A Former Model and Film Shooter Values Team Work

Special talent, personality, versatility, business smarts and commitment are essential for making the successful transition from professional model to professional photographer. Los Gatos, CA, wedding shooter Tanja Lippert has demonstrated that not only does she have all of the above, but she has also adopted a key business philosophy espoused by Henry Ford—surround yourself with a great team.

Tanja’s photography business, extensive in its scope and aspirations for a small enterprise, adheres to the basic tenet of employing and harnessing the best resources, something that would undoubtedly be applauded by the late Ford himself.

The most recent testimony to the success of this team approach has been the growth of Tanja Lippert Photographers, the umbrella under which Tanja Lippert Photography (the founding business), Brown Mouse Photography, Jill Johnson Photography and Wreckless Photography all operate. Before this gets confusing, it should be explained that Tanja started Tanja Lippert Photography about seven years ago, and bringing these other services into the fold are recent developments. If you were to visit her studio, which is more akin to a gallery boutique than a photography studio, greeting you would be the shingle above the door, Artique by Tanja Lippert Photography.
Quite recently, however, Tanja and her business manager/husband, Ryan, initiated several exciting offshoots to the business that include a training and mentor program to develop qualified assistant photographers.

Now, under the auspices of Tanja Lippert Photographers, they offer the services of a network of four photographers, two assistant photographers, a few mentors in training, the versatile professional services of Ryan who wears several hats as a graphic designer and a stylist. Keeping an eye on all this is the studio dog—Miss Maddy. As Tanja enthusiastically states: “We have been growing in leaps and bounds and have been moving in several really cool and ambitious directions. It’s utter chaos, but oh so brilliant all at the same time.”

It should also be emphasized that while Tanja is a wedding specialist—she shoots about 40 weddings annually—essentially she is a people photographer. “Aside from weddings I still shoot a ton of fashion, commercial, musicians, families, kids, maternity, newborns—people!” she says.
Tanja’s career was almost certainly destined to be people-oriented but perhaps even she, when launching herself into the fickle and uncertain world of modeling as a 15-year-old in Los Angeles, didn’t appreciate where her talents would take her. “I was one of the lucky ones who got to travel all over the world and work as a model for about 10 years. Along the way, I also did hair, makeup and wardrobing for other models on their photo shoots. I actually thought I would end up with a career as a stylist,” she says.

The catalyst to her moving to the other side of the camera was the frustration of seeing photographers not producing images that reflected the quality of styling that went into many shoots. “I figured, what the heck, I will try this myself. I borrowed an old 35mm Minolta camera from my brother-in-law, and the rest is history,” she says. Her bold move was complemented by a modicum of luck—the adage, “fortune favors the brave,” comes to mind. Tanja’s husband, Ryan, worked as an agent for a modeling agency and they rented a room in their home to out-of-town models who, in turn, became willing subjects for Tanja’s camera. After a couple of shoots, the agency recognized her talents and the models began paying Tanja for their portfolios—and so Tanja Lippert Photography was launched, at that time in Los Angeles, relocating to Los Gatos in fall 2004.

Initially, Tanja ran the business as a solo operation but she added a key person, Tia Reagan—an “amazing stylist”—about six years ago. And about three years ago, when the business became too large for one person to handle, Ryan quit his job as a modeling agent and became the photography business’ man of many hats—marketing director, networking specialist, accountant and an all-round “get it done” guy. In 2007, Tanja took on an associate photographer, Karen Ruston; and more recently she hired a studio manager, Tanja’s sister, April Maimon. “April came on board to help relieve all the stress of the multitude of things on the to-do list. She has successfully kept me and the rest of our studio caught up and has taken over the full-time role of studio manager,” says Tanja, gratefully.

And then as mentioned above, last summer, after deciding that their lives were not quite crazy enough, Tanja and her team launched a new concept, one that they had not seen operating in other studios: managing and marketing the day-to-day business operations, workflow and order processing of three other photographers, under the umbrella of Tanja Lippert Photographers.

