Storytelling for Portrait Photographers: Investment-Worthy Art with Tim Walden | Podcast Supershow

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. We're heading back to Dallas. Come on. The barbecue's worth it. Trust me. Dude, the barbecue? Oh, I hope Imaging USA is in Dallas again just for the barbecue. It was unbelievable. We also did the Super Show there where we brought in four big time guests and we recorded it in front of a live studio audience. Today, that's what you get to see. And we're sitting down with the most inspirational photographer maybe that I talked to all last year, Tim Walden. The importance of cherishing your client relationships. I don't hear other photographers talk the way that Tim does. We'll also talk about how he enjoyed ImagingUSA and what's coming up for him the rest of the year. But if you wanna get inspired, today's episode is going to do it. Tim Walden is standing by. We'll talk to him next. Tim Walden, it is so great to see you. Welcome to the Podcast Super Show. How are you?

Tim Walden: 01:03

I'm doing wonderfully, especially being here. How can you not be?

Pat Miller: 01:06

You have to be in a good mood when you're in Imaging.

Tim Walden: 01:08

Yeah. It's a requirement, actually.

Pat Miller: 01:10

Yeah. They'll kick you out.

Tim Walden: 01:11

Yeah. That's right. You're out of here.

Pat Miller: 01:12

Yeah. I love the conversation that we had on the podcast earlier this year. Everyone needs to know you. Tell them who you are and what you do.

Tim Walden: 01:20

Well, I'm a photographer from Lexington, Kentucky, and built a brand that has served us well called Relationship Photography. And it is fine art black and white built on telling the stories of the people that we photograph, learning them, telling those stories, and getting better at making my work about other people and not about myself, using whatever talents we have to celebrate the things that are most important to them, so yeah.

Pat Miller: 01:46

The thing that struck me about our conversation, and I wanna get into it a little bit here, is the almost reverence you have for your clients and your purpose. Can you talk a little bit about how you look at the client relationship and the work that you do? Because you were uncompromising in a good way, almost fanatical in the way that you serve your clients. Can you share that with us?

Tim Walden: 02:06

Yeah. You know, I think, ultimately, we wanna be technically excellent at what we do. But as I've always said, technical excellence to me is what supports the story. Technical excellence makes your photography invisible, and it allows the story to rise to the top. Ultimately, we're storytellers. And our art should be about celebrating the other people's stories. We have to learn them. We have to communicate with them. We have to build relationships with them. And I think that's easy for photographers because we're people-people. Those are the skills we love the most. But we don't always open those doors, I think, in the lives of the people that come through. We get too much into the technical aspects, the posing and the lighting, which all of that supports the story. It really does. But, ultimately, I think it's learning and telling people stories. I tell everybody that comes in our studio, they're like my cousins. Right? Of course, I have about 50 cousins. I'm from Kentucky. You never really know. You know? So, yeah, we're not sure how we're all related, to be honest with you. But nonetheless, I have cousins. I love them, but you don't see them very often. Right? But when you see them, they're family. And if something happens or if they have a challenge, you contact them. You keep up with them. It's the kind of relationship I think we can have with our clients that goes beyond simply treating them as transactions or customers, bringing them in as family, and keeping the proper love and compassion for those folks.

Pat Miller: 03:41

You live this every day. To someone that's hearing this for the first time, it's really easy. Yeah, yeah. Treat them like family. Tell their story. Yeah, yeah. But you're deadly serious about this.

Tim Walden: 03:51

Very much.

Pat Miller: 03:52

Talk to me about how you understand the stories and really love up on your people so you are giving them that experience that you're so clear on.

Tim Walden: 03:59

Well, I believe what you do before a session affects the outcome of a session. And so to me, I never wanna photograph a stranger. So we spend a lot of time in our art getting to know the people that we're going to photograph. And one of the things that I'll ask during those, we call them design appointments, or those times where with clients is, if this portrait were a chapter in your life, what would the bold print be? What's the story I'm looking to tell? Tell me about your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter. What's your favorite thing about them? And then I take that information, and I can't really tell you exactly how it affects my art, but I will tell you it always affects my art. It always does. I push the button at a different time. I see things differently. Our work's not about doing it in a very literal fashion, but it's in nuances. It's in body language. It's in the way people interact with each other. And so I see every portrait as a blank canvas. When I go in with that story and I have that relationship, and I look to then tell that story, and then I tell them or remind them when we go into those selection appointments. I'll say, "You remember the story you told me." Because, folks, what we do so often is we say, "How do you like that expression? How do you like that background?" I think those are wrong questions. I would say, "Pat, you remember the story you told me?" How did I do telling that story? Because when you do that, it changes the dynamic in the room. It adds value to your art. It takes it to a place that they're not used to it going too often, and it adds longevity to that art because they put it on that wall. They'll tell that story. That story will follow that piece of art forever.

Pat Miller: 05:44

Give us a specific example, a time when a mother said something about their kid. You captured it. You showed it to them. And to someone that didn't hear the story, they wouldn't know why that image is so powerful. But to the mom, it was everything.

