an educator, that's what I focus on is that my photography skills are good, great. Like I think I'm a good photographer. But I do not by any means think that the reason I've been in business for 15 years and have been successful and have made a full time living and all those kinds of things consistently for a decade and a half is not because my photos are knock you off your feet, award winning, blah, blah, blah, however you want to call it. They're great. My clients love them. I'm consistent. I can show up. And if it's a rainy, terrible day or somebody decided to wear neon orange, like I can still get my job done. Exactly. That was not a that was not a cut on you. I see.

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