Start With What You Have: Photography with Asia Eidson
Asia Eidson is a 25-year-old photographer currently living in Fort Worth, Texas, where she runs her business Photobyjoy. As a missionary kid from Thailand who moved to the States for college, Asia holds a deep appreciation for adventure, and as she puts it, an obsession with getting to know people and hearing their stories. As someone who has had the joy of being in front of her camera a few times — for fun, engagement photos, and wedding photos — I can join the leagues of testimonials about her work and say she has a genuine gift for making even the most camera shy people feel comfortable and have a fantastic time. Not to mention, of course, her talent and skill in creating stunning photos. It’s been incredible to see her growth as an artist and a business woman over the years, and I actually had a really hard time editing down our conversation for this article since she had so many useful things to share for other photographers! If you’re like me, a wanna-be-someday kind of photographer who might be intimidated by the business side of the work, I encourage you to read on — Asia has all but laid out exactly what any newbie needs to know and what any more seasoned artist can still learn from. Check it out!
How did you fall in love with photography?
There was no love at first sight, it was basically like a gradual friendship that turned into a relationship and then a marriage as a career. I would not be in this place if I didn’t have a husband who was very business-oriented. Tyler gifted me a website while we were dating and said, “Asia, you’re so good at this. You connect with people in a really unique way, you make them feel comfortable and beautiful and you’re not charging anything.” The answer was obvious, “Of course not! I would never! They’re my friends!” And he said, “You love this and there’s a need — that’s a career.”
I think your in-laws took a picture of their mantel and I saw one of your engagement pictures, and I thought, “My pictures are on the other side of the world? That’s the coolest thing!” So I don’t think it’s photography itself that I fell in love with, I just fell in love with what it means to people and the chance to connect with others.
This was really sad, but I had a woman contact me saying, “I promised myself if my husband got through suicide rehab I would take family pictures so that I can remember this stage of life and that he lived.” And that’s a lot of weight as a photographer. I am capturing these family pictures because the dad keeps trying to kill himself, but because he didn’t, the wife was remembering him as he is now. So there’s constantly little moments like that when I think, “Wow, this lasts more than just a wedding or senior pictures.” This drives how I do my work. Like, I always take pictures of elderly people at weddings because you never know how much longer people have and at least they’ll have a picture of them laughing and dancing and giving advice… it’s a little bit of making history, and that’s the part I love. The business side is just what I do so we can pay bills and eat food. [laughs]
What are some of your other creative outlets or pursuits?
That has been my biggest challenge for 2017: finding other creative outlets. I read a blog the other day and I don’t know if I believe it: it said as a photographer, you’re either an artist or a business person. If you’re an artist you create from your soul, your work is moody, your work is ever-changing, your work is fine art. If you’re a business person, you look at your market, you ask what your market needs, you cater to the people around you, you network… it’s less soul. And the way Photobyjoy is growing, I’ve been forced to challenge myself in new ways and find other creative outlets, because photography as self-discovery has morphed into a career!
I think God has also been providing because Photobyjoy has found this niche of creating photos and media for small businesses, and that has been a really, really fun creative outlet. We’ve done everything from a yoga company to a concept for a portable groomsmen’s room! I thrive on solving problems, and small businesses are still figuring it out. But I’m having a hard time finding projects that don’t make money that are just fun. I’m trying to do more music since there are guitars all around my desk…
What do most people not know about your type of work or your personal creative process?
Before each shoot, I go through every text and email from the client and I see what their personality is so that I can be ready with little interactions to get natural reactions from them. I was shooting a client the other day — he was in med school, she was a nurse, so on the drive there I was thinking, what are some funny interactions I can make them do that involve science and biology, that’s nerdy and specific to them? Then on the shoot, they’re cuddling on a rock and the sun is beautiful, and I say, “I want you to whisper into her ear what part of a cell she would be if she became one.” And they busted out laughing, and of course I know that my comment was super lame and cheesy, but it evoked a real laugh! So just those little things… finding what is unique to you as a couple and how I can use that to make you laugh your head off. Sometimes I say even inappropriate things like, “Tell me your favorite things about his butt in those jeans.” That’s probably a really random thing people don’t know I do before shoots. [laughs]
There was this couple I shot that really hated wedding planning (they just wanted to elope), and with that couple I said, “I want you to look into each other’s eyes and say ‘Even though we’re having a wedding, it’s worth it because…’ fill in the blank.” Because if people are reflecting on something meaningful, you’re going to get that look.
