Recorded: Welcome to The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones, a podcast dedicated to inspiring portrait photographers, to uniquely brand, profitably price, and confidently sell their best work. Allison has been doing just that for the last 15 years, and she’s proven that it’s possible to create unforgettable art and run a portrait business that supports your family and your dreams. All it takes is a little rework. Episodes will include interviews with experts from in and outside of the photo industry, many workshops, and behind the scenes secrets that Allison uses in her portrait studio every single day. She will challenge her thinking and inspire your confidence to create a profitable, sustainable portrait business you love through continually refining and reworking your business. Let’s do The ReWork.
Allison Tyler Jones: Welcome back to The ReWork. Today’s guest is Drake Busath, owner of Busath Photography in Salt Lake City, Utah. Busath Photography is the premier portrait studio in Salt Lake City. They have been creating beautiful child and family portraits for 50 years, that’s five, zero.
Allison Tyler Jones: Drake started pushing a broom in his parents’ portrait studio when he was a teenager, took over the business from his parents and is now in the process of transitioning the business to his two sons. Our conversation centers around what Drake feels is the core of their success, what has allowed them to support three families and their employees for so many years.
Allison Tyler Jones: And it all comes down to a classical style, consistency within that style and being incredibly clear on what they do and what they don’t do. I’m so excited for you to hear all of his tips on posing, directing in a shoot, everything from how to get a one year-old to give you a good expression to how do you engage the mind of a four year old, and ultimately it all coming together to tell a true story inside every single image that they create, poses that look good, but little stories in between the people that make those images have meaning for generations, that make those images transcend trend. Let’s do it. Welcome Drake Busath to The ReWork Podcast. We’re so thrilled to have you here today.
Drake Busath: Thank you. Glad to be here.
Allison Tyler Jones: Up in snowy, Utah.
Drake Busath: Not so snowy today but it could happen any minute.
Allison Tyler Jones: I love it. Drake, I think one of the great things that’s so amazing about you and your business is that you have a legacy, your Busath Photography is now in its third generation. You’re transitioning the business to your boys and you took the business over from your parents.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so I think that’s such a unique perspective in this industry, and so I’m really looking forward to talking with you today about some of the things that we talked about before together, but just maybe talking a little bit it about trends, classic portraiture versus the latest, greatest thing, that sort of thing. I’d love to just jump in and talk about whatever you want to talk about.
Drake Busath: Sounds good. Yeah, we are coming up, it just dawn on me the other day that next year is our 50th year in the business, 50.
Allison Tyler Jones: That’s amazing.
Drake Busath: And we’ve got to come up with some kind of great celebration. And what’s stranger Allison is that I was there in… I was in junior high, but I was there sweeping the floors and working in the dark room, had my hands in the chemistry 50 years ago. So we do.
Allison Tyler Jones: And how is that possible? You couldn’t have been in junior high, you must have been like in preschool?
Drake Busath: Thank you. I was there but I got started really full time 40, some years at 42 years ago. So I’m an old guy and we are an old business and it’s very nice to realize in a way that we’ve been through a lot of wars and we’re still hanging in, most of my contemporaries that were active and had going concerns in the eighties are gone, if they’re not dead, they’re selling real estate or something because, but we’re one of those surviving brick and mortar studios from those days, and we’ve figured out how to adapt and stay on top of the wave a little bit.
Allison Tyler Jones: Well, I think that’s, you can’t have a business that is still in business and profitable after 50 years without doing something right, I think that’s amazing. And when we were… We spoke a little bit yesterday and you were talking about how at the end of the year, you kind of realized like, “Wow, this is amazing, this business is supporting three families.” That’s basically you and your two boys that are taking over the business, but then also all of the employees that work for you as well.
Drake Busath: All right.
Allison Tyler Jones: Which is such-
Drake Busath: That’s very satisfying, it is. Sometimes I really do, I sit back and I feel great satisfaction over that there are several families that depend on the income from here and they’re good people, and I’ve always loved working with people, that’s been, it’s a driving force in the style of our business is that I don’t like to work alone, I really like to be surrounded by people and that’s, and if you have employees, then you have to do a little more business to keep them happy and keep everybody paid, and that has been a driving force for us in the style of the business that we have now.
Allison Tyler Jones: The thing that I think is interesting too, and many people listening may not realize this is that, so you’re in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I would say… And you specialize in portraits of family and children, that is your bread and butter?
Drake Busath: That’s right. We stopped doing weddings about 10 or 12 years ago, so it’s children and families represent about half our income and then the rest is children and graduates. We do still do a fair number of that, of high school, senior graduates, and then about a four worth of our business is a business related headshots because we’re downtown.
Allison Tyler Jones: Got you.
Drake Busath: And so we’re really well located and well known for our business portraits. A lot of headshots, a lot of companies depend on us and send us their new hires regularly. And a lot of law firms and accounting firms and that kind of business.
Allison Tyler Jones: The other thing about your market is in Utah, I would bet if somebody did a poll like Gallup or somebody, I think Utah has probably the largest per capita shoot and burn mom photographer of the world, I would say-
Drake Busath: I would not be surprised.
Allison Tyler Jones: I mean, that is probably like every mom has a camera in Utah. And so you have, not just survived, but thrive through, like you say, you started out in the dark room, there have been so many trends that have come and gone in this industry from the big, huge, super luxury studios, the volume studios, and then down to this new, the last 20 years has been just digital and so many hobbies coming into the market, and really what a lot of people, a lot of your contemporaries were complaining about at many conventions, like these girls are just ruining the industry and it’s off one to hell in a hand basket, but here you are supporting all these families with this amazing business. And so let’s dig into that. What do you think, what would you attribute your success or your longevity to?
Drake Busath: Okay, well that’s a big question, but I would start with, yeah. I would-
Allison Tyler Jones: I want to know everything.
Drake Busath: I would start with just the fact that I’m not a very creative thinker and I didn’t invest in Bitcoin, and so I just keep doing the same thing over and over oblivious to what’s going on around this, but that’s partially true, but that’s not the biggest driver.
Drake Busath: I think our clients have always recognized our work as different than the new generation that came along. And so we were really not competing with those young women that are out photographing in the field with no tripod with their kit camera, because our clients really, before that happened, we really did have the reputation for a painterly style and a little more classical look.
Drake Busath: So I think it’s the classical style that we produce and the consistency of that, that’s kept us in our clients’ minds. So they’ll go and of course have experiment with other photographers, freelance photographers, and then they come back to us and realize and tell us that when it’s really important, they’ll come here because they realize it’s something a little bit different and special.
