Pat Miller hosts a discussion with wedding photography maestro Myron Fields, owner of MFields Photography, where they go deep into the enriching world of pivoting within the photography business. This conversation will challenge your thinking and inspire you to explore the unexplored avenues in your photography career.

Episode Highlights 🎤💡:

(09:38) - Curiosity and Honing Your Skills

(10:31) - Explore What Interests You

(19:02) - Love What You Make

Connect with Pat Miller ⬇

LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Myron Fields ⬇

Website | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. Let's play a game. I feel like a game. I'm gonna pause after a sentence, and you're going to fill in the blank. This is a world's first in podcasting technology. It's interactive. I can see you. I can see if you're gonna do this. Are you ready? Here's the sentence that you will repeat, but you'll put in your own junk. Hi. I'm Pat, and I'm a blank photographer. Okay? On the count of 3, and remember, I can see you if you're gonna do this or not. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3. I'm and I'm a photographer. Okay. Your identity as a photographer can sometimes be strong. You're a headshot, product, wedding, or senior photographer. What would happen just in a world that you needed to pivot away from your identity because business slowed down? Instead of just doing corporate headshots, you needed to add some product photography or senior pictures. How would you handle that? Would that make business sense? On today's episode, we're going to talk about the pivot. What kind of opportunity could it bring? How would you explore another genre to shoot? And how can you stay creative throughout that shift? We're joined with Myron Fields, a premier wedding photographer from Washington DC that has mixed in some corporate work to keep the business moving forward. How did it happen and how might you do the same? The pivot. Are you ready? We'll be back with Myron Fields. Myron, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. How are you?

I am doing well. How about yourself, Pat?

I'm doing great. I'm really excited for today's conversation because when we had the chance to talk before, you kinda opened up my mind on some different ways to think about putting our business out in the market. And I think you're gonna make some people some money. So I'm really excited about, you know, picking your brain and asking you some questions about maybe doing more than one specialty because being successful is all about focus and productivity, and dedication and not getting too crazy when it comes to chasing our business positions. For example, a photographer might be known and remembered as a wedding photographer, but a single-minded focus might back us into a corner when times are tough. Have you seen that before when someone's too focused on one thing?

You know, Pat, when I first started, everyone told me that I needed to niche down. And that was because as a beginner photographer, whatever interests me is what I would photograph. Whatever caught my eyes, I would photograph. So sometimes you'd see me photographing something that looked like a fashion editorial, and then the next one would be family photographing just a normal portrait of an interesting person. And other times, I was second shooting weddings. And other times, I would go out on, photo walks with friends here in the DC area, also known as street meets. And all of that was on my Instagram. And a very well-respected wedding photographer and friend said, “Hey, you really need to niche down and only do one thing. And whilst I appreciate that type of advice, I think it was my curiosity in those other genres of photography that expanded my abilities to photograph more than just one thing, and that one thing being a wedding. And so, whilst I do believe that it's imperative that we have a clear focus to our buyers on the things that we want to sell, I also think that it's imperative for us to understand that we can do more than one thing. With that being said, then yes. It's important to have clarity on your storefront website, social media, whatever it is, on the main thing that you do. But I think it's imperative for photographers, videographers, those who are creatives to understand that you're more than one genre of that specific niche of art.

You used an awesome word, curiosity. And that's what makes artists great is that they follow their curiosity to do something that they've never done before, or maybe no one has ever done before. In the grand scope, I can see how an artist might bristle at the thought of, “No, no, no, don't follow your curiosity.” Did you feel that?

Yeah. It's you would say that because whenever I meet someone, I'll tell them, “Hi. My name is Myron. I'm a photographer.” And, you know, later it became, I'm a wedding photographer. I was like, but I'm actually not. Then the truth of the matter is that I'm a photographer who photographs weddings. I'm not a wedding photographer. And to my buyer being a bride or groom, I'll never make that statement because they may not understand it unless they understand the plight of being an artist. So just for simplicity's sake, “Yes, I'm a wedding photographer,” to the buyer. However, I'm really not. I have more interest than just weddings. And I think that's what keeps me falling in love with weddings is because I have interests in other things. And those other things now translate into wedding photography, street photography, fashion, just small things. But I think that curiosity is what keeps me going on wedding photography, especially when we're photographing about 30 weddings a year. After a while, it could all become the same.