As far as my creative process, I wish my life was more structured. I wish I had a routine where I did the same thing every morning. I live life flying by the seat of my pants… I definitely rely on the grace and mercy of my clients who deal with me because I am not the world’s most organized person. But it works somehow! I sent a client a wedding gift that was a frisbee because they met playing ultimate frisbee — I custom-ordered it, printed their names, their wedding date, then I gave it to them and the groom was like, “This is really sweet… this isn’t our wedding date.” [laughs] Ugh!
So my creative process is mostly setting deadlines for myself. It’s the only way I’ll get anything done. I watch way too much Grey’s Anatomy and stuff during wedding season, and I have favorite podcasts that I listen to… it’s just that editing photos is so mindless to me that I need something else going on in the background.
You’re one of the few artists in this collection whose day job is also one of their creative passions. Do you ever struggle to keep your love of photography nurtured through the sometimes-chaos of running your own photography business?
Yes. So much. If I was photographing really bad people or robots or something, I wouldn’t be doing this. I just end up falling in love with all the couples I get to be with. I do a lot of shoots for free that are for me, because I never just want it to be like I pick up my camera for money. At that point, we’re done. That’s a bad point. So I try to just look at what’s around me and see if I can use that as a way to connect with someone or push myself in using a camera.
For a recent shoot with friends I thought to myself, “I’ve never shot in a laundromat in ugly-ass Abilene, and I’m going to rent a lens that I’ve never used before and see what happens!” I told them it was experimental and I didn’t even know if it would look good, but that’s one of the little things I do to keep myself learning.
Shooting using pieces of glass in front of the lens to distort the light is another thing. I did a whole shoot where I used saran wrap around the lens, too. I had a prism that I tried for a little bit. A professor friend at ACU has a whole collection of steampunk cosplay: the monocles, the boots, the leather, the guns, everything that’s awesome. I picked out my friends that fit these characters I made up in my head and we just shot an entire cosplay series… it was so much fun!
I found this old stone statue store on the side of the highway and it looks like that scene in Narnia when Aslan walks in and there’s just all these stone creatures. I want to do a couple’s shoot there so bad. So that’s my next idea. Just finding odd things to photograph keeps me happy.
What helps you recharge your creative batteries?
Traveling. A change is as good as a rest in a lot of ways. When I got back from Colorado it was the first time in a while that I shot for myself — didn’t have to blog it, didn’t have to turn it in. That was really special. Coming back from southeast Asia was great, too. Your eyes get used to a different look, so when you come home you see the weird things about what’s around you.
Being outside is necessary for sanity and inspiration, physically exercising and being out of a chair and not just watching your soul waste away in front of a screen. I like to run on different trails to also scout for photo shoots. I’ll run during golden hour just to explore — I found some really cool spots doing that.
What always gets you excited about your craft?
I already talked about how obsessed I am with my clients so I’ll talk about something else. I’m excited to go back to ACU next month to give another workshop. I found I love teaching, I love being that mentor that I never had for people. This is the third time I’ve gone and I’ve seen how so many students have improved — their eye, their editing skills, their camera, we’ve talked about branding and their website, I’ve critiqued their shoots, and it’s just so neat to see them grow. That will always get me excited about picking up a camera. If I’m showing someone something or if we’re discovering something together… I get super hyped when people want to learn. I love coming alongside people and helping them get to where they want to be.
What is a daily (or regular) discipline you’re following right now, related or unrelated to photography?
Bullet journaling! It is so complex to set up but it’s the only system where I don’t have to have [pulls out multiple separate notebooks from her desk] my work, my personal, my gratitude journal, and my biblical stuff… I can put that all in one and that’s really exciting to me. I just discovered it like four days ago and I am completely sold. I can’t say it’s a hobby yet because it hasn’t been all that much time, but yeah. Bullet journaling is the bomb.
Even if you never “succeeded” in your craft, what would keep you creating anyways?
Photography is the superpower of freezing time forever, and whatever you’re freezing, that in itself is worth something. Because whether or not I’m making money off of this superpower… I mean, I’m looking at all these pictures of Tyler and I around the world, and that is worth it because my grandkids can look at those pictures.
In what ways have you improved over the past few years? What do you still struggle with?
I think I’ve gained a little more confidence, and as a photographer you need some of that. Because it costs everyone the same to have this camera, the value is in the person shooting, and that’s why some photographers can charge bajillions. If I improve myself, I add value to Photobyjoy. So I think as far as photography, I’ve improved in my clarity, my color and consistency… I looked at that first shoot of y’all that I did, and it was BLUE. What was I thinking? Were we on another planet? (I was discovering how LightRoom was working so I was just doing all the things!)
What are your creative goals right now?
