How Personal Projects Can Launch Your Photography Business | Jada & David Parrish

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. What if you could do exactly what you love to do, exactly for the people you want to do it for? And what if you didn't have to charge? You could start following your curiosity and get to the heart of your creative vision, and then it turns into a gigantic business on the back end. It sounds too good to be true, right? Doing exactly what you love, traveling the country and the world, creating art that you're on the planet to create. Ah, that'll never happen to me. Well, it'll never happen to you with that kind of attitude, and it will never happen to you unless you take the risk of trying. We get to hear a great story today. Jada and David Parrish are coming on the show to talk about their 100 Set Project. In the heart of the pandemic, they followed their curiosity, took on an impossible challenge, shared the whole thing on social media, and magic happened. You need to hear this story, and you need to hear their advice on how you can do it too. This is an episode you don't want to miss. Jada and David are standing by. We'll talk to them next. Jada and David, it's great to have you on the podcast. How are you today?

David Parrish: 01:20

Great.

Jada Parrish: 01:21

Happy to be here.

David Parrish: 01:23

Stoked to be here.

Pat Miller: 01:24

Yeah. I'm stoked to hear about the 100 Set Project. I know a little bit about it, but I can't wait to get behind the scenes. But I think everyone needs to know who you are and what you do. Let's start there, and then I want to get into how you got to where you are. But first, the straight intro. If we met you at a networking meeting, how would you introduce yourself?

Jada Parrish: 01:40

Okay, well, I would say I'm Jada.

David Parrish: 01:44

And I'm David.

Jada Parrish: 01:46

And we combine photography and set design to create surreal worlds and take very wild, loud, colorful photos inside of them.

Pat Miller: 01:56

And that's the truth. When we see your work online, it looks just from another planet. It is so cool. It's the 100 Set Project. I can't wait to hear how we got there. But go back to the wedding photography days. Tell us about how you got to this point and how you started the project, because I think your story will be relatable to a lot of people.

Jada Parrish: 02:17

Yeah. So David and I, we had just started dating. I graduated college, and I was studying photography in college, and getting a job was a hard thing at that moment in life. And people just started to ask if I could take some family photos for them. And family photos starting to happen, which eventually led to someone asking, "Hey, can you photograph our wedding?" And David and I, we had never done anything like that before. We only even had one camera at the time, but we were like, yes, sure, we got it. We'll do it. And so we shot that first wedding, got all the gear we needed, figured it out, and it went really well. And that wedding led to another wedding and another wedding, and it just this whole wedding photography career just started to unintentionally snowball to the point where we were photographing 30 plus weddings a year. And we expanded to do not only photos but videography and photo booths as well. So it was just this we were all in, everything wedding. Like, it was everything to us.

Pat Miller: 03:34

And then 2020 happened. David, what happened then?

David Parrish: 03:38

Yeah, so 2020 happened. And I just remember looking at Jada and being like, do you think people are gonna start canceling weddings? Like, is this gonna be a–and she was like, no way. No way at all. And the next thing you know emails start coming in, the phone starts ringing, and everybody's just so stressed out, obviously, and they don't know what to do. And the weddings just slowly got started getting canceled and postponed, and all the big question marks of what are we going to do? So, yeah, so it turned pretty dark for us personally, because we were on such a high with our business, and it was going to be the best year that we ever had, and we were so excited for it, and everything just changed pretty quickly.

Pat Miller: 04:22

And that happened to so many people that we had a plan, and then life happened, and we had to go a different direction. And Jada, you shared that there was an added complication in 2020. Not only did the pandemic happen to you, but you had just signed a lease for a studio. Is that right?

Jada Parrish: 04:40

Yeah, we had these two small little studios right next to each other that we've been using, and they were tiny, but they met the purpose of what we needed. One was our office, and one was our studio. But then this opportunity came up for this big, beautiful photo studio. And David and I were like, yeah, let's do it. So we signed the lease, and we officially moved into that studio in February of 2020. And then literally a month later. It was very traumatic, and we were even scared. The studio was in a building with a bunch of other studios. So we were scared to like, even go to the studio for a long time. So it truly sat completely empty for like several months.

Pat Miller: 05:28

And that's where I think it's super relatable. I think everyone that's been in business for the last five years will remember what was it, June or July, maybe August of 2020, when we realized, oh boy, this is a career destiny changer of a situation. So you had this killer wedding business. Now you've got a killer expense every month. You've got no clients. So David, what did you do? How did you handle that? How did you act?

