Tyler Wirken is a true documentary style wedding photographer who hates weddings and approaches them like a newspaper assignment. He's been in the photography business and shooting weddings for almost 10 years and was voted one of the “Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World” by American Photo in 2013.
Tyler has an associate shooter plus a videographer in his business, has appeared on Creative Live and is and an instuctor at Foundation Workshops with his own series of training, mentoring and workshops.
Although short, this punchy and candid interview contains a stack of insights into how a successful photography studio can run while still maintaining a life of value outside your business. We also get into the nitty-gritty of pricing, marketing and photography packages.
Here’s some of what we cover:
What’s on Offer for Premium Members
If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for that include:
If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interview with Tyler Wirken, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.
All weddings are the same – Tyler Wirken
Plus, access to a members only Facebook group where you'll connect with other members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take what you hear in each episode and put it into action. You will not find cooler, more motivated and caring photographers online.
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.
Separate yourself as much as you can from the sea of wedding photographers out there – Tyler Wirken
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Tyler or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.
It's not often I'm interviewed!
I was recently interviewed for the Photography Blog – Blende Zwo or “Aperture 2” by German photographer, blogger and listener to PhotoBizX, Domenik Brenne.
You can read the interview here: Foto-Business Podcast: PhotoBizXposed – Interview mit Andrew Hellmich
The big buzz about this interview for me is the fact it is a German blog and with both my parents being born in Germany, it's something for them to brag about – it's always nice to show Mum I'm doing good in the world and give her something to share with her friends and family (LOL).
A big thanks to Domenik for the feature.
Oh – and the interview is in both German and English.
It's better if you specialise in something and not just be everything to everybody – Tyler Wirken
iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs
Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!
Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.
If you have left a review in the past, thank you!
If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL and your name.
Spencer Lum's Momentum Sales Course is opening next week
I'm a big fan of Spencer's approach to sales, marketing and branding, it's no surprise he's been on the show a couple times. If you're not already reading his blog, you absolutely should be – he has a knack of simplifying the complicated and making the whole wedding photography thing makes more sense.
If it's sales you're struggling with, I can't recommend this sales course more highly. The new release has been refined, updated and is ready to go.
Spencer is holding a webinar about momentum sales in a couple days where you can find out if the course will be a good fit for you – details are here: Momentum Sales Webinar
Spencer's big claim is he can help you 1.5x your revenue in 12 months – no matter where you're at right now with your business.
If you prefer to read about the course, do that here: Momentum Sales Course for Wedding Photographers
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Tyler Wirken on Frealess Photographers
Episode 068: Mark Seymour – Two Markets, Two Approaches, One Photography Style
Just do what you do well and stick with it – Tyler Wirken
Equipment
Nikon D750 Digital SLR Camera with 24-85 mm Lens Kit (24.3 MP) 3.2 inch Tilt-Screen LCD with Wi-Fi
Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED Fixed Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras
Thank you!
Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks to Tyler for coming on and sharing so much.
The whole point of photo journalism is to understand people, to learn about relationships so you can accurately tell their story properly – Tyler Wirken
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!
That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
Just listened to the interview today and work and enjoyed it a lot. I think the biggest thing that resonated with me was when you said to never tell yourself that you don’t have time to get something done, but to tell yourself that you don’t have time “yet”. There is always time, it’s just figuring out when the best time is to do it. I also like the fact that you focus so much on being a dad as well as a professional photographer. Thanks for sharing and take care!
Great interview with someone who is at the top of their game. Inspiring stuff 🙂
Thanks Luke – glad you enjoyed this one!
Hi Andrew,
Heard this episode while travelling with the train. Many thanks for sharing my blogpost / interview. It was a great pleasure.
Best wishes to your mum. She seems to be a kind person because she talked so positive about my translation of this interview. I am not 100% happy but guess my readers get the point 🙂
By the way, very inspiring interview with Tylor and a new approach to Wedding photography for me. I like his photojournalistic work as I am also a big fan of Kevin Mullins wedding work.
Keep this thing rolling…
Dominik
Hey Dominik – no trouble, it was fun being the one to answer questions for a change.
If you impressed my mum you’ve done a fine job! 😉
Glad to hear you enjoyed the interview with Tyler. I too love this approach to wedding photography and would to steer my portfolio and bookings to go that way. It’s a slow process but something to work toward.
Haha, definitely plan to keep it rolling along.
Speak soon
Andrew