By the time she set up shop as a professional photographer, Tanja had already become fairly competent in business skills. As a globetrotting model, she was essentially running her own business. Added to that were skills gained through a short stint operating a personal training and nutrition business followed by two years as head of her own real estate office. “I think I gained a wealth of experience from all those things and it really helped me in my photography business. Aside from that, I still am not a wiz at the business side, that’s why I have lots of help,” she says. There’s another key characteristic to this model-turned photographer businesswoman—a healthy dose of self-confidence. “My brothers and sisters have always made fun of me and said ‘If Tanja says there’s something she wants to do, she just goes out and buys a book on it and next thing you know, boom, she is doing it!’ That’s about how I roll,” she explains.

Given her natural people skills, acquired business acumen, and God-given creative talent (something for which she is very grateful) the question arises about the third side of the triangle of professional photography as art, business and science (i.e., technical know-how).

“I honestly have to say, I taught myself technical skills. I am not a technical genius by any means, but it is very important to me to be technically sound in my work. I manually meter every shot and am obsessed with relying on myself rather than my camera for technical expertise. When I was a baby photographer, I learned technical mumbo jumbo by scouring the Internet for resources—forums, websites. I also learned a ton by just looking through B&H catalogs and reading all my equipment manuals.

“Also, I owe a great deal to my huge need for experimenting—I am a big fan of experimenting. Because I was not able to learn from other photographers or go to photography school, I actually feel like it has made me a better photographer. I never learned the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do things. It was just a matter of asking,  ‘what happens when I try this?’ or ‘try that’ approach. And honestly, I still experiment with nearly every shoot. Most of the time, my experiments come out pretty darn cool,” says Tanja.

Given the impressive portfolio of images on her website, one has to agree with that last comment. And also, perhaps surprisingly considering her relatively recent entry into the field, Tanja is definitely not a techno-devotee. In fact, and she knows this will undoubtedly draw flak from certain quarters, she’s a dedicated film user, eschewing digital capture.
Tanja actually credits film for setting her work apart from others and thus for the success of her business. “I know it’s a shocker, but I am still a 100 percent film shooter. I love film—it makes me so excited just thinking about it. It’s why people love my work—film has a look to it that I do not believe can be replicated, at least not by me, in digital. I know I will receive a ton of heat for that comment, but I am so in love with film that it makes my heart warm and fuzzy all over just thinking about it. As a matter of fact, if Fuji ever stopped making it, I seriously think I might have to go into another line of work. Film is the greatest thing that ever happened to my business and I definitely give it credit for my success,” she said. For the record, her films of choice are Fujifilm Pro 400 for color and Kodak T400 CN for black and white. She also concedes that the other photographers in the business do shoot both film and digital. And digital technology does play its role in Tanja’s photography—all her film is scanned at high resolution to CDs by Los Angeles-based Richard’s Photo Lab.

As for equipment, her favorite and most used camera is the Contax 645 medium format camera. She says “If I could have only one camera for the rest of my life, this would be it.” She also shoots with Nikon F100 cameras and Nikon prime lenses—her favorites being older manual focus prime lenses, especially the one used most, a 35mm AIS manual focus lens. “I really prefer wide-angle lenses as I love to work close to my subjects so that I can talk them through the shoot or reach out and move away a stray hair—it’s really quite handy to work this way,” she said.
Many of Tanja’s images have a soft, almost dreamy look and feel to them, a quality she says is obtained by using film, photographing in natural ambient light (she avoids flash as much as possible) and shooting wide open whether it be f/4, f/2.8, or f/1.4. “My favorite light source is daylight and I always look for the best natural light possible. I get inspired by natural light and for me, it’s the most beautiful,” she says.
Ever since she started photographing weddings, Tanja has used an assistant—in fact Ryan has assisted her at almost every wedding to date—and her modus operandi is straightforward and thorough; she does her homework before the event. “I have a wedding information sheet that my couples fill out and typically I help build their timelines. Other than that, I usually schedule a walkthrough, especially if it’s a location I have not worked before,” she says.