David Parrish: 05:55

Well, for the business and luckily, at that time, I had bought this camera that's called the Matterport 3D camera, like 3D scans of homes and stuff. And that happened to be online. And out of nowhere, like a bunch of realtors and stuff started contacting me to use this camera to create tours for people to see their spaces. So financially, that was like the saving grace for us. We were like, okay, this is going to keep us going. So at the same time, we were trying to figure out what to do with our career. And we kind of both wanted to explore something new and use this as an opportunity to explore something new. And I looked at Jada and I was like, maybe you could focus on learning how to pose really well and I could focus on maybe how to studio light really well, and we can kind of take this time to practice and make a new skill for ourselves.

Jada Parrish: 06:51

Yeah, and like, just like to rewind even a little bit. So literally right before COVID happened, we went to WPPI and that year, it was like at the very end of February, beginning of March. And while we were there, I saw Lindsay Adler's posing book and picked that up, and I was like, oh, I've never messed around with much studio work. Like, let's explore this. And David got Chris Knight's lighting book, the Dramatic Portrait, and was like, ah, studio lighting would be fun to explore. So we had those two books sitting on our shelf at home. And they kind of became like the inspiration as we started to move into the studio work.

Pat Miller: 07:36

Now taking that time as a study hall. Looking back on it was brilliant and inspired, and you two must be geniuses. But at the time, the rest of us were sitting on the couch watching Netflix, waiting for the next episode of Ted Lasso. Like, we were just kind of, you know, taking it as downtime and feeling miserable about ourselves. Is that in your nature? Like, did that come to you naturally to think, wait, we have downtime. Let's get better. Or was this a unique, new kind of, or uncommon thing for you two to take on at that time?

David Parrish: 08:10

I think that I always like to learn new things and put my energy somewhere. And I think at first we were doing that. We were sitting on our back deck drinking glasses of wine, trying different rosés out. You know that kind of started happening. But I think just by my nature, I need to learn and discover and keep pushing myself. So I let myself feel that situation happen. Like what now? Should we just sit? Should we do nothing? And then it didn't move into this thought we got to do something. We have this studio. Like, we can. We can go to the studio, what are we doing type of thing.

Jada Parrish: 08:49

There is definitely a period of depression, but I think that also our hobby together is working together and creating together. So it's like, it is work, but it's how we connect at the same time. So I think no matter what we're doing, even when we go on a vacation there's always a photo shoot that ends up happening. It's just a part of us. Yeah.

Pat Miller: 09:17

It's just who we are, and I can totally respect that. So, Jada, you're working on posing. David, you're working on lighting. But I'm still missing something because when I look at your work now, if I only had one word to describe it, it would be color. Where did color come from? And how did you start playing with color? And is that what led to the 100 Sets?

David Parrish: 09:41

Yeah. So I guess if you were to go all the way back to our wedding photos, we have always been very colorful photographers. Like, boost saturation, lots of contrast. Like, that's like who we are as photographers in general. And so when we ended up in the studio, we ended up on Savage's website to look up through the paper backdrops, and we just went straight for the brightest colors. And that's where we started, was with the paper backdrops, and we really did get the brightest colors.

Jada Parrish: 10:11

Yeah, we wanted baby blue one, the teal-ey blue, and light pink, and had a lot of fun with those. And we started doing shoots just on those paper backdrops, these kind of like–I was very much influenced by Lindsay Adler's book. So the photos that we started to do were kind of playful, fun, like it was summertime. So they're very playful, fun, colorful like fashion photo shoots. Just on those backdrops. And then what really brought the color in though, big time, was when David had the idea to start building sets for the photos. And that allowed us then to then we could go to the paint store and pick any color we wanted. And that alone just was mind-blowing for me, being able to choose the wildest, most loud colors we could find.

Pat Miller: 11:10

Let's dig into that, David. So you have this inspired idea to build sets. Where did it come from? Do you remember the moment where you thought, I know what we could do and what the first set was?

David Parrish: 11:21

Yeah. When I was in high school, I did theater. I was really, really into theater. I spent my whole high school, and I spent as much time out of classroom, in the theater building stuff. So I would always get math class. Oh, there's nothing going on, oh, I'm going to the theater.

Jada Parrish: 11:37

I can contribute to that because we went to high school together. And I also did theater, but I was on the acting side of it, and he was on the stage side. Man, was he serious. He was so laser focused when he was doing theater.

David Parrish: 11:51

I really loved it. I probably should have gone that route.

Pat Miller: 11:54

Well, and it's true that you're the set guy, because high school theater, you're always wearing a black T-shirt. You still have a black T-shirt on today. So it's really, you know–so you're high school theater, you're building sets, and?