Sure.

That curiosity is what breaks up the monotony.

That's gotta be in a t-shirt someplace. The curiosity breaks up the monotony.

You gotta train the market first. Gotta train the market first.

Myron, little circle R. We gotta get that out. You're in DC. Just run across the street and file it real quick.

Yeah, yeah. That's great.

You said another thing that I thought was interesting that you are a photographer that does weddings. Is that your little promise to yourself that I'm an artist first and a business person second, when you say it that way?

There's a famous quote that said by a gentleman, by the way, [inaudible] it says, “Some days we're an artist, other days we're prostitutes.

And you're right.

The truth of the matter is, Pat, that I've got mouths to feed, and I can't just be out here saying, well, I'm an artist and not, you know, making sure that my family's needs are met. So sometimes I'm just working something that it's very just straightforward, and I'm okay with that. Because the truth of the matter is that I don't wanna be a starving artist; because I don't wanna be a starving artist and you don't have to be a starving artist. However, there is a road map to becoming a successful artist. And while I'm on that road map, there's a reality that I have to do some things that will pay the bills. If I don't, then I have found myself with an inability to be a successful artist, having inspiration, having time to really gather inspiration, mood boards, and create and meet teams and build teams. I can't do that if I'm out here struggling, if I'm barely surviving. So it's doing the other non-sexy work that helps me be able to focus on doing what I really want to do.

That's a great explanation. And I'm a big believer that we should be interviewing and propping up people that have actually done the thing they're talking about. And I know you've added corporate work to your wedding photography work. So tell us about that pivot and how lucrative a pivot like that might be.

I am very fortunate or blessed to be able to add corporate work to the brand of MFields Photography. And it has afforded me to travel throughout North America this year and going direct to do the same next year in 2025 with a few brands. And I'm very grateful for that. But in a down wedding market, there really isn't that much of a loss for me. Corporate work has less of a time spent with a client. You know, when you have a wedding client, I've got clients who are getting married next October, who are booking me now for their wedding. We'll do an engagement session, which is about 90 minutes. We'll do a couple of phone calls with them, maybe one with their planner, and then we'll do an 8- to 10-hour wedding day. Well, with corporate photography, especially with a brand that you photographed once before, they'll just send you the dates asking you, “Are you available?” Or are you on retainer with them? You're showing up doing the job, maybe 8 hours. The post-processing is a little bit different than a wedding, and the job, for the most part, is done. That's not to say that corporate work is easier than weddings. They both require, they both require skill. They both require you to stay curious on how to improve yourself within said niche. But if I was that one trick pony that said, “Oh, I only wanna do weddings in this wedding market,” it would not have been a successful year for us.

Let's back up. How did you go from weddings to corporate? I could see how a wedding photographer may incorporate families or other portrait work. And how do you go from wedding to corporate? Was it opportunity meeting circumstance or was it a strategic decision to say no corporate looks like a great piece of business that balances the wedding industry?

It's all three. It's my ability when studying photography, learning how to make portraits. But my curiosity said, well, I also wanna learn how to make headshots. So I gathered a couple of friends and said, “Hey, I wanna learn how to make headshots. I've watched enough YouTubes. I've read books. I've done some workshops.” So now I really wanna learn how to make good corporate standard headshots. And this is not the sexy stuff that, you know, most people want to learn how to make, but it's stuff that everyone needs. And it was that portfolio built that then led me to be able to have opportunity meet this opportunity rise and show that, yeah, I can photograph headshots. I also photograph events as well. Weddings are events, but I would like to say that, you know, my approach to weddings for the most part can be both editorial at some parts of the wedding day and documentary at the other. And so, I photographed a few corporate events that led to bigger corporate events, but it was all because of my abilities that I had honed throughout the years, whether with my curiosity when it came to portraiture or even wedding photography. Putting those two together, now we're photographing corporate events for well-known brands. Let's just put it that way.