Creative goals… hold up, I bullet journaled this: book a non-work-related flight. Fill my home with art. Up until two days ago the cobbler’s children had no shoes… the wedding photographer’s home had no photos. [laughs] Most of my goals involve preserving memories that I make because I spend all day doing it for other people and not myself. I still haven’t made my wedding album, our southeast Asia trip, Morocco, an album for our dating days, and an album for our first year of marriage… those are all albums I need to catch up and make because those aren’t printed or existing anywhere outside of my hard drive.
I want to book international weddings — and we’re shooting our first international wedding in Malaysia in July!
I’m considering printing out my work in some form so I can just look at what I’ve done when I’m discouraged and feel a little bit more encouraged by happy smiling couples.
I did my first bridal show recently. I thought I’d hate it, ended up loving it and booked some weddings from it, so I might make that a once-a-year thing. I’m doing another untraditional bridal event in Dallas at the end of this month where brides are competing in a race to win prizes. If a bride wants to go to a scavenger hunt show, chances are we’ll click! I love my niche because it’s couples who are grounded, love each other, love Jesus, and they’re not bridezillas, and I’m afraid if I go to bridal shows I’m gonna get the bridezillas, so… that’s my thought process on that. [laughs]
I just want to keep trying stuff I’ve never done. Like, I’m secretly dying for someone to hire me for a wedding where I’m only allowed to shoot it on my iPhone, or to only deliver black and whites, or to jump into a giant body of water in wedding attire. Stuff like that.
Are there any tools, books, or other resources you would recommend to others starting out in photography?
I’m going to preface this and say first: don’t spend money you don’t have, because you can do everything for free, it’ll just take a little bit more time and a little bit more rigging. You can make goals for yourself, like if I book this many shoots, I’ll buy this lens, if I shoot this many, I’ll invest in this, etc.
I never bought anything I couldn’t afford and here I am looking at all these paid services I have in my workflow… but I didn’t start out with them. I started out with one camera, one lens, and Google. I just used Google docs, I used checks in the mail since I didn’t have an online payment system… just build with what you have. You do not need a whole back-end system if you’re not booking tons and tons of clients. I say this because we built up to it and now we need it to handle the amount of inquiries that come in, just to save time because we’re a very small team.
I really love BlogStomp, which is a very simple program that will compress and resize images for web and will also organize them in a layout and automatically throw it onto your blog without you having to go deal with it. Things that would take me over 2 hours to do in Photoshop to layout, with this it’s one click. I love that.
I love PixieSet — it’s basically unlimited online space, and you can deliver the galleries without needing thumb drives or CDs. We’re linked with White House Custom Color as the lab, so if the clients want to print stuff, it’s easy to send them a promo code or a $10 credit. There’s a lot of incentives and we don’t even have to touch the lab, it’s all automated and we just get a small cut from it.
There are two Gmail plugins that I swear by. One is Boomerang and with that you can just tell Gmail, “Send this email back to my inbox in this many days, or two years in the future on this day, or only in 4 hours if no one responds.” Just specify when it bounces back to you. I don’t forget birthdays, I don’t forget if someone hasn’t followed up… I’ve saved so many bookings because Boomerang popped it up and the person just forgot. The other plugin I like is called Streak. You become a creeper a little bit, but you’re able to track emails you send to others and you can see if they looked at your email. I can tell when people are opening my messages in real time or if they’re just avoiding them, so I like that one a lot.
For the backend stuff we use Táve for all our contracts, our inquiries, all our client tracking, invoices, deposits, all that. It’s a beautiful thing. Very, very complex and kind of expensive, it’s like $30 a month, but it’s nice that something that used to take me 6 emails to do, it takes me one click now.
We use BlueHost for the website through WordPress with a Flothemes theme… I think that’s everything Photobyjoy uses to stay alive.
What other advice or words of encouragement would you give to other creators in your field?
Competition and putting people down is not going to help anyone. If you have this mentality going into your business that you need to “beat” everyone, you’re not going to have any friends, and I feel like the business world is just the playground but for grown-ups. “You treat me this way, I treat you this way, I know this person so let me connect you.” I’ve never invested a single dollar in a magazine publication or any traditional advertising because I just try to treat people the way I want to be treated, and I think that is really enough to just take care of Photobyjoy as a whole.
So for other business people, for other creatives, collaboration is awesome and encouraging each other is awesome. Creativity over competition is always the way to go because you always make better stuff when other people are involved.
Start from where you are, don’t go in debt, don’t think you need to have a ton of money to start a business — at least photography is really lucky in that sense where you just need a good camera and then you’re set. If you’re a calligraphist and you can’t afford all the fancy pens, start with watercolor and a brush. I think the best creatives worked their way to where they are and you don’t need to be embarrassed about not having the “newest gear” or the best of the best. Use what you have around you!