David Parrish: 12:08

So we were doing the paper backdrops, and the pictures were cool, but I had this thought of I wonder what would happen if we were to shoot into a corner of a room. And it kind of turned into a little bit of a debate between Jada and I because Jada was like, you don't see anybody shooting in the corners of rooms. It's always flat. You don't want shadow, all that stuff. So we got in a bit of a little debate on whether or not that was a bit of a good idea or not. But I was like, let me just try. I know how to build these walls, which are called Hollywood flats in the theater world. And so let me just build these walls and we can paint them and we can try to do a photo shoot. So basically, I remember our first one. It was a grapefruit shoot, right?

Jada Parrish: 12:48

Yeah. It honestly kind of looked like what's behind us right now. It was like a corner of a room just like this. And I think it was painted actually the same color.

David Parrish: 12:56

That's funny.

Jada Parrish: 12:57

And the girl was wearing a navy blue dress that had these corally-colored grapefruits on it. And so we color match the orange-y pink color to the grapefruit of her dress to tie it together.

David Parrish: 13:12

And it was just a corner of a room. And it just looked to me like I was like, wow, really, really, really cool.

Jada Parrish: 13:20

Yeah. At that point, I was like, okay.

David Parrish: 13:24

Yeah, it was a really cool shoot. And then my imagination at that moment just took off because I'm like, if I can build just a corner room, like what else can I build?

Pat Miller: 13:35

And matching the outfits and using shadow and not shooting flat like everybody else does. You were creative play. Right? You were trying something new because of the time that you had available. Do you think you would have gone down this road if you had a busy wedding calendar?

David Parrish: 13:53

So it's interesting because it's–when did it start?

Jada Parrish: 13:59

Like, when did we start?

David Parrish: 14:00

Yeah. When was that first shoot?

Jada Parrish: 14:02

That shoot? Yeah, that was like July of 2020.

David Parrish: 14:07

Yeah, I think so. To answer your question, I think so. Because if you go forward in the timeline, or the wedding starting back up again and we continue to do this creative play consistently through that. So I do think, I don't know if we would ever have gotten into this if 2020 didn't happen. I don't think we would ever started it, I don't think. But we would–

Jada Parrish: 14:33

I think we would have stopped doing weddings.

David Parrish: 14:34

Yeah.

Jada Parrish: 14:37

We were getting burnt out.

David Parrish: 14:39

Yeah.

Jada Parrish: 14:39

Because at that, I mean, at that point, it had been like 7 years of 30 plus weddings a year. Like, no weekends ever. It was very intense. And I think that there really is a limit to like how many weddings you can shoot before you get jaded by that experience. And it had hit a point for me where the bride and groom would walk up the aisle and I completely would forget. Like, oh, my gosh. This is the most magical moment. I would go into logistic mode. Okay, now I need to get them here. I need to line up the people for family photos. Like, that emotional aspect. I think that you need to be like a good wedding photographer. Like, it was out the window for me. I was completely burnt out by it. And so I think it may have taken us a little longer to get out of it. But–

David Parrish: 15:29

Yeah. I think you're right, because even us picking up those books before any of this happened, there was some retention. Like, we need to figure something out.

Jada Parrish: 15:38

There's some desire.

David Parrish: 15:38

There's desire. Yeah. So, yeah, I think no matter what, something new would have happened in our life, but it definitely was an accelerator.

Pat Miller: 15:46

I'm going to butcher the quote, but luck is where opportunity and preparation meet. Is that it? It's something like that. I mean, it sounds like you had the opportunity and you were ready to go, not only creatively play, but because you were good at what you did, the image turned out. If you weren't good at doing what you're doing, the corner would have looked terrible. I mean, do you realize how ready you were for all of these planets to align?

Jada Parrish: 16:09

I hadn't really–

David Parrish: 16:10

I haven't thought about that either. Yeah.

Pat Miller: 16:12

It's pretty incredible. Alright, so let's get into the 100 Sets Project. So thank you for the backstory. It's important that I think everybody hear that because a lot of us went through that time and really wondered what was next. And you discovered what was next, and now it's your thing, and it's really cool. So you did the first set. Then the 100 Sets Project comes. How did you go from there to there? And what is the 100 Sets Project?

David Parrish: 16:39

So we ended up doing a couple more before the 100 Sets Project. And then it was going into a new year. And I'm really big on starting the first day of a new year with my intentions of what I want the rest of the year to be about. So I think it was–I guess I had that idea. I was like, let's, on January 1st, do one of these sets, and we'll do a hundred of them in 2021. And that was the goal. And Jada was like, okay, let's do it.