Drake Busath: And it’s different because of the style, that’s one thing I’m suggesting that it’s classical style and it’s also different because if we’re photographing a family, we put a lot more care into it. And they realize that, that there’s an assistant there, for instance, helping with their children, we’re working with professional lighting, even if we’re outdoors, we have these locations and sets little vignettes here at our place in the gardens.
Allison Tyler Jones: Can you tell a little bit about that kind of about what your setup is like, the house and… Little.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Works, sure. We’re in an old home and it’s right in the center of the historic district downtown. So our neighbors are the governor’s mansion and the old… The first mansions that were built in Salt Lake, and we’re one of those. And so it’s not a big lot, but about a half an acre, a little more and just enough yard space so that we could develop the gardens.
Drake Busath: And we renamed the studio at one point in the nineties, Busath Studio and Gardens because we really recognized that people wanted to go outdoors, but I didn’t want to trace around in the public parks and compete for those good spaces. So every year we just build a new vignette of some kind, a new wall to sit on or a new set of stairs, or some boulders, or a new wall. And we’ve got enough variety now that the people can come back year after year, and there’s always something different. It’s a little forest scene. We’ve sort of adopted the neighbor’s yard now.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh, how fun.
Drake Busath: There’s an office building next door to us, and we just slowly stayed friendly enough with them and said that we could say, “Hey, do you mind if we bring some stones in and build a little patio in this unused space?”
Allison Tyler Jones: Can we use your forest?
Drake Busath: Yeah. I planted, I think just last year I planted maybe 25 trees on there-
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh my gosh.
Drake Busath: So it’ll take a little while to grow in and become the forest that we want, but they also have a big lawn. And so anyway, we don’t have to leave the property. That was a culture that was built by my parents, they were determined to operate the business between 9:00 o’clock and 6:00 o’clock.
Drake Busath: And now I’ve narrowed that down from 10:00 to 6:00. And that means that we can’t be out on the hillside in the summer at 9:00 o’clock waiting for the last light because we’ve, me and now my sons have children at home. And so you know that story, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Balance trying to have a little-
Drake Busath: So how do you do door work and please, and I’ll satisfy that client demand or desire and not be traipsing around so much. So that’s, the gardens are an important part of our business. And now I’m really focused on developing our studio style and making better use of the… We have two camera rooms here and we can really occupy them more, get more use out of them, but that’s score we’re working on.
Drake Busath: I see that definitely being the next 10 years of our focus is developing our studio work. Right now, it’s a little bit dusty, to be honest, I mean, we’re just working on freshening that up and I don’t know if any of your listeners could relate if they’re old enough to relate to having a style that gets a little dusty.
Allison Tyler Jones: I think so. I do think that a lot of our listeners have been in business a little bit longer than…. We don’t attract ton of beginners, so it’s usually more seasoned portrait photographers.
Drake Busath: That’s definitely part of the way that we stayed in business too, is we’ve just continued to adapt. I don’t want to go back into history too far, but really I’ve lived through the wars that started in the dark room, we started with the chemistry, even in the nineties, we were printing our own work, the photographer would take their own negative into the color, dark room and print it so that we had total control because my dad was a total control freak and had trust issues, I think.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes, typical entrepreneur.
Drake Busath: But those kind of cultural norms they get really deep into a business like ours and it’s hard to shake them. So we print our own work now. So we’re doing all our own canvases and stretching and mounting and framing, it’s all here. So it’s all in house. So that’s part of the… I don’t know that helped to survive, I keep saying survive, but we really have grown, we’ve had continuous growth.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. You’re thriving, you’re not just surviving, you’re thriving.
Drake Busath: Yeah. I kid about surviving because I’m attending friends funerals now, but we really have sustained continuous growth through the last 20 years.
Allison Tyler Jones: One of the things that you said when we were speaking yesterday was that what are the core tenets of Busath Photography is producing an image with history in mind. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Drake Busath: I obsess about this concept. I feel that when I’m making a portrait that…. Especially family groups, because those are the photographs that I feel have the most potential to become an important historical document. I just feel that if we can tell a true story inside that family group, that adds so much value to the image and my story, we all know kind of that gets tossed around a lot.
Drake Busath: For me, it doesn’t have to be a dramatic story, it can be mom just at last second, reaching over and touching her 14 year old’s hand. And that gesture of protection, those little things and it could be the nine year old girl resting her head against her dad’s shoulder.
Drake Busath: To me, I see that as, okay. That’s a character trait that little girl has, that will follow her. And when she’s 50 years old, that will be so valuable. Her dad’s gone, she was the one that hung close to him. And then maybe there’s that child in the middle, that’s the bridge, that’s, that the middle child like me, I’m the middle child of the five. Yeah. Well, yeah. I’m the diplomat in the family, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: The problem solver, the one that keeps the peace. And if you could illustrate that in a portrait, and every family has these, you can identify pretty quickly, I know. We all can identify those things. It’s just taking that little time at the end to stop and think through that, I always talk about with our photographers about this, about floating, and it’s this idea that once you’ve blocked out the family and we’re shooting in a quite classical static, they’re there for a minute. We’ve blocked them out. I know that your families are in motion, you’re just more clever than I am now.
Allison Tyler Jones: No.
Drake Busath: But once we get it blocked out and we’ve got sort of the body, the strategic layering and the color mix that we need and a nice head arrangement with the melodic flow to it, then at the last second, you’ve got so much in your head, the lighting, the power of expression, you got to be entertaining that four year old at the same time as the 16 year old is rolling their eyes, dad’s impatient, you’ve got so much.
Drake Busath: This photographer once told me a story about how he was camping and a Wolverine approached his camp, and so he just floated up into the tree and waited for the Wolverine to disappear. And then he was, this is a Fred Hechinger real character, and he told me this straight face.
Drake Busath: And I think the story that was illustrating that… I took at illustrate fact that you’re in danger and you’re in this crazy situation. All this going on, somehow you’ve got to just rise out of your body and see this image as a graphic shape, and then take care of those problems, and then somehow leave the conversation, leave your body a little bit and look for those little stories that could potentially be happening there.
Drake Busath: And we’ve had several photographers work for us over the years and I’ve trained a lot of assistance. And I think that’s one of the most rare qualities in the photographers, that ability to float and make those decisions in the middle of that chaos, especially with families.
Allison Tyler Jones: Agreed.
Drake Busath: Right, you know what I’m saying?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: Because you photographed the same families that I do.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Well, we-
Drake Busath: More or less.