Her style of shooting is best described as editorial. “I shoot like I am shooting for a magazine. I definitely bring my fashion experience into my wedding work. My goal is for my brides and grooms to get the best wedding pictures possible. I also love to capture images that tell the story from start to finish in a creative and natural way. I tend to direct only during the time we set aside for pictures of the family, bride and groom, and bridal party. Other than that, I capture people in action and document rather than set up shots,” Tanja explains.

Even though she shoots entirely on location, bad weather is never a deterrent. “I love shooting in the rain if necessary. I always carry umbrellas and a have good assistant to hold one over me. When light gets really low, bordering on darkness, I love using existing light such as streetlights and parking garage lights. My stylist Tia and I have even made great use of our car headlights. I am not a wimp and will get dirty, wet, trespass, jump off things and scale walls or lie in mud in the name of getting a good shot,” she enthuses.

While her wedding photography is photojournalistic and most images are made as events unfold—capturing the special moments as they happen—Tanja’s other shoots are more controlled and stylized with Tia infusing each shoot with her brilliant hair styling, makeup skills and wardrobe expertise. Having been on the other side of the camera as a model, Tanja knows the importance of good direction when it comes to fashion or commercial assignments. “I never leave anything up to my subjects, if I did that my photography would only suffer. I like to take complete creative control over every shoot. That said, I think if you asked my clients, they would all say that I am very accommodating and easy to work with. The cool thing is that my clients trust me to create images for them and completely leave the creative stuff to me,” she says.

And at that, she’s not afraid to ask brides to help create memorable images. “One of my brides even said on her wedding day, ‘Tanja, if you asked me to lie down in a puddle of mud in my wedding dress, I would because I trust that whatever you do, it will make a great photograph.’ I find my inspiration in the moment—in the light, in the location, in the dress, the details, the family, the whole scene,” she says.
As Los Gatos is located about 45 minutes south of San Francisco and in the heart of Silicon Valley, Tanja Lippert Photographers considers its local market anywhere from Napa to Carmel and east to Sacramento. “But we are marketing ourselves for destination events and would like to expand that part of our business,” says Tanja.

As in most successful businesses, word- of-mouth is proving the most effective form of advertising supplemented by a presence on the Internet, referrals from other photographers, some magazine advertising and being on Grace Ormonde’s Platinum List.

Delivering images to clients is a multi-faceted operation. Clients first see their pictures with an online customized slide show and the images are also uploaded to an online gallery. Handmade Artique Boxes house all their proof prints. Also carried are Queensbury Albums, Couture Books and Tanja’s own line of handmade albums. All albums are created in house with prints made by Richard’s Photo Lab.

Apart from the satisfaction of being part of a talented and creative team and enjoying the challenges that are integral to all businesses, Tanja Lippert’s greatest thrill comes from knowing that her clients hire her because they want and trust her. “They want me—they do not hire me for any other reason and I love that fact. And I would urge any aspiring photographer to follow one simple rule—shoot photography from your heart and soul and be passionate about every shoot and you will succeed. And a little prayer over your photo shoots never hurts either. I like to give credit where credit is deserved,” she says.

To see more of Tanja’s work visit www.tanjalippertphotography.com or www.tanjalippertphotographers.com. For Artique Albums, www.artique-designs.com.

Writer/photographer Peter Skinner is based in Queensland, Australia, and worked in the U.S. from 1981–2003 during which time he was director of public relations and special projects with Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, CA; and subsequently communications director and publications editor for a leading trade association, the American Society of Media Photographers, ASMP. His articles and photographs have been published internationally and he has authored or co-authored several books with his latest offering being Sports Photography: How to Capture Action and Emotion (Allworth Press). He can be reached at [email protected].