Jada Parrish: 17:11

No idea why a hundred, but the number in that [inaudible/crosstalk]. I was like, okay. So we committed, made that decision to do that, and we decided that January 1st on 2021 was going to be the first shoot. And my sister was supposed to be the model for that shoot, but she got COVID so she couldn't do it. And it was like a really big–it would have been really easy for us to just be like, ah, forget it. This is a bad idea. Like, we'll start it later or something. But we decided just to do it anyways. And I was actually the model in that first shoot, and David photographed it. And then from there, we just kind of kept building on it.

David Parrish: 18:02

Yeah. And at first, we were spending a lot of time on the builds, and we would try to do one a week, one every two weeks. But our minds weren't really like, oh, shoot, like to do a hundred in a year, you kind of have to do more than just like one every two weeks.

Jada Parrish: 18:19

We didn't realize that until like March. And so it like hit us, all of us, like we were just having fun doing it. We were really all in with it, but we were just having a good time, like being very thoughtful and meticulous. And like, some of the first shoots, one of them is beautiful. David built this entire blue bedroom set with all these wonky angles and curves. It was so cool. But yeah, we realized in March that there was no way we were going to hit our hundred set goal if we kept going at that pace. So then we had to ramp things up a lot. And we started doing like three to four shoots a week sometimes–

Pat Miller: 18:59

Wow.

Jada Parrish: 19:00

–to catch up.

David Parrish: 19:02

It was insane.

Pat Miller: 19:03

All right, I want to get back to the production schedule in a second, but I can't help but point out it's really beautiful that you were the first talent because back in the day you were on the stage and David was building the sets. So that's kind of cool, actually. So very poignant. There's one other structural thing before we get back to the production schedule. Structural thing, you could charge a zillion dollars for these sets. These photos are gorgeous. But you didn't take payments. What? Why? What was the decision there? We're gonna work like crazy and do essentially two of these a week for a year. But you weren't charging, is that right?

Jada Parrish: 19:43

Yeah. So that, with the weddings, it was all about–it was like a very much a service-based business, and it was all about pleasing the client. And the way our wedding business started, it was so unintentional. Like, the clients just started to come. And I know that was like not a circumstance that a lot of wedding photographers have, but we were just very fortunate.

David Parrish: 20:06

We were in the right place at the right time.

Jada Parrish: 20:07

Yeah. And so our wedding business took off so quickly and we didn't ever really have time to think about what kind of photographers do we want to be? What kind of photos do we want to be taking? It just became such a like meeting the client's needs, figuring out who our client was and like what services and what can we do to please them? And after seven years of that, we were kind of sick, and it just kind of hit us what do we even want to take pictures of? Like, who are we as photographers and artists? And I don't think we knew the answer to that at all at the time. So we made the goal of this 100 Step Project and set the intention that this was like just for us. This was for us to discover our creativity again, to push our boundaries, just to see what came out of us without any rules. Because we were so surprised by what we were making that we just kind of needed to see what it was because we didn't understand anything.

Pat Miller: 21:10

Yeah, and that's so great when you get to that true creativity and that real inspiration point, that's where you can find your voice like you say. So let's get back to the production schedule. It's May, and you realize we're not going to make it at this point. So now you have to go fast and break things. David, did that help that you could go fast and break things? That you got to really step on it and the production pace, did that aid the creativity?

David Parrish: 21:36

Yeah. I don't know if I'm a procrastinator, but I think I'm a procrastinator, and I work better under pressure. So like give me four weeks to do something. I'll wait till the week it's due, and feel like having like that every single–every like two to three times a week, I had to wake up in the morning, we come up with like a concept, we go to the paint store, we find an outfit, then we put everything together and have a shoot at night. Like doing that, I was so happy. And it made some of our best work were the days when we walked in with no ideas and just created something in a single day. And so I am a procrastinator and I work well with parameters. And so that situation made the perfect little stew for me to work within.

Pat Miller: 22:24

How long did it take for Home Depot and the paint stores to wonder if you guys needed a part-time job or something? I can't imagine how many trips you made.

David Parrish: 22:31

It's funny that the people at the paint store, they all follow us. They started following us.

Jada Parrish: 22:38

We're still. Yeah, and they're always excited when we come in with what color we're gonna get them to mix up.

Pat Miller: 22:46

I can't help it. The conversation of not charging and how beautifully distinct your work is. Are you now sponsored by Sherwin Williams or Behr Paint? Like you do have an endorsement at this point, don't you?

David Parrish: 22:58

That's like a dream that there'll be.

Jada Parrish: 23:02

I pitch Sherwin Williams so many times, and they responded. I sent emails, but never heard anything past that. So they are missing out.

David Parrish: 23:12

But, yeah, we are big Sherwin Williams fans.