Allison Tyler Jones: … you and I had a … Well, yeah, actually, and we have shared clients too, because you’re in Utah, I’m in Arizona, and so you have clients that go back and forth and we have crossed over with that, which is really fun. And you and I, let’s say 2020, we were in a group together, we did a shoot together and-
Drake Busath: You called me out.
Allison Tyler Jones: I called you out. We shot the same family.
Drake Busath: A shoot out. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. We did, we shot the same family. You shot them first and then I came in and shot them second. And that was so much fun to watch you work. It was an education because we… And we were in my studio, so you were using my lights, my studio, and a family that I knew that I had photographed before, and to watch how you set that up versus how I would set it up. It was an education I just loved, but the thing that I thought was interesting is there were part-
Drake Busath: By the way, could you feel the fear in me?
Allison Tyler Jones: No. There’s never. You are very internal.
Drake Busath: We had other people in the room. You were there.
Allison Tyler Jones: No, you’re very internal. You are just like, you always look like you just smoked a joint. You’re like very chill. But on the inside you’re going crazy.
Drake Busath: Churning, yeah.
Drake Busath: You’re churning. Yes. But I’m the opposite. It’s all on the outside, there’s nothing what you see is what you get. There’s no, yeah, it’s all crazy. So anyway, so watching you do that and how I saw that, how you positioned everybody, you kind of looked for that kid that was the bridge, you put her in the middle, you kind of had this beautiful graphic composition, then how you directed that shoot was so interesting to me because you’re very quiet.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Directing is such a fascinating topic, isn’t it? Different styles of directing. And it’s so important to family work where you’re directing different ages. Honestly, I mean, I don’t want to swell your head anymore, but you’re such a fine director. I mean, and your art directing styles are absolutely different.
Allison Tyler Jones: Different, but kind of aligned because that’s what was so interesting to me because I’m like, he’s doing what I do, but he’s just doing it. Like you’re still jacking with them psychologically 100%. I think that’s where you and I align is we are very much psychologically shrinking the whole thing, the whole energy, we’re completely managing everything that’s happening, but we’re just doing it in completely different ways. Because you’re over there like, “Okay, like there’s something on my head, is there something on my head?” So you’re talking this and I’m like, “Woo,” screaming and there’s music but again, you’re in complete control.
Drake Busath: That’s true. Yeah. On a good day. Yes.
Allison Tyler Jones: No. On any day, that’s just happy role.
Drake Busath: You know what? I absolutely think that this is interesting to me. I felt like at some point in my early career, I reached that point where I felt like I was in total control and then I reached, and then I kind of hit another plateau. And I know you’ll relate to this, where I started to trust the client to dance with me a little bit, right?
Drake Busath: But I think I photographed for five, 10 years where I controlled every movement of their body to a mechanical away. And then I learned to do that and you’ll completely understand this, that I call it unposing where you’re manipulating it, you know where you want them to go, but you’re going to get them there, on their own by their own wheel and not by yours. And so I talked to our assistants and photographers a lot about that.
Drake Busath: I would never tell someone to lean to your right. But I would say, where I look way down there now glance back at me. And I would use these general open terms because when they feel like they found that position, they’re more comfortable with it. Their spine doesn’t hurt, their neck doesn’t hurt, they come away thinking that was a natural.
Drake Busath: I was teaching once in Korea with a very famous photographer, I won’t tell you his name. I loved the man, he was a mentor of mine, but he was demonstrating, he needed somebody to pose, I went out and posed, and he reached over and grabbed my nose and used it to move my head and tilt it and turn it.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh my gosh.
Drake Busath: And then stepped back to the camera. And I knew in that instant, that was one of the learning experiences for me like, oh, okay, I can control them. But I’ve got to find the way to do it without them thinking I’m controlling them because I sat there and he turned my nose and twisted my head with it, and I felt this pain in the base of my neck, I could feel physical discomfort because of what happened there, and I knew that when I saw the images, that would still be in like in the head.
Drake Busath: And the same thing happens, I’ve seen 100 photographers using their hands like they’re on a runway with a big jet and they’re directing people like tilt your hands this way and your body tilts that way. And people still feel there’s physiological problem with that. They’re not in control, they feel like they’re being posed so…
Allison Tyler Jones: And you can see that in their expression, there’s like a hesitancy-
Drake Busath: Exactly.
Allison Tyler Jones: … they’re not engaged and they’re kind of… They’re either checked out and removed or they’re unsure and kind of at an awkward angle.
Drake Busath: Right. Exactly. That awkward, that expression completely shows. And so, and all that has to happen in the middle of this chaos so…
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes. And the thing that I think that our listeners may or may not know, if they’re looking at your website or looking at mine, we photograph large families. And I don’t mean like fat people, although that too, but families with many children. So we’ll photograph a family of four kids, six kids, eight kids that’s every day, that’s normal.
Allison Tyler Jones: So this is not like, get your 2.5 little cuties in here and let’s make this happen. Like we shot yesterday a little boy that was like six and little sister was four. And then mom and dad, and that was like fallen off a log, that’s easiest thing ever. So compared to those bigger families. So like what you’re saying, there is this amount of chaos.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so I think many people, when they’re doing something like that, like you’re saying they want to make it completely controlled, and then to this perfection, or maybe just releasing that. But if you can get it set up and I’ve watched you do this. And the thing that I think is really interesting about your work is you keep saying, well, classic or it’s safe or whatever.
Allison Tyler Jones: I don’t think it’s that at all, I think it is classic. It does transcend trend, but there is a freshness to your work that’s always been there in every image of yours that I’ve seen, that you can tell that it’s just beautiful, it will stand the test of time, no question, but there’s something else there.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I think what it is it’s that direction. It’s that engagement. And the collaboration with the client. And so how are you doing that? What are you, I know, because I’ve seen it, but I want you to tell our listeners, what are you doing? What are some of the things that you’re doing? I know one of the things you say is engaging their mind.
Drake Busath: Yeah, that’s a quote from my dad that rings in my head all the time, so when their mind’s engaged, which means just asking them a question and it might be a child. But that’s looking in their face is in neutral and we need some expressions. So, but it’s total distraction, it’s all different methods of distraction.
Drake Busath: So I could think about some specific little techniques that I go back to a lot. One of them that I learned really, really late in my career was just to explain the concept to them going in, first have a concept and then share that with them. And so I’m not trying to trick them into things now, if they understand the concept, then one or two of them will actually help me with it, they’ll add to it.
Drake Busath: So I remember standing in front of a bunch of business, well, church leaders, once saying, listen in past the pictures are pretty static, I really need you to show me how you feel about one another. Because I think there is a brotherhood here and there’s a friendship here, and there’s love between you and I need you to help me illustrate that.