Tim Walden: 05:57

Well, there's lots of stories like that. I remember one of the first relationship portraits, I was talking to a mom and I said, "Tell me your favorite thing about your son. What's your story? His story?" And she said, "You know, his eyes, they're the most amazing eyes I've ever seen. I look at him and he always ends up getting what he wants." And I know while I was reloading film–you all remember any of that stuff. Right? Yeah, okay. I was reloading film, and I remember she would turn around to talk to him. He raised his head up over her over the shoulders. I said, there it is. I saw the eyes, only the eyes, took the hand, put it up alongside the child's face, created a piece of art that told the story that she told me. Another one that was really a special was a gentleman that had served in Afghanistan. Huge guy. I mean, you know, I'm glad he was on our side. Yeah, he was like a Navy Seal. I was very polite to that gentleman, extremely. But he had served this country and he had his daughter and he hadn't seen her for, like, a year. And I said, "Mom, what is the story in this portrait? What is it you want me to say?" And she said, "They're getting reacquainted, and I want them to get reacquainted." That's the story I want to tell. And I look at that portrait today, and his hands were huge. And we put her hand in his hand, and she was a little nervous. She's, like, four or five years old. She put her thumb in her mouth, and it was like, I said, "Mom, do you remember the story you told me? How did I do telling it? I see that in this image." It changes the imagery that you provide to people, because you're no longer just looking for the perfect expression. You're looking for the story. And so, it just changes that whole dynamic. And mom said, you know, tears in her eyes. Even with dad, great big guy, little bitty girl. It just told the story, and it changes you as an artist.

Pat Miller: 07:52

Yeah. The work you're doing is really great. If someone is coming at their art from a more technical perspective or a more precise area, not as much learning how to tell the stories, how can you move them in that direction? How would you prompt them to infuse more of this storytelling into their art?

Tim Walden: 08:09

Well, be intentional first. I think you just make a plan to do it. Right? And I think, some of us are a little nervous to ask the kind of questions that we need to ask, which are, as I say, "Tell me about your child. Tell me what's the story that we're here to tell?" I mean, ultimately, I think successful photographers don't sell photographs. They sell the result of the photograph. That's ultimately what you sell. Because when you're selling a photograph, the competition changes. When you're selling the result of the photograph, that changes everything. So we're result-oriented, which is telling the story. It's on the emotional side. So I say, you have to set aside time and be yourself. Just sit in front of people. Get to know them. There's nothing wrong with picking backgrounds and picking other things, but, ultimately, we're wanting to photograph the people and the things that mean the most to them, and we learn by asking. And I know that at conferences like this too, I hear so many photographers, and it's just a matter of confidence. You know? Nobody's gonna begrudge answering that question about the people they love the most. I'll say, "Show me photos of your kids. Tell me about them. You know, tell me all of these things. I wanna hear about them." So when we do designs, it's less about me and it's more about them. Because I think truly to be successful where we wanna be, your art has to have a purpose. And that purpose is I ask myself, how does my art serve the people I photograph? And then I reap results and reward for it, but I make my life my art about those families. And when I do that, they're gonna invest in them. They're gonna see them differently. And I'm gonna be not only financially rewarded, but personally rewarded in doing that.

Pat Miller: 09:51

Yeah. Can you see now why I like talking to Tim Walden? Like, he's amazing. Amazing. Okay, let's shift into Imaging. What did you get out of this year's conference? What did you see? What inspires you as you head back home?

Tim Walden: 10:02

Well, a lot of friends. I mean, and you know what? I think we've never needed each other more than we do now. I really feel like we need each other. PPA and this conference provides a way for us to be together. I love technology. You and I have been on Zoom. We do all kinds of stuff on YouTube, but, folks, we need each other. We need to sit next to each other. We need to have friendships. We need to have conversations. We need to encourage each other. And I think this is an amazing place to do it. There's no place like PPA to do it. I grew up in PPA. My father got me started as a teenager. That's been, like, five or six years ago. What are you laughing at? But when I come here, it is a family reunion. And I learn as much over coffee as I do in a trade show. And so I think it's wonderful. I think technology is at a point today where we can really do our profession and our craft extremely well. And now we can focus on the things that are most important, which are the people in front of the camera. So seeing the technology in the trade show, sitting down with people I love I don't see very often, and photographers are a different group. I mean, when we're together, it's like the cousins. You don't see each other for a year. Right? But when you're together, it's like no time has passed. And so we sharpen each other. We sharpen our skills, and we help each other grow.

Pat Miller: 11:25

Am I hearing you right that the technology is freeing you up to even more focus on the story?

Tim Walden: 11:29

Yes.

Pat Miller: 11:30

It's not that technology is infringing on how you tell the story. It's freeing you up because now you can spend more time on it.

Tim Walden: 11:36

Absolutely. Technology allows me to take my craft to the level I want, but I never wanna lose the message. What's the story? I think in some ways, wisdom today is in knowing what not to do. I mean, we have so many things at our fingertips. And I think successful brands know who they are, and I would encourage everybody to embrace who you are, to nurture it, and to build on it. Technology allows me to do my art at a level I've never been able to do it before. And to do it quicker and easier, but yet it's the story and the art that matters the most. And so technology, I'm not thinking about it. You know, like, when you're a kid and you're riding that bike for the first time, you never see the scenery. Right? Because you keep it, like, left foot, right foot. You're gonna fall off the bicycle. But as you learn that bike, all you do is see the scenery. That's the way technology is for me. Technology gives me the ability to see the scenery, to see the people, to experience their life in a very special way. And technology gives me a no apologies way to put investment-worthy, which is what I want my art to be, investment-worthy pieces on their wall and in front of them to share for generations to come.

Pat Miller: 12:48

Yeah. Absolutely inspirational. Tim Walden, man, thank you for coming back on the podcast.

Tim Walden: 12:54

Thank you.

Pat Miller: 12:56

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm already looking forward to our next conversation. Now before you go, can you do me a favor? Drop us a like, hit subscribe, leave us a comment, let us know how we're doing. That will let us know what we should do more of in future episodes. It's really that simple. So leave us some feedback, and you will help the show get better. The other thing is if you're not a member of Professional Photographers of America, you're missing it. 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. I'm Pat Miller, Founder of the Small Business Owners Community. Thanks for joining with us on this journey. I'll see you right here real soon. Take care.