Pat Miller: 23:15

We are all over the YouTube, Sherwin Williams. And we know that you're reading this and hearing this, so we need to hook these two up. They're making your paint look the best out of anywhere on the planet. You got to see their website. Okay, blatant plug. All right, so you're living in a paint store. You're now double timing to try and get a hundred sets done in a year. Did you make it?

David Parrish: 23:37

We made it, which is great news. But we were exhausted because our weddings did start back up. So we were working weddings, and the photos started coming. Did family photos as well. They started happening again. We were doing two to three shoots a week. It was–

Jada Parrish: 23:50

Our calendar in 2021 was insane.

David Parrish: 23:53

Yes. I recently looked back at it. It was just full of color, you know, like all the squares of things that we were doing. But, yeah, we made it. And did we make it on the last day of the year?

Jada Parrish: 24:03

Yeah, we did. The last shoot was with me and David, and it was December 31st of 2021.

Pat Miller: 24:12

Amazing. So you get done. And David, you say that you're big about New Year's resolutions. So what did you decide to do when the challenge was over?

Jada Parrish: 24:22

Honestly, we were grieved a little bit. It was like, we had so much focus and so much purpose throughout this project where it wasn't–we weren't thinking in the future so much of what are we going to do with all this work? The goal was just make the work, make the work. And so then when we finished it, it was kind of like, one, we're sad that we didn't have the same level of purpose that we had with these shoots because they had become such a like, they're so fun for us and we really weren't sure. So it honestly took us like a couple months of like–

David Parrish: 25:04

To answer your question, I can't remember what we did on that–

Jada Parrish: 25:08

That new year?

David Parrish: 25:08

I should look back at my journal and see. So, but I–

Jada Parrish: 25:11

But I mean, that's why–

David Parrish: 25:15

I think in my head, for whatever reason, I was like, we will hold off taking this work and then out of–once we've finished this goal, then it's going to be a snowball effect and people are just going to be hiring us like crazy. We're going to be traveling the world making this art, and it's going to happen immediately. And that's not like what happened whatsoever. And so, like what Jada was saying, I think we got such a high from doing that whole project. And then, I think it did go into a period of grieving of like, what do we do next? Like, what's next for this project? Why aren't people hiring us? Like, it was complicated and confusing.

Jada Parrish: 25:49

Yeah. And at that point, we announced in 2020 that we were going to stop taking weddings. And all of our bookings lasted pretty much through 2021, into the beginning of 2022, so we had to finish all those out. But then, like after March of 2022, that was like it for our wedding business too. So it was like two big things in our life, like kind of closed and ended at the same time. And we were like, okay, now what?

Pat Miller: 26:22

Yeah, and it's mid-January, you're sitting there, your weddings are winding down, the 100 Set Project is over. How did you turn this into a business? When did the phone start ringing, and how did you navigate this to where you are now?

Jada Parrish: 26:39

It was a journey. Honestly, I think that the first exciting thing that happened was I submitted our photos from the 100 Set Project to a photo contest, the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards. And one of our favorite photographers, who also was like a huge influence of the work that we made during the 100 Set Project was one of the judges for it and we got shortlisted for it, and they had like–we were one of the finalists for it and we got to go to Abbey Road for this big award ceremony and got to meet, the photographer was Rankin. And it was very surreal and very cool and we were like, whoa, that's nuts, that this photos that we took just for fun, like landed us in this moment. And so then that really sent me down a road of like, where else can I submit our photos to? So we did a lot of photo contests, made a lot of art galleries, just really started to get our work out there as much as we could, and then really ramped up our social media because we've been sharing like the behind-the-scenes and stuff as we were doing the 100 Set Project, but we had so much content that we had captured that we never really did anything with. So then we kind of went into like editing and marketing phase of just how can we get more people to see what we're doing. And that eventually led to us starting to attract some clients who really aligned with what we were doing. And our first big gig was for we did an album cover for Olivia Jean. She's an artist signed under Third Man Records. That was like, such a surreal thing because it was the first time we really got hired just for this new work. And the poses that she wanted to do and all of it, she wanted the weird poses. She wanted to be upside down. She wanted to be splatted out on the ground. And that just really blew my mind. That all that play and just randomness we did actually attracted ideal clients.

David Parrish: 29:04

Yeah, it's interesting. The same way that I put kind of like we're not taking money during this project. I kind of put rules on who I would work for in a way. I didn't want to take this art and just shift it to get a client. I wanted to create art and find the clients that wanted this art, which was a lot harder than just like, kind of shifting, emerging to what you wanted, what other people want. And so we created this niche thing. So we had to create a social outlet that helped us find the clients and appreciate what we do.