Well-known brands. We love well-known brands. They're our favorite brands. The more well-known and the less I can mention them, the better. That's fantastic. Alright. So there's someone watching this right now that's doing product photography or they're doing high school seniors or whatever. They have never even considered maybe I can pivot. I just wanna hear it from you. It's okay to pivot. It's okay if they wanna try something new. Can you reassure someone that's a little bit skeptical?

You're photographing a wedding product, high school seniors, newborns, boudoir, architectural photography, wildlife photography, whatever it is. It's okay to pivot. You're a photographer. Your curiosity has led you to this place where you are now. Let it keep leading you. You're not a one-trick pony, or at least you don't have to be a one-trick pony. Explore what interests you.

I heard you describe a list of things that are more than just different styles of photography, different ways we could expand our business other than just different genres. Can you run down that list a little bit or talk about other ways we can diversify the business other than doing a whole new genre of photography?

It's about 2022, maybe earlier than that. I just started getting a deluge of Instagram messages of newer photographers asking me to mentor them. And as someone who believes in mentorship and having had been mentored before in both in artistry and in business, it will probably have a new mentor in some time. I believe in mentorship, but I also believe that said mentor should have a certain level of experience because I've seen the market of mentorship where you might have people offering mentorships, but may not be ready. And I never wanted to be that person. And so imposter syndrome set in and I felt that I wasn't ready. But then, through reassurance of friends and family, I just took a deep look inside and said, you know what? I could easily, with my eyes closed teach a Photography 1 workshop or Intro to XYZ. And rather than saying I'm not ready, I just started putting things together in place so I could start mentoring newer photographers. But that's what I did. But there's other photographers who I know who have great skill sets on wedding days with creating what's called the wedding day flat lay. And that's nothing more than glorified product photography. Now granted, with product photography, there's different types of lighting and things like that. But the point I'm making is that we, as photographers, we have this ability to do so many things than what we're doing. Some of it might just be if they're good at editing, especially anytime from September through November, most photographers who photograph weddings are just so swamped with post-processing. Said photographer can easily, if they're good at editing, say, you know what? I’ll switch your editing to me. I'll do it. Maybe editing isn't your thing, but admin is your thing. And you understand how as a photographer, we're both business owner and creative, and we would rather do nothing more, most of us, than be the creative. And then the business side sometimes, sometimes is lacking. If you're good or have a business degree, why not let photographers outsource their business side to you? Maybe it's email marketing. Maybe it's social media. If you're a videographer and you need more business, why not offer behind-the-scenes sessions to photographers or to other creatives to help them really showcase what it's like to do a day in the life or behind the scenes of their business? The whole point I’m making, Pat, is that there are so many things that we can do than the main theme. And these other things can be lucrative genres of business.

One of my heroes, Jack Butcher, who's a digital creator and artist. He calls it selling the sawdust. So you're an expert wedding photographer, but your process to run a wedding shoot could be productized and sold to other wedding photographers because you know how to do it already. You've proven it and done zillions of dollars in business, but someone that's just starting out doesn't know how to do the email sequence, doesn't know what order to knock down the shoots, doesn't–but to you, that's selling the sawdust. I've made the thing. Now I can resell the process. And I love the fact that you're diving into other ways to expand and diversify the business without picking up an entire product line or genre and that's always there as well. You also talked about prints and artistic work I mean, we don't need some degree from the international, you know, directory of prints to say that you could take a pretty picture and sell it on a big canvas. Do we?

You know, that is the easiest thing once you really get a good sequence and flow to it, system flow to it, are prints. People already love the image. But they're looking at it on these small things like this. It's so much better 24 x 36 or 20 x 30. And an image that size shouldn't be sold as a wallet-size image. There are also systems out there that will help you do some of the marketing of your albums and prints. Platforms like ClickTime will help you with your marketing. Nothing for me is so exciting than seeing that I sold 2 albums, and that's now the cost of one wedding. And all I have to do is send one email. This sounds easy, but what needs to be understood is that you have to have systems in place. You have to be excited about the product. If you're not excited about it, no one else is gonna be excited about it.