Drake Busath: And I don’t think it’s ever been done in the history of this group photo, that’s been done over 100 years. And it was kind of a daring thing to say to that particular group, but it really had an effect.
Drake Busath: So with the family, I will talk about that list. I will say something like, let’s imagine that you guys are here together and you’re talking to each other and that’s the concept you’re talking to each other, that means you’ve got to turn your body so you can see each other.
Drake Busath: You’re not going to turn your back to someone and lean up. You’ve got to turn. So let’s do that. And then the last second you glanced over and you noticed me, the paparazzi or something cute. So we start with that, and then a lot of little engaging children is a science, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: And it’s so fun.
Drake Busath: No one’s better at it than you are.
Allison Tyler Jones: No, that’s not true, but it’s so fun, I love it.
Drake Busath: My favorite techniques are suspense, I think, if I can create suspense and that’s usually this object, I can hold it on my head, and it never falls off and they know it’s going to fall off and I set it [inaudible 00:26:53] or close to the group and then I’ll back up to the camera and the children, they know the gags going to happen. And I’m going to photograph before the laugh, before it happens.
Drake Busath: But they’re little back straightened, a little bit, and their necks raise up a little bit and their eyes open because they’re in photographing anticipation, that’s the expression I want on children. And then the younger ones that won’t stay still, I use discipline.
Drake Busath: I kind of channel Allison on this one. I will yell at that puppet and tell it to sit still right there. You sit on that chair, don’t you move. I’m going to be so angry at you. And you look over and that little two year old who is jumping off the stool is just frozen now, because he knows that tone of voice.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh yeah.
Drake Busath: It’s not threatening to him.
Allison Tyler Jones: Totally. Somebody else is in trouble.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Someone else is in trouble and the little four year olds I always call them sadist, because they love the fact that this puppet’s getting yelled at and that the puppet’s going to get the best of me in the end, right,?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.
Drake Busath: And so they love to see the discomfort that the… What’s the definition, the suffering of others, something like that. So it’s this little circus, but suspense and discipline, and humiliation, self humiliation. Now those are my top three tools.
Drake Busath: But those trans, if I know that… If I talk to that two year old, four year old, that I’ve got the whole family. The teenagers will soften. I can’t speak on a teenage level and an adult level all at once. You try, you throw in some adult kind of references where you can. But really if, yeah my son, Richard is better than me at this and maybe the best I ever seen, he’s right up there in your league.
Drake Busath: And he works quietly, but I’ve had multiple times parents come up to me later and say, “How did he do that? Did you just see what he did?” Because we get a lot of three generation groups. And there’s always that request for grandma with the 12 grandchildren. And the oldest is Tim. It’s absolutely impossible.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. It’s a total poop show.
Drake Busath: Yeah. I love. So Richard’s technique is to just start whispering and treat it like, this is a super reverent situation. And I’ve watched him do that so many times and he’s great. But anyway-
Allison Tyler Jones: So what is they doing? So he’s like he’s doing-
Drake Busath: Well, yeah, he will not get friendly with the children early, like meeting them out in the reception area, walking into the camera room. He will not be joking and trying to befriend them. He’ll just act like the authority figure and he’ll set this quiet expectation with the adults, send most of them away, keep only necessary ones, put up a big reflector and have them, the adults stand behind it.
Drake Busath: So there’s no one else to look at. And then he will just go really close to the group and start whispering. And then he will kind of practice similar techniques, but he’s a funnier kind of, he has children that age, so he’s got better references for them, but he will clock off a child’s toe and eat it, you ever do that one?
Allison Tyler Jones: No, I don’t. But that I could see that. It would be so good.
Drake Busath: That’s great little technique because children are not threatened if you reach for their feet, but you reach for their body, it scares them. I’m sure there’s some psychological study that proves this, that you can reach for a one year old’s toes, and it does not threaten them. And after you pluck the toe off, which entertains this, the other kids.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.
Drake Busath: And you taste it and then the next, one tastes awful when do step in by, but once you do that, the little child reaches for their own toes and it solves that, their hands and [crosstalk 00:30:48]
Allison Tyler Jones: It’s so cute.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Instead of their hands out to the sides and all over, they’re creating this beautiful little body shape, but I could go on for, I’d tell you what, that’s one of the most pleasurable parts of this business for me is a group like that, that’s maybe, several children like you described and that the parents have given up on ever getting right and conquering it, and conquering it quietly.
Drake Busath: I think that’s my favorite part of the business. Someone asked once at an interview who’s the most famous person you photographed and you hear that, right? And I realized that, you know what? My favorite person was the eight year old last week.
Allison Tyler Jones: Totally. Yes. The naughty-
Drake Busath: Robert [crosstalk 00:31:36] Yeah. Was a pain in the butt, but that eight year old was worth all the goes into this, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Well so it’s funny because really when you look at, say, that’s what’s out there in like photographic education, it’s all like a model, a beautiful model, or a rock band, or like they’re all adults that will behave. Let’s talk about how the bread and butter, which is like these little kids.
Allison Tyler Jones: When you say four year old, one of my favorite things, I’ll just throw in a tip here, which you probably already know this one. But one of my favorite things is once they’re about like three and a half to four, that’s generally when the reverse psychology can kick in and they can get a joke. Unless you have a very little child, this will not work with a very little child, but with especially middle kids or like number two kid, that’s a little bit naughtier or whatever, is if I can go, I will maybe be like fiddle with my camera and then I’ll look up and say, I’ve got them posed, I’ve kind of got them where I want them.
Allison Tyler Jones: And maybe the little girl I’ll say, “Wait a minute, why are you sitting on my dad’s lap?” I did not say that you could sit on my dad, that is my dad. And they will be, that is not your dad. And they immediately like hug, and it’s my dad. And I’m like, “Nope, do not touch my mom.” And they will immediately just like hug onto that leg or hug onto them.
Allison Tyler Jones: Sometimes it gets a little, my problem is always to pull them back from being too crazy. Because sometimes I get them a little too wound up. So I’ve had to learn to kind of throttle some of my direction because sometimes it goes a little too far, but.
Drake Busath: No, that’s wonderful. That’s great tip.
Allison Tyler Jones: That’s a fun one.
Drake Busath: That yeah, the reverse thing don’t do, and a child does.
Allison Tyler Jones: Whatever you do, don’t smile at me.
Drake Busath: Right.
Allison Tyler Jones: Or whatever.
Drake Busath: A child that’s too smart for the situation, you run into that a lot, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: They know you’re trying to manipulate them.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh, yes.
