Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Jackson.
Hi Tara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I fell in love with photography when I was 8 years old. At the time, I had a little pinky dink point and shoot film camera and took pictures of everything – bad pictures of everything. They weren’t composed well, and they were often out of focus. But my mom kept taking the rolls of film to be developed and telling me how great my photography was.
When I was a senior in High School, I had the opportunity to take a black and white film class. I was gifted a Pentax K1000 camera and my happy place was the school’s darkroom. When we were required to meet with the high school guidance counselor, I lit up when I told her that I wanted to become a photographer after high school. Her exact response was, “You’ll never be a photographer. You’ll starve. It’s better to go into marketing.”
I left her office crushed and not looking forward to any future and enrolled in Marketing. I hated every second of it and dropped out of school and attempted to contact established photographers to see if I could assist them. Every single one told me NOT to go into photography. It was too hard and I’d never make any money.
When I was 26 I decided that that high school guidance counselor didn’t know what she was talking about… she’d never seen any of my work and her idea of being a “starving artist” was outdated and uneducated. I enrolled to finish my 4-year degree in Photography and I graduated at the top of my class.
Less than a year after graduation, I landed my first full-time photography-related job with Cato Fashions and their Retoucher. They were launching the e-commerce site and needed a full team to make it happen – from photographers to makeup artists to retouchers and coordinators. From there I went on to Lowes Home Improvement, photographing products in their warehouses to give their site constancy in the imagery.
Soon after, Rack Room Shoes brought me on to develop the e-commerce photo studio from the ground up. They wanted better turnaround and more control over their look and voice online. Our studio managed and photographed everything from basic Ecomm images to marketing projects and even employee appreciation and engagement events.
I now have my own studio and the “starving artist” idea is only true if you believe it to be true. Often, a quote my mother had hung on our refrigerator plays over in my head: “Never listen to anyone unless they are doing better than you, and there is only one way to go – UP.”
Who has any right to tell you that you can’t when it comes to your life and your future? Sure, it might be hard, and you might stumble a little… and it might put you on a path you never expected to be on. But, one thing is for sure – if you want something bad enough, and you’re willing to put the effort in without stepping on anyone else, then you can have the career you want.
You just have to decide that the future you’ve chosen for yourself is more important than what anyone else thinks you can or can’t do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This journey has not been smooth – there have been many hiccups and blockades in the way. From pro’s saying I can’t, to a generous benefactor offering to pay for my education in California at a prestigious photo school – which fell through due to another person’s jealousy and manipulation.
But none of those things matter – they all gave me lessons to build on. And they all reminded me how much I love photography. It always called me back.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I honestly do a little bit of it all when it comes to photography. My initial love was portraits… there is something about framing up a person in the viewfinder and creating a portrait of them – not a picture – because that’s something entirely different… but a portrait.
When I finished school, I wasn’t brave enough to go out on my own, so I ended up photographing products for Corporate America. I had a full-time job, with benefits and security. When Coronavirus-19 hit and corporate America began taking action to do what they thought was best for their bottom line and their personal safety, I realized my success was reliant on someone else’s permissions to do my job. That didn’t feel safe to me, especially with my history of people telling me I couldn’t.
So, I left and opened my own studio – where I shoot basically anything. But I have found a new love recently for Food Photography – something I never knew I would be good at or find so satisfying.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My best advice is to never listen to others, especially when they are telling you that you can’t, or shouldn’t. Do YOU think you can? Do YOU love this possible career? Are YOU willing to put the effort in?
It may not be easy, and it may take some time to get there – but no one is going to hand it to you, and therefore, no one should be telling you what you can or can’t do.
OBSESS over any and all information and never stop learning. Don’t wait for someone else to spoon-feed you what you need to know.
Contact Info:
- Email: tara@tarajacksonstudios.com
- Website: https://www.tarajacksonstudios.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/tarajacksonstudios
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tarajacksonstudios
- Other: Instagram.com/
greenvilleprofessionalphoto