Jada Parrish: 29:44

Because we're not in a big city either, where there are tons of people who have large budgets to pay for this work. We live in Richmond, Virginia, which is a pretty small city. And so social media really became our big outlet of having so many other people all over the place see what we're doing. And it ended up most of our clients, there's really nobody who books us in Richmond. Like, we're always traveling other places for these photo shoots for our clients.

Pat Miller: 30:21

It is, I think, the most Instagrammable work in the world. Like, the work is so unique and so cool and so distinct. I would imagine that your Instagram grew to 11 billion people over the pandemic.

Jada Parrish: 30:36

It grew. There's a story there too. I mean, we've always loved Instagram. Even with our wedding photography. Like, Instagram was a very important part of it. But during the 100 Sets Project, we were growing our Instagram account. We were about to hit 15,000 followers. And then we woke up one morning and it was gone. Like, removed, taken down, account did not exist anymore. And it was pretty heartbreaking.

David Parrish: 31:08

Yeah, because that was a place where we were connecting with people. Like, we put model calls out. We were growing a community of people that wanted to be Involved with it, people from afar and everything. So it was a big loss right in the middle of the project.

Jada Parrish: 31:22

They were our encouragement that kept us going when it got hard. It was all these nice comments and messages that people would send. And so it got removed, and we waited like a month kept appealing it, kept thinking it's going to come back. It's going to come back. Never did. And then in the middle of the 100 Sets Project, we had to start a new Instagram account, which is the one we have now, and build it back up, but it grew so much faster than the other one ever did, so.

Pat Miller: 31:54

Very cool. All right, let's go back to the first gig. You shoot the musician and it goes well. They were happy with what you ended up doing. Were you happy with the work the first time you took money for doing something that you were doing for fun?

David Parrish: 32:06

Yeah, it was. It was incredible. And there were so many challenges because it had to travel from where we are in Virginia to Nashville, and it was just so much fun. It was like every single thing that we had been, I guess, rehearsing and practicing came together, and it was, in my opinion, flawless. And then to see it as like a printed album cover, I mean, can't beat that. It was an amazing feeling. Yeah.

Jada Parrish: 32:33

And yeah, it was surreal. And then we went to the album release show and it was just so cool to see everyone was holding up the album and it was on,–the photos were on bags and stickers and all this merch.

David Parrish: 32:48

Yeah, it was sick.

Jada Parrish: 32:48

It was really cool.

Pat Miller: 32:49

You know what's so cool? I just gotta say, doing this show, I've had a chance to talk to a lot of the big time photographers like you, but some of the big time photographers yeah, you know, I won the world thing, and I did the thing and did the thing and you guys were like, we did the thing and it was awesome. And it's like, so beautiful to see someone so happy with their gift. I just–I love that. So please never change. It's just. It's awesome. All right, so you do that and business starts to come. Like, how did the momentum build to where you are now?

David Parrish: 33:22

It was low still. Like–

Jada Parrish: 33:24

It was a slow burn.

David Parrish: 33:25

There was all these moments where I thought that it was going to be like, this is it. This is now gonna take off. Because our previous business, that's what it was. It was we got a wedding, got another wedding, we got another wedding. It just kept growing really fast. And I was expecting the same speed with this new concept. And unfortunately, that wasn't the truth behind it. It was lots of successes, then like a little bit of like, okay, what's happening next? What's happening next? And then a success again. So completely different pattern. And I'm not sure if it's because we picked kind of a nichier thing or we weren't serving our direct community around us, but yeah, it definitely was a bit of a lull again. And we just kind of went back and focused on building the structure and the foundation of the business on how we wanted it to be.

Jada Parrish: 34:15

Yeah, this whole new business has been so much more intentional than our last one was. We've approached it at like a much steadier pace in terms of like, we're very specific about the clients that we want to attract it. There is like a 'we want creative clients'. We want musicians, we want fashion designers, we want creative brands. We don't necessarily want to be serving the people within our community on like, a more personal level. It's definitely more commercial work. And so we've been very intentional about that. And also through just I feel like creative careers are never a straight line. And you have to be very creative about the way you approach a creative career. So throughout this whole process, we've been kind of like trying to find all of these different opportunities within it. And something that has been a surprise to me and something that we never really expected was the behind the scenes content that we capture through doing these photo shoots. I never realized how valuable content like that is for brands and people who need some social advertising. And so that has been like a really useful tool within our business. Even when we are working on a client project, there's still like another opportunity to pull in revenue from all of these other different directions that all kind of come together.

Pat Miller: 35:54

I would be committing podcast malpractice if we didn't go down the road of asking about, okay, what did you learn about launching a personal project? And I want to learn how someone else might be able to do what you did. But I want to share one last observation and get your feedback on it. I don't think your project would have worked had you compromised the fact that you were going to shoot these people in this way and not anyone else. I don't think it would have worked. Because if you took a job for Staples, wouldn't that have killed the whole thing if you had compromised your intentionality?