Drake Busath: You got to go to that reverse thing. Like I just do not allow giggling, no giggling allowed. Absolutely, no smiling please. None of you, none of you, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.
Drake Busath: And then yeah. That’s beautiful.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh, I have to tell you why.
Drake Busath: Have you written a book yet?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: With chapters on each age?
Allison Tyler Jones: No, in my Hundred Percent kid book, there is a section on ages and stages, [crosstalk 00:33:38] but I’ve learned in so much more since then, but I have to tell you, this is my crowning glory. Okay, not only as a photographer, but as a grandmother and mother.
Allison Tyler Jones: So our kids came in, and my oldest boy and his wife and four sons, and their number three child is just at a complicated age. So he’s like two and just full of it, and wants to be big, right? And he’s also very much into like, you can’t make me, and I will end you, I will burn your life down. So they came in-
Drake Busath: Those are called terrorists.
Allison Tyler Jones: He’s a terrorist, yes, 1005. Which is my special, I specialize in terrorists, that’s my favorite kind of kid. So here comes the oldest to, they’re perfectly cloth, they’re cute, they come out and their eyes are really big like he’s being really naughty, he’s going to get in trouble.
Allison Tyler Jones: My son brings out the baby, he’s totally fine. And I can hear that kid and they’re just burning it down, and her trying to get him dressed. And so I said to my son, I’m like, “Can I try?” But that’s complicated, because you’re the mother-in-law. And his eyes got really big, and he is like, “Well, let me see.”
Allison Tyler Jones: So he went in the bathroom and then he comes out and my daughter-in-law walks out and she’s like, “Be my guest, be my guest,” while I was waiting for them to decide whether I could help or not, I went and grabbed a sucker.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I have it in my pocket and I walk in there. This kid is like, [inaudible 00:34:58], literally snot is running out of his face, tears running in. I mean, he’s beat red, he’s got the top of his clothes on, but he’s got one leg and a pair of pants, no shoes, no socks. And he’s just like irrational beyond the point. So I just sat down on the floor and I looked at him and I said, “Buddy, are you sad?” And he’s like, ” [inaudible 00:35:17] No pictures, no pictures.” Like he’s not [crosstalk 00:35:20].
Drake Busath: All right.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I said, “Did you just need some candy?” And so he’s like, then he’s still crying, still snot. I won’t do the sound effects for you, but he nods as all he’s still sobbing, crying, can’t breathe. So I just shoved that sucker in his mouth and I pulled him onto my lap and I said, “You know what? You don’t have to take pictures today.”
Allison Tyler Jones: And he immediately just stopped crying. I said, “You don’t have to, you don’t have to, you don’t have to take any pictures at all. You don’t even have to put on these clothes.” And he’s looking at me like, I know there’s got to be a cat here because he is super smart. And I said, Davis and Calvin, his older brothers, I said, “They’re outside and they’re going to get some toys, did you want some toys today?” “Yeah, I want some toys.”
Allison Tyler Jones: I’m like, “Okay, if you want some toys, all we need to do was we’re just going to take a few pictures. But if you don’t want to, it’s completely fine.” And he’s like, I go, “But do you want toys?” “Yeah.” And I’m like, “Would it be okay if we put your pants on?” “Yeah.”
Allison Tyler Jones: I’m like, “Okay, how about socks? Would it be okay if we put your socks on?” “Yeah.” So we wiped his face off, we came out, he’s totally fine. So through the whole rest of the session, I just said to him, “Is it okay if mom sits by you? Is it okay if dad sits over here,” I let him run the entire session. And my daughter-in-law is like, “What did you do?”
Drake Busath: What just happened?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. And the thing is it’s not like I’m a better parent or anything, because obviously that was like a quick fix in a moment in time. But I realize this is not going to happen if I don’t get this kid turned around.
Drake Busath: Yes. But photographers, if you’ve dealt with families, we know a lot more than the parents, those young parents do about their own children. And that will never be easy to explain to those parents, they will never understand completely that’s the case. But when you’re describing this, I’m thinking you should, if you get tired of photography, you should be a hostage negotiator.
Allison Tyler Jones: Totally.
Drake Busath: Right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: Because it’s exactly the same principles, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: You have to convince them that it’s their idea, and somehow, and that’s beautiful.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. So anyway, sorry that took the time, but I just think that so much of what we do, when you come out of something like that and you think, oh my gosh, or you talk to clients that say my kid has never cooperated during pictures.
Drake Busath: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Or my husband always hates it, or whatever. That’s-
Drake Busath: Did you look forward to those?
Allison Tyler Jones: I know it’s my favorite because if you can turn that around they’re yours for life.
Drake Busath: That’s right.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: There’s a lot of satisfaction in that, and I think even more than money, and I know that’s heresy, but I just, at the end of my career, those are the moments I will remember. And I’m nearing that, so I can say that honestly. And going back to history, I know that we’ve got these little images that are scattered across the country that they’re are babies and they’re out there forever.
Drake Busath: And if there was a true story in the image and if we weren’t trying to glamorize it too much or overcook it, or try to create some kind of fantasy, then that image will stay on the wall and might come down for a while, but it’ll get pulled back out in someone’s middle aged and become valuable.
Drake Busath: I know because we just went through all my wife’s family history and all the pictures ended up at our house from six children. And so we had to photograph them all, digitize them all and go through it all. And none of those have been thrown out and some are honest and some were silly, they’re all valuable, but those ones that illustrate their relationship, where they were touching hugging, they were connecting.
Allison Tyler Jones: Something real.
Drake Busath: Yeah. There was some emotion involved rather than just a confrontational likeness. Man, those are just treasures. And that’s kind of, I know that becomes a cliche, but that is what’s important to me at the end of the day, more than, and my dad more, he didn’t care a bit about money. Luckily, he had my mom to run the books, talk to the clients and do some sales, but-
Allison Tyler Jones: That’s so good.
Drake Busath: … Because he didn’t care a bit. It was just about creating the image and improving it. And that’s been my life too, what you call it, keeping it fresh. And I’ve used that term a lot to trying to just boredom drives me. Like I just can’t stand to create another image that’s mediocre or that’s been done too many times. So we’re all over the place, you talked about trends and avoiding trends.
Allison Tyler Jones: But I think it’s all holds together because what you’re saying… The reason I love to talk to you is because we do share at the core, such a worldview, which, and I think where we align is like, you’re saying, I’m so easily bored. And when I first decided, okay, I’m only going to do studio and I’m shooting on a white background or a gray background and that’s it.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I’m not changing my backgrounds and I’m photographing families year, after year, after year. And you think, okay, how do you make that different? Well, how do you make that different? Is that the people are different and they like different things, they are acting in different ways, but then they’re also the same. So how are you showing that continuity and how those relationships evolve over time and telling that story?
