001: Tommy Reynolds – Being Authentic & Growing Your Business Presence

April 16, 2020

“The key to success is progression. If you’re not progressing you’re not succeeding. So if you find that you’re standing still for too long it’s because you’re not trying different things, you’re not stepping outside your comfort zone”

TOMMY REYNOLDS

Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Tommy Reynolds – we are really excited to have him on the show.

Tommy is a Kent based Travel & Portrait Photographer who’s passion for creating & documenting his creative process has enabled him to travel across the world. Tommy has worked with a huge range of big names including: PIXAPRO, Olympus, Syco Entertainment, Universal Music, Sony Music, Ben Sherman, The Metro and Panasonic. Tommy has also photographed famous bands and artists such as Pixie Lott, The Vamps, UB40, Nerina Pallot, Boyce Avenue (YouTube phenomenon), and Nick Howard (Winner of ‘The Voice of Germany’), to name but a few.

Check out some of the biggest points from Tommy’s interview below:

What are your top Five Tips for photographers that are just starting out and just venturing into the industry?

1.Don’t think that you need to buy the most expensive gear, because you really don’t. My first travel trip, I went to Sri Lanka, I was using a Yongnuo flash, it cost me £40, I was using a trigger system that cost me £30, I was using an old Cannon with just a couple profile lenses. So that whole kit was about £150 for just that lighting set up.

2. Too much social media can hinder your creativity. I think if you follow trends, if you’re looking left and right constantly at what other people are doing, that’s going to hinder you and it’s going to make you less of you. So this is great tip from Austin Kleon I love, instead of taking ideas from one person, take ideas from five of your favourite photographers. Imagine five of your favourite photographers all got into the same room, they’re all going to collaborate together – what would they make if they all collaborated together? That’s what you make.

3. Reach out to other photographers and ask if you can assist them. So this is very popular in the Wedding Industry, but also in the commercial industry too. Someone reached out to me actually, his name was Sam, he said, “I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee and maybe assist you in the future.” He’s now one of my go-to assistants, he’s always the first person I call up, and he always assists me, he knows my gear, he knows how I like to work, but we wouldn’t be working together today if he hadn’t of reached out to me.

4. Step outside your comfort zone. If you don’t try new things then you’re never going to know if that lighting set up will work, if going to that location is going to work, if trying that different style of editing is going to work for you. So always step outside your comfort zone, and if it doesn’t work at least you’ve learnt something, you know at least not to do it again next time, if you have a paying client in front of you.

5. Do as much personal work as you can. The key to success is progression. If you’re not progressing you’re not succeeding. So if you find that you’re standing still for too long it’s because you’re not trying different things, you’re not stepping outside your comfort zone. Or maybe you’re looking at social media too much, you’re obsessing too much about the gear. So try new things, keep progressing and I guarantee you’ll succeed.

I know you’ve worked with some very, very big names in the industry – Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, just to name a few. So talk me through how you got involved with working with such big names?

I honestly believe it’s because of my videos. So I use my YouTube as a means of reaching out to these brands. Now when I say using my YouTube I don’t mean using the numbers, I mean using the product that I’ve created, the behind the scenes videos and using them as a marketing tool really, to approach them and say, “This is what I’ve created recently, do you want to maybe do a collaboration?”

So a lot of the people you’ve mentioned, brands-wise are people that I have actively gone to myself. I’ve stepped out of comfort zone and I have actually reached out to them, and have asked, “Do you want to collaborate? Do you want to do something?” And I like it think, again, if you show passion and if you show some of your portfolio it’s a great example – but it’s even better if you also have Behind The Scenes video’s as well.

So there’s a good example when I approached PIXAPRO, which is the lighting company I’m an ambassador for. I’ve been affiliated with them for a few years now. We had a conversation a couple of years ago, and I said to the CEO, “Just out of interest, would you have taken a chance on me if you hadn’t seen a behind the scenes video?” And he said, “Probably not.”, So i asked, “So why is that?” And he said, “Well we could see from the video how you treated the models, how you treated the team around you, how you looked after the gear. It told a story as well, so we really like that and we liked that we could potentially use that as a means of marketing our own gear.” 

That’s how I’ve been able to reach out to these brands and offer not only photographs but also video as well. And that certainly does help. If you can offer video as well as photos then it’s much more beneficial for them, as they’re getting more of a return of deliverables. 

If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice that would completely change the way that you organise your business, what would that piece of advice be?

As someone who is self employed, I am guilty of getting up when I want, doing what I want, when I want.
If I could go back, I would actually have more of a routine in place.

I remember when I first started as self employed, I was thinking, oh, my god, this is great, I can get up when I want, I can go to the gym whenever I want. And all of this good stuff. And then I realised that by not having a routine my priorities just went all over the place.

My mum always said, “There is a lot to be said about having a routine.” So now I’ve got a goal list, I write every day of what I want to do that day. If it is a day off, I try and get up, and set an alarm anyway, to get myself up and out of bed anyway, just to feel more productive.

Thank you!

Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Tommy for coming on and sharing his thoughts and ideas on building your photography business, how to gain the confidence to approach companies to collaborate with and how to push yourself as an individual to grow your business.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

Stay safe and if you do one thing this week – be true to you!

See you soon,

Sally