Jada Parrish: 36:30

I think so.

David Parrish: 36:31

I think so too. I kind of have two responses. First off, my dad is an art director. He's in the ad world. That's the type of work that he makes. And I think it's really cool and like proud of everything that he makes, but it's not really my cup of tea in a way. I like making images that can be hung on the wall and people look at and feel something from. And that's like really what excites me. And so, yeah, I think I could have done a really good job at doing something for Staples, but I don't think it would be my soul. And so like what we have done and the rules and guidelines that we have created has been more to feed my soul. But I think by doing that it's helping inspire and motivate other people to create art in that way.

Jada Parrish: 37:24

Yeah, I think that this business, while our wedding photography business was primarily like service-based first and like art second. This business is we are artists first. And if that also meets someone's need, then like that's a beautiful juxtaposition there. But it's served us really well now because when people do come to us, like if someone inquires with us, like it gets booked every time is when people see our work and that's what they want. We are the people that do that work. Like you're not going to find other people doing our style. Like it's, it's ours. And so it's really helped us like attract clients who like align with our vision, align with our values, but also has given us like more creative freedom, I think, than if we were to have presented ourselves more so as photographers needing a service because clients–even that first job that we booked our contract for, that was a little bit different than their standard photography contract because they viewed us as artists and they gave us a certain amount of creative liberties and freedom, rights to things that I don't think that they would have a traditional photographer. And ever since all of our contracts have always been very we have so much creative freedom. And that is, I think no matter who the client is or how big the client ever is, that always has to be like at the center of it because it's so disappointing to work really hard on something and then look at it and think like, I don't like it, like that's not what I wanted that to be. And this work just feels too close to us, I think, to allow that to happen.

Pat Miller: 39:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, David, you get to be so picky because you're successful. No, we're successful because we're so picky. That's accurate. Yes.

David Parrish: 39:28

Yeah.

Pat Miller: 39:30

Perfect. With that as a backdrop, let's get to how we can help someone else launch a personal project. So if someone's thinking, I have a vision, I have a dream, there's something I want to do. Jada, coach them up. What. Where should they start? How should they formulate their thoughts around doing something like you did?

Jada Parrish: 39:50

I would say at first, don't think about it too much. Just if we're speaking to photographers, just pick up your camera and start shooting. Just start shooting, whatever. And I think that pretty quickly you'll get a sense of something that maybe you're a little bit more interested in than something else. And then within that, kind of just beat it to death. So if you're into portraits or headshots–if you're into headshots, give yourself some really tight parameters of the format that the headshot has to be, and just start to have so many different people come in, start to play. But it all has to be within these very distinct parameters. And how can you make each shot be different? How can you change up the lighting? How can you change up the pose, how can you change the energy? How can you do all of these things to create so much variation within these tight parameters? So I guess parameters, set your parameters, define your parameters is the most important part to starting a project I think.

David Parrish: 40:57

And maybe rewind just a little bit. I think something that really helped both of us was to feed our mind with so much inspiration, and not in the sense of inspiration of looking at other people that are doing the same thing, but inspiration all over the place, like architecture, paintings, movies, all those type of things, and just fill your mind with so much visual influence that when you close your mind–your eyes at night, you can see these images, and that will help kind of create a world that you can then create the parameters to start what you're shooting.

Jada Parrish: 41:32

Yeah, and I think that once you have the inspiration, you define your parameters, come up with some sort of you have this much time to do it, this much money to do it. It's like in some sort of deadline for yourself, I think is important. And I also believe it's important to share publicly. Like, if you are going to set out on some sort of creative project, like sharing it and getting other people involved with It, I think, is what ultimately made David and I actually do it. Because we would every month, we would pull up the calendar and we would be like, okay, so we need to do three shoots a week, every week this month to stay on course and meet the goal. So we would plan it, we'd book–I call them models, but they're just people on Instagram who reply to wanting to model in our photo shoots–so they would write them down that we had them booked to model that day. And then once we knew we had someone else involved and someone else had committed their time to doing this project with us, it really made us be much more accountable. And no matter how uninspired we were feeling that day or how tired we were, it was kind of this someone else is showing up for us, so we have to figure this out and show up for them. And that, I think, really is what got us through.

Pat Miller: 42:56

We've declared our parameters, we've shared it with the world, we've gamified it. So we know we need to do X by Y or whatever your constrictions are going to be. Does this personal project need to be something that totally changes their studio like it did for you, or can it be kind of a side quest just to fuel their creativity?