Allison Tyler Jones: I just find people endlessly, fascinating. I find psychology, and kids, and how they interact, and how different and unique they are, and yet how not different and not unique they are at the same time. Like that oldest child is just you know how that’s going to roll, and then that second one and just watching how those dynamics play out.
Allison Tyler Jones: But then also when you’re in that moment with those clients in that session, and especially when I’m photographing the kids and I have the parents in there with me, to have them sit there and see those kids with that 30,000 foot view that you get when you’re watching and walk across the stage of a graduation or they can see what they’ve created, they can see the relationship between those kids, and you can see that like, they’re so glad that they did it, it allows them to pull out of the day to day and really see this great thing that they’ve complicated hard, but it’s great at the end of the day.
Drake Busath: Well, that’s such a great statement, that’s your genius. And what I admire so much is the idea that there’s infinite variety in just the expression, and the body language, and the group dynamics without having to go stand on the mountaintop at sunrise. At the end of the day, there’s nothing more fascinating to photograph than the human face and body, if it’s expressive and just drawing out those expressions is your genius, of course.
Drake Busath: And I love the way that you’ve narrowed it down to that. And that’s been an inspiration to me and that’s why that’s a big influence on us here, going back into the studio and trying to work on with less around them. We’ll continue to do garden portraits, we will because that’s our thing and our brand. But I crave a little less. And so that’s what we’re working on now.
Allison Tyler Jones: Even with your garden portraits, it’s still so spare and that’s what I love about your work. I feel like even when you’re shooting on a location, you still reduce that in such a spare way that has a fresh, modern take to it. Even your “old stuff”. I can see that through line, your style is so recognizable.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I think that, if we go back to the beginning of this conversation where you’re talking about your clients recognize your style, that’s consistent and it’s so clear what it is that you do. And I think that as much or more than anything, and the fact that the work is great and they’re taking care of it, and all of that’s what’s brought you through.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you have… You’re not just changing on the vine, like, “Oh my gosh, we need to be printing everything on metal. And it needs to be,” whatever this latest trend is, you’re you just stay the course, but you’re not just stuck because we all know photographers that have gotten stuck. That are still just doing the same thing. And you could say it’s classic, or you could say that it is kind of boring and stale, right?
Drake Busath: Yeah, definitely.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I can see the evolution, you’re still evolving. And so that’s kind of an interesting topic too. How do you stay classic, but yet still evolve?
Drake Busath: Right. How do you keep that continuity thinking? Yeah, there are some principles that stay the same and through all that, we could be outdoors or out on the Salt plats or in the studio and we’d still be, expression driven is the term I use, which pretty much means they’re looking at the camera and we’re close enough crop to not, so we shoot very, very few real scenic portraits where we depended on the scenery, even if we’re out there on site and we do shoot on location quite a bit, we have some nearby locations that we’ll go to.
Drake Busath: But there is a continuity in the crop, and then of course the lighting. So we are using a supplementary light when we’re outdoors a pretty large soft box or we’ll set up a six by six foot scram and shoot light through it, so that we really have that studio soft box look when we’re outdoors, I think that helps people recognize our work.
Drake Busath: We’ll shoot long lens, that’s a style point that we’ve never really got away from. So on a family group, 150 millimeter lens is not unusual. We’d be standing out in the middle of the street in our yard very often take an orange cone out with us and stand there for cross. [crosstalk 00:44:43]
Allison Tyler Jones: Don’t kill the photographer, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. Would you please, that’s great. A gag for the children. If the UPS truck comes, who’s going to tell me? Are you going to tell me? Because I’m going to be looking at the camera and I will. And you don’t want to see your photographer [crosstalk 00:45:02]
Allison Tyler Jones: I don’t want to get-
Drake Busath: But long lens is… That’s a style point that really does change the look of an image, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: You know that? Little bit of the [crosstalk 00:45:11] compression and it reduces the information in the background. So that’s driven by shooting in the middle of the day. We’ve got to find little pockets of decent light and we just could not shoot with the 24 to 70 lens families.
Drake Busath: And I think that’s kind of the very commonly the go to family lens because you can stand close enough to speak to them. But we always shoot with an assistant and that assistant’s often running back and forth and/or the assistant standing at the camera firing it and the photographers moving back and forth. Yeah. So as far away as we can get.
Allison Tyler Jones: I know, same. That’s so funny. I love, I’m the same too, because I do, I see people that are photographing so up close and I’m like, “Wow, that would be such an advantage to be able to be closer so they could hear me. So maybe that’s why I’m screaming all the time. Because I’m like with my seven to 200 in the back of the room,” because I want the compression.
Drake Busath: Yeah. That’s right. I need a… Yeah, I would like a larger camera.
Allison Tyler Jones: Totally. I want an airplane hanger, I mean half of it for all the furniture installs.
Drake Busath: I’ve photographed families in a large big studio-
Allison Tyler Jones: [inaudible 00:46:21] the same.
Drake Busath: … borrowed, and it gets echoy and you lose the intimacy. So there’s something in the middle there. Personally, I think it’s 40 feet.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yes. Wide by [inaudible 00:46:30]
Drake Busath: What’s your depth? The ideal depth for a family portrait?
Allison Tyler Jones: Well I’m-
Drake Busath: You want 50 feet, you want 40, you want 60-
Allison Tyler Jones: I’d love 50, 40. I’m at 35 right now, and that’s pretty good, but you can see if you go to my studio, you can see the word, my jeans are rubbing up against the wall, I’m literally against the wall all the time.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Well you [crosstalk 00:46:50] the lean on?
Allison Tyler Jones: I know, well that’s true. So I’m always up against, but yeah, I think like 35. So our camera was like 35 deep by this space is like 15 wide, because we’re limited by this structural beam, the post that’s in the ground. But I would love to have that 35 to 40 wide by 35 to 40 deep would be so good.
Drake Busath: I do, yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. But I agree. We rented a studio one time and it was had this huge site. It was probably 60 by 60 and it was, I felt like it was a little too cavernous.
Drake Busath: Yeah. There’s a little sound problem and the people feel not as connected. I’m looking at one of my own family, it was done on a big site like that right now. And we pulled it off. But you get used to anything I could, if you’re going to give me a 60 by 60 room, I would take it.
Allison Tyler Jones: Are you kidding me? I would love it.
Drake Busath: I just divide it up a little bit. We’re in an old house and I imagine, a lot of people face this issue where one of our camera rooms is like 24 feet long. So we had to develop one problem is like you couldn’t fit large soft boxes in there. And I like big soft lights.