Let's ask a technical question. You are an expert wedding photographer. When you do pivot, do we need to pivot under the primary website, or can we create a new brand or a sub-brand to do that side work or the work that we're pivoting towards? Which do you recommend? And how would you answer that question?

Great question. My methodology is a bit of it's gonna come under the infill photography brand for a moment, but no one knows what I'm doing unless I'm my biggest cheerleader. However, I have seen others create totally separate brands, and that's great. But now you've gotta drive that traffic to that new brand. You've got to find some way to do it, whether it's marketing, email marketing, ads. You've got to find some way to do it. But my thought process is if you already have a database of users, then start to drive that traffic from that database of users to said brand. I do this sometimes just very organically in conversation. Here in DC, there's no shortage of attorneys who I photographed their weddings, people who are in politics whose weddings I photographed. And sometimes when I'm on engagement session with them, sometimes I'll intentionally mention, “Oh, yeah, tomorrow I'll photograph and catch up to XYZ law firm.” They'll say, “Wait, you photograph headshots too?” And through that small, intentional conversation, months, maybe years later, that groom or that bride is now calling saying, “Hey, I remember you said you did headshots. My company needs a photographer for XYZ Day. Are you available?” But unless you're your biggest cheerleader, no one knows what you're doing. No one's gonna be more excited about your brand than you are.

What about the impermanence of all of this? And not to get too far out there, but today you're an incredible wedding photographer. You pivot to corporate work, and it takes off. It almost goes back to what you said before. I'm a photographer that does weddings. Have you seen people that pivot and then realize they've caught lightning in a bottle, and they end up going in a completely different direction because their pivot turned out to work, and now they're starting to do less and less of what used to be their main business?

It's okay to be.

Especially for those big brands we can't name. Right?

Yeah. But I mean, I've had a friend who started out in portraiture, personal brand photography, and now she's doing food photography. And it's just like week after week, she's in a different publication, in a different editorial. This food photography now that she's doing is top-tier. It looks like something that comes straight out of a magazine, and it's only been about two and a half years. I love that pivot for her. She's a hell of a lot happier. You know, when you're photographing food, you don't have to worry about your food being late. You don't have to worry about your food having a bad attitude, bad hair day. Great. I know I'm joking and making light of it, but it's okay to make that pivot and never go back to the previous genre of photography. I highly doubt that I'm gonna be 60, 70 years old photographing weddings. I should not be. Our bodies change. It's called aging. It's a beautiful thing. This past weekend, I was on a ladder that was probably 20 feet in the air. There'll be some video footage or something floating around about it. I was making a group photo. Even at 41, I said, “Oh, wait. This is kinda risky.” At 21, I would have been up that ladder; 41, it's different, but at 71, I should not be doing that. And so I do believe that it's okay to make pivots. And as long as you're doing what you love, I think that's fine.

And I think that might be a great way to end the conversation as long as you're doing what you love. It's fine. Take the genres out of it. When you hold a camera, what do you love about it? What do you, Myron, love about doing what you do?

Doctor. Exactly. Exactly. And it's the curiosity. Sometimes it's storytelling within an image. And in a world that at times can be very ugly, sometimes it's just nice to make something that's beautiful. And so whatever it is that I'm doing, I make sure that I love what I'm doing and just do that. And it's a blessing to be able to make money supporting my family doing that.

Myron Fields, thanks for joining us on The Professional Photographer Podcast. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Pat, for the opportunity.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast. We are already cooking up our next episode. Before you go, can I ask a small favor? If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe and leave us a comment wherever you're watching or listening. Your feedback helps us know we're bringing you the content that you need and love, and it helps our guests know what they're saying that's actually connecting with you, the photographer. And if you're a photographer and you're not a member of Professional Photographers of America, uhh, hello? You're truly missing the boat. PPA offers incredible resources like equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA, you belong here. Discover more about membership at ppa.com. That's ppa.com. Again, I'm Pat Miller, Founder of the Small Business Owners Community. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We appreciate it. Your support means everything. We'll be back soon with more tools to help you build your business with The Professional Photographer Podcast. See you next time.