David Parrish: 43:15

I think it's a side quest. I think it's important to have side quests, too. And I think it gets. It can take over your studio if it takes over your life, but it also can just add to what you're already doing. And it could just be an exercise to help you be more creative or be able to tap into creativity quicker.

Jada Parrish: 43:33

Yeah, and I think, too, if you're into one type of photography, it might be a nice challenge to make your project be about a different type of photography. That's kind of what we unintentionally did where we were mostly doing event photography outdoors. And we were like, okay, let's try the studio thing. And that opened up this whole new context. And we mostly do people, but what an interesting next project it would be for us to only do products. Like, what would that look like? Like, I think that kind of gets you out of your head a little bit and takes you away from–I don't know, sometimes just as a photographer, I can get in my head sometimes thinking I always need to take a good picture. And sometimes when you're doing something different, I think that pressure kind of releases itself because you're like, oh, I'm trying something new. This is just experiment. Like it doesn't have to be perfect. Like I'm just trying and that gives you a little bit more freedom.

Pat Miller: 44:35

I'm not sure if there's a Brinks truck big enough to hold all the money you two would make if you started doing product photo. I can't imagine the product photography money that would rain down on you like a thunderstorm if you decided to do that. But that's a side quest we're not going to go into. I want to get after the person that's watching this, that loves your work, that is so inspired right now, and they just, they need a nudge. How are they feeling, like the right person to go on one of these side quests, what is in their heart right now and what would you tell them to jump?

Jada Parrish: 45:09

I would say that if you are feeling burnt out, if you are feeling uninspired by whatever you're shooting right now, or just like bored in general. Like if that means you should do a jump, like try something new, explore, experiment because that means that you've gotten way too comfortable with whatever you're doing. It's no longer a challenge for you. Not saying you haven't mastered, but like that, that level of like problem solving and excitement is gone from that. So it's time to expand a little bit, widen the net, and just try something new. And what's so cool is like sometimes just trying the new thing makes what you already do feel fun again because you learn something else through doing that that then you can take to what you already do and it kind of makes it exciting again.

David Parrish: 46:11

Within these projects, sometimes on YouTube, I give Jada a camera, we call it Jada Camera Challenge. It's like an oddball camera and we just get a model and we go somewhere. We don't use a set or anything. We just go somewhere random. And Jada does photo shoots with them. And one of them was a Polaroid camera. And during that shoot, you know, the pictures were okay. They're cool. They're nothing that would stand out really big on the Internet, or for clients. I don't know what it would create. But that's to say she ended up laying on her back taking pictures with this Polaroid camera and got this crazy angle. And by her just playing outside of what we normally do, she found a new way to shoot and she brought it into our sets, and then that changed our voice in our sets from that point forward. So just by like creatively playing, even if it's just for a day and trying a new camera out, you will probably learn something that you can add into your normal work. But doing a personal project like that just like amplifies it because now you have the parameters you have, you've gamified it like you said, and now it's like this whole process that is living alongside your career.

Jada Parrish: 47:20

Yeah, it's true. And you just have to challenge yourself. Like, just challenge yourself. Even within our sets, like we primarily build everything out of plywood and paint. But every now and then it's like, okay, what's a color that you hate? Let's use that color, that awful color that you hate. How can we make it like something interesting? Or like, what if you do it out of fabric? What does that look like? And it's not necessarily to produce like the greatest photos ever, but it's just to challenge you, make you think of things in a new way. And oftentimes, like a bad photo, eventually leads to a good photo because it sparks a different way of doing it or a new thought. So just don't be scared to take a bad photo. I guess that's like a really important thing.

David Parrish: 48:09

Just get started. If somebody's hesitant to just try something, then who cares? Like, especially if you don't have a client attached to it. Like, it just doesn't matter if it's awful. Like, and it's not going to be awful because you've taken away any anxiety or stress. It's just fun. You're just playing.

Pat Miller: 48:25

I could talk to you two all day. I love this interview. Thank you so much for the inspiration. And Jada and David, thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate it.

Jada Parrish: 48:32

Thanks, Pat.

Pat Miller: 48:32

Pat, thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast. Raise your hand if you're inspired. Before you go, start your own side quest, make sure you leave us a like and subscribe, and leave us a comment. Tell Jada and David what you loved about the episode. I know they'll be watching, and we're watching too, to make sure that we're delivering you the good stuff here on the show. The other thing is you should be considering Professional Photographers of America. If you're not yet a member, you are truly missing out. 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 and in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA you belong here. Discover more about membership@ppa.com that's PPA.com I'm Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community, publisher of the Small Business Summary newsletter, and the creator of a brand new side quest. I don't know what it's going to be, but I'm going to go do it. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you right here next time.