Drake Busath: So we built years ago started building these north lights and where’s just a wall of acrylic plastic where the lights bouncing through it. Doesn’t take up so much space, but I’ve always dealt with two smallest space. And I think a lot of us do, but that shooting a family there… You know what? Can I just mention a project, that’s been a real thrill for me? Speaking of long lenses, I just started a project this year, photographing old character Tuscans in Italy, in their barns, in their workshops, at their theater, in the kitchen, wherever they are.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh, wow.
Drake Busath: Usually octogenarians people that it’s kind of this last generation that remembers World War II. And they were, these folks were children during that time, but they live through that post-war rebuilding and there’s a particular village that I spent a lot of time in.
Drake Busath: And so I got talking to some friends about these old men that hang out on the streets and they all have nicknames and they all have nothing better to do because their houses are small, so they don’t want to sit around in the house with their wife. The men are on the street.
Allison Tyler Jones: The women are in the house.
Drake Busath: The women in the house. And they said, “What if we could do a project?” So I went over and I’ve always photographed these men when I’m visiting over there, but just short little encounters. But this time we are organized some time so we could get into their place. They hang out one guy that fixes vespa scooters, and he’s got 150 Vespas all torn apart in this one room.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh my gosh. So cool.
Drake Busath: And out on a farm where this group of cousins all in their late seventies, still live there and produce everything that they eat, never go into town, just completely isolated on this farm, so photographing with their cows and their pigs and their… But it’s all short limbs, that’s the point of this story. And it’s just so refreshing for me. I’m shooting like 35 millimeter lens, which I’ve never done at studio and I’m working close to them and all completely found light. And so this is a collection that, and doing some video and getting their voices on recorded so that we’ve got-
Allison Tyler Jones: So great.
Drake Busath: …More to work with, but photographed about a dozen or 15 different people this October and this last year. And I’m excited. I feel like as much as I love the studio and I do get completely obsessed by the business and swallowed by it, it’s been really important for me to break away and have a personal photographic project.
Drake Busath: My wife would say, do something without the camera for a change, but for me, it’s just as different to go out, to be out of my comfort zone and photographing. And luckily that our business model and the way the studios set up, it’s let me leave for a month at a time, a couple of times every year and business rolls on without me, so that’s’-
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Well, and then you’ve created another business out of the Italy workshops?
Drake Busath: Yeah. It’s a hobby really. I mean, it looks like a business. It has a website and all that stuff, but in reality, it’s my way of escaping work-
Allison Tyler Jones:The day to day.
Drake Busath: …And playing, it really is. Because I wouldn’t, I don’t know, I wouldn’t go on my own on these adventures. I would always find a reason not to, it’s oh, it’s somebody’s birthday or my mom’s not well or if unless I was forced to do it. So I created a company that’s called and I’m forced to go spend time and put on these workshops and give the tours. But this little project-
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh, it’s amazing.
Drake Busath: … is completely personal. I mean, I just did it alone with some Italian friends and that was like a third leg of my life now.
Allison Tyler Jones: I love that.
Drake Busath: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Well, but I think as we wrap this up, I think the thing that really strikes me is that there’s a lot of through lines and that’s the legacy that your parents started and that you’ve continued and that you’re panning on your boys and that’s that there’s an authenticity and a realness about your work. It’s also, there’s an authenticity and realness about how you want to live your life.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so what you’re saying is like, of course money is important to everybody, your business needs to be able to thrive, to support those families, and to be able to support your employees and also support your dreams of traveling to Italy and doing projects like this, but it’s not just an end in and of itself.
Allison Tyler Jones: And then with all baked into all of that is the love of family and the connection between people. And as you have captured that and provided that legacy for your clients that has brought return back to you again and again.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you’ve found this niche and you’ve just stayed the course while continually evolving yourself creatively. And I think it’s a testament to what a great industry we’re in, what a great business this is, it really truly has so much meaning and so much value for us who own the businesses, but also for the clients that we serve.
Drake Busath: Absolutely. Yeah. And I can’t think of very many other businesses where you can really get tied up emotionally every day, I guess, medical fields, but it’s not happy emotions.
Allison Tyler Jones: No. And there’s so much stake.
Drake Busath: Yeah, you’re right. I love that about it’s, you’re pretty deeply involved and yet we’re not saving lives. I remember Dean Collins well, hero of mine said that once, “Remember guys, we’re not saving lives here,” [inaudible 00:53:37] you mess up, except I think you said, “Except your wedding photographers maybe.”
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, I know.
Drake Busath: But no, I’m driven by capturing the images much more than the money part of it. And I realized that just recently, because I thought I was a business man, I’ve always thought, oh, we’re a little kind of a little Nordstrom, we’re not the boutique studio. We’re more of a retail model, but we’re on the higher end of that, and we’re good at customer service, and we produce a consistently good product that people can trust.
Drake Busath: And I took a lot of pride in building the business that way and treating it, even though we’re a little micro business treating like it was a bigger business. And I think that was very important to getting through the big changes I think. But at the end of the day now in my sixties, I’m realizing that I could have done that in a lot of different fields and made more money I really stuck with this because I enjoy the conquering that two year old, or doing the… Seeing my portraits hanging on the wall out the governor’s portrait, the capital building where I really get a lot of satisfaction. So I am my dad.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, I love that.
Drake Busath: And I resisted that for a long time. I thought I’d never hear me say that. I thought I’d never hear myself say that.
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Because when you’re younger, you don’t want to be your parents. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Right. Yeah. Can I tell you… Can I brag a little bit?
Drake Busath: Yeah do it.
Allison Tyler Jones: I had something special just happened, that my dad would just burst with pride over. We won an award called Best of State this year for the entire category, the entire industry of arts and entertainment in Utah. And so we’ve won this award for Best of State photographer, every 12 years in a row I think. But this time they called our name and this is a dinner for 1000 people, black tie, it’s a big event.
Allison Tyler Jones: And they called us up to give us the award for the arts and entertainment category, which is all the theaters, all the symphony, the ballet, the opera, all the artists, all the galleries, all the painters, all the musicians, the movie, it’s a big category. And this little committee sat and I was shocked that they chose this little portrait studio, but it just tells me that this committee of business people thought enough of a little non profit portrait studio that they would consider us for that.
Allison Tyler Jones: And that was encouraging to me about the future of our industry, we’re not in any way obsolete. That we were kind of on the move and maybe they just, they’re noticing us for the first time. And we used to be a commodity and now we’re something really special. And so I’m very proud of that. And I thought at the moment, the only thing I could think of going up to the podium was man, dad would be bursting with pride over this.
