Conversations with Joe Dickson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Dickson.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is really about a guy that had a passion and turned it into a business. I grew up the son of a photographer so I was around it my whole life. I didn’t really see it for the art and value I see it now until my son was born. Obviously he was the cutest baby in the world so I had to take good photos of him. Phones to me are for documentary but I wanted more so I got a camera from my dad and started taking awful photos. Little did I know that real professional level cameras were actually very complicated. I remember the first day I took that camera to take photos of him. We went to a pumpkin patch and I was fully ready to take the best photos anyone has ever seen. He was next to a pumpkin looking really cute so I turned the camera on and tried to take a photo. I could not for the life of me get that camera to take a single photo. It was an early 00’s Nikon that was setup by my dad who knew how to use it so it wasn’t as easy as turn it to auto and start shooting. I realized that day that this was going to take a bit of time investment to learn how to operate the camera. I started taking it everywhere I went and would play with it while I was sitting on my couch so that I could get used to using it. Eventually I started taking good pictures.
My skills grew and I started taking good photos. I took portraits of my beautiful wife and son, did story telling with things my son would do, did family pictures with them, I did pretty much everything and wanted to do more. I eventually started my business and made it focus on wedding photography. In the early days I did family photos and other family focused events but I never felt as good as when I was at a wedding. My back ground is in leading projects and people. This lends itself perfectly to a wedding day. Coordinating with other vendors, putting out fires and time management are all exactly what I did for years before photography.
The thing that was really challenging was the lack of guidance. Most photographers start with a mentor or do a lot of second shooting in the first couple years of their career. I however chose hardcore mode and shot my first wedding with zero guidance or experience. That was the most ridiculous situation to put myself into looking back. I showed up super early with every piece of gear I owned. The first official thing I did that day was meet the videographer who quickly told me it was my day and he was just going to follow me. Great. He seemed so used to weddings that he was burned out so of course he would hand the responsibility to the guy that had never done this before. Now I never actually said it was my first wedding to anyone important so it was my own fault but none the less I was in a predicament. Surprisingly my years of experience with project management actually gave me what I needed to pull it off. I fell back on that and the photography skills I learned over the years as well and still use some of the photos today.
Now I go into every wedding expecting to lead and coordinate the day. I look back on the early days and what I learned and I pride myself on having the ability to adapt and overcome anything that comes up during a wedding day.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not. I had to learn everything on my own. The photography portion was easy in comparison to the business side. There are so many hurdles to overcome when you are learning as you go. Not to mention trying to be a wedding photographer with zero wedding photos in my portfolio.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a wedding photographer. I do engagements as well but these are as a companion to the weddings. My background in project management allows to me to lead a day with little issue.

Any big plans?
The biggest thing that I would like to incorporate into the business is apprenticeships. I would love to help guide new photographers to be able to start their own businesses. I did not have guidance when I was coming up and it is something I strongly believe in giving others.

Pricing:

• $2200 Classic Collection

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dicksonphotographs.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/Dickson.photographs