Meet Marty Wilson | Family and Individual Portrait Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marty Wilson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marty, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started my business with the goal of turning a long-time passion of mine in photography into a professional business. I was always the guy in my family taking an excessive amount of pictures at our events. I always had my camera with me, taking photos of my family’s biggest milestones. I also wanted to demonstrate to my young children how it is never too late to try something new like starting a business. I also wanted to demonstrate to them how to run and grow a business for something that they have a significant passion for. It’s a lesson that they can apply to whatever they want to do in this life I think.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a portrait photographer. What I try to do is really drive out the uniqueness of the subject, their raw essence, whether you are the snarky personality type or extremely congenial . I want people to look at my photo of you and get some deeper questions answered, like what was your mindset when you took this photo? What were your really like in your 20s? One thing I am not, I’m not a smile-and-shoot type of photographer! I want my subject to feel relaxed to be themselves and let me worry about turning this into a piece of timeless art.

I started my business about two years ago after a divorce. I found myself with a lot of free-time now that I didn’t have the kids with me every day, so after a period of going out, partying, and really doing the social scene heavily in LA, I decided to really learn the photography craft and turn my passion into an actual business. I made it my business to devote at least a couple of hours after my day job each weekday night to learning the craft. I probably spent countless hours on studying the field and doing test shoots, learning and growing incrementally as I went. A lot of big steps forward but certainly had some failure too. To overcome these challenges, I started becoming more and more organized on my photoshoots. Thinking about every contingency that could come up. Weather, upset kids, late customers, venue logistics like beaches that are suddenly under construction. I made sure that I found out as much as I could about the client(s) before the shoot to prepare. I even had poses printed out and hidden in the sleeve of my shirt just to make sure I got a variety of shots of my customers. After doing that for several months, my preparation became second nature, to the point it was like breathing. Now it’s just a normal part of my routine during photoshoots. Now I can relax during my shoots and really laugh and joke with custimers!

It has been about three years to for me to really call myself a professional photographer. People think it’s so simple, “anyone with and iphone can do it,” but it such a long process to become competent with this art medium. A quick run down of things we must learn as photographers, color, lighting, composition, type of camera, lenses, flash types subject poses, how to direct your subjects, how to shoot that camera, marketing, back-end accounting. It’s so much more than picking up a camera and shooting. And a lot will be through trial and error. You don’t become a good photographer until you mess up in my opinion. The real training will come through learning from your mistakes and fine-tuning them. I’ve spent countless hours learning from online photography courses and trying different editing techniques. It takes a while to develop your own signature style. I’m sure the Rembrandt paintings that we know and love didn’t look like the ones when he started his painting career. It’s usually an evolution to get to that master class level.

I want people to know that I am extremely customer-focused and I am not in business to sell just photos, I sell white-glove experiences with my photo shoots. I want every customer to feel like they’re getting a Hollywood photo shoot. When I shoot families, as a parent myself, I understand that the baby may need to be changed and so I don’t sit around and watch the clock and pressure families to hurry up and get the shoot over with in most cases. Also, with me you can see I really am passionate about what I do. I won’t stop shooting until I get masterpiece-level photos of you and your family. I’m quirky, but I know what I’m doing!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m going to have to give what sounds like a very cliche area, but I would say Hollywood. I would take them to a day party at the Highlight Room off on Cahuena, get a cabana or table around the rooftop pool. Then we can go downstairs to get dinner at Beauty and Essex or go over to Thai Town. Then maybe go dance to some Latin music at La Descarga.

Next day we can go visit the Gettty Museum and later we can go catch a night game, something like a Dodger’s game. Of course we need to get drinks along the coast at somewhere like Sunset Restaurant.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to dedicate this to my big sister Tracy. She’s a business consultant by profession and is always giving me great advice on marketing, scaling the business, and business strategies. She has a wealth of great wisdom and guidance.

Website: www.reallusionsphotography.com

Instagram: @reallusions_photography