Allison Tyler Jones: I know. Well, he was, he saw it. He was there. I’m convinced. I know whenever we do something great, I would just, my siblings, we call ourselves the Tyler Orphans because we lost our parents pretty young. And so we’ll always say, we’ll just call each other and say, “Okay, mom would be so proud,” and then we just brag.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I love that. I know your dad would be so, so proud of what you’ve done, and so proud of your boys and this legacy that you’re continuing on. It’s so much fun to watch. And I think the thing that is a real inspiration to me, that I draw your example is how to do something well and stick with it while continually to evolve around the edges.
Allison Tyler Jones: You’re not throwing out the baby with the bathwater every year and okay, we’re going to do all new things and we’re going to pull up the gardens, and do steel backgrounds, and go industrial, and we’re going to go downtown to the railroad tracks. And it’s just like, there’s a through line of camera aware. I took notes yesterday, so you tell me if I’m right.
Drake Busath: Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: Classic style, natural skin tones, expression driven, and that it’s just beautiful, but expression driven and seeing those connections between people.
Drake Busath: Yeah. And add to that beauty driven because, we kind of get, that’s a trend that we can get carried off in is let’s make it interesting, let’s make it prettier, let’s make it grungy, let’s make it glamorous. And if beauty is on that list priorities, then that keeps you in the classical category.
Drake Busath: Because any, when I could say classical, I think Romans and Greek ideals, and they’re popularized again in the Renaissance, but these are principles that they’re natural and beautiful. Those are two real trade, hallmarks of classical style. And that’s a trend that is easy to lose track of if you’re trying to be creative, especially with editing today, right?
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah.
Drake Busath: So natural, you mentioned natural skin tones. And that’s something it’s hard to resist sometimes the cinematic or post-production effects and the desaturation and we get pulled off that way. I do. Because I just love Photoshop and I watch millions of tutorials, all the time, I watch one movie and then three tutorials, that’s my nightly diet.
Allison Tyler Jones: I love it.
Drake Busath: But my sons pull me back, wait a minute. It’s beauty that we’re looking for. So let’s go back to the natural skin tones and stick with it. I appreciate that’s a great compliment though. Thank you very much that you’ve noticed that, there’s a continuity and it’s freshened up now and then.
Allison Tyler Jones: No, it’s not freshened up now and then it’s, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice, but you’re the king of self deprecation. It’s that you’re… I think the thing that keeps it fresh is the real, that’s the thing that’s the real, when you look back, even at those really old photographs like back in the day when they had to hold really still, every now and then you’d see one where like, maybe it was blurry, but they had a little moment where a kid laughed or put their hand on somebody or like that gesture, that’s where it’s all, that’s where all the magic is.
Allison Tyler Jones: And those are the images that when they’re collecting them as the older people, they’re going to be like, I remember that, I remember sitting on my dad’s lap, and lean in to him, and I always love to be with him. And those little tiny stories. It’s not the big, huge illustration, it’s those little tiny things that make all the difference. And that requires all the things that we’ve just talked about, being in control, directing, but also allowing them to be themselves. And you guys have done it for 50 years, and I just so appreciate you being here to share that valuable info with us.
Drake Busath: Well, it’s a privilege to be asked. Thank you.
Allison Tyler Jones: Tell our listeners where they can find you, the Busath. But also I want you to tell them about the Italy workshop too?
Drake Busath: Okay. Our website, which is always two or three years behind.
Allison Tyler Jones: Oh please. Yeah.
Drake Busath: Yes. Everybody knows that, everybody-
Allison Tyler Jones: Every photographer, yeah.
Drake Busath: Yeah. Is busath.com. By the way, no one knows how to say our name. So if you don’t know how to say it don’t feel bad, but it’s long U and long, A Busath.
Allison Tyler Jones: B-U-S-A-T-H.
Drake Busath: B-U-S-A-T-H.com. And then I have this other little concern called Italy workshops and that italyworkshops.com, and that’s trips that we organize for photographers in the spring and the fall. [crosstalk 01:01:10]
Allison Tyler Jones: And if you have a chance to go on that, Ivan and I went with the group with him and it was, he knows all the little out of the way places and the most amazing experiences, and it’s just life changing. I would, I kind of want to say, I’m never going to go to Italy without you. So you’re just going to have to come with us no matter when we go.
Drake Busath: Well, I’m happy for that. Yeah. I love it. I love the villages, the small, we don’t go to the cities. It’s the small, real experiences where you can photograph something that you’re not the 10th person to photograph it that day, and people that’s more and more part of the workshop is meeting people in their places, in their homes, and being out on dirt roads instead of highways, so…
Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, that’s amazing
Drake Busath: Italy is an endless country in the sense that there’s always a new little village that you haven’t seen, and I’ve been going there for, I don’t know, 40 years and doing these workshops for 20. And I still, every time I go, I find some new little place and-
Allison Tyler Jones: I love it.
Drake Busath: … it’s charming. Yeah.
Allison Tyler Jones: 2022 or no, 2023.
Drake Busath: 2024.
Allison Tyler Jones: We’re going to do France together and do a workshop in France, and then we’re going to go to Italy.
Drake Busath: Yes. Let your listeners know that I have asked you to be the instructor in the Loire Valley in France, Central France in 2023 in the fall probably, we don’t know. And they’re just, I can’t imagine a better combination than-
Allison Tyler Jones: It’s going to be separate-
Drake Busath: … Loire Valley and all those big, beautiful Chateau and the French food, the peasant food, and Allison Tyler Jones, that’s a week.
Allison Tyler Jones: And Ivan Jones, our French speaker, who will be translating.
Drake Busath: Ivan will be translating, he’ll be making friends along the way and shmoozing and getting us into cool places.
Allison Tyler Jones: Exactly. Exactly. Oh, Drake, thank you so much. I appreciate you being here.
Drake Busath: Hey, thanks for having me.
Allison Tyler Jones: Do you someone who would really benefit from this episode of The ReWork, maybe a fellow photographer who’s in the trenches with you at always looking to level up their biz, or perhaps you have a friend who is struggling to make their business work. I would be so grateful if you would share this episode with them.
Allison Tyler Jones: All you have to do is head to the platform where you are listening, click the share icon, and text it or email it to the person that you think could need it most. Thank you so much for doing that. And while you’re there, if you have a chance and can give us a review, it would mean the world. We are a micro tiny podcast, and we’re trying to get the word out to as many portrait photographers as possible to help them build better businesses and better lives for their family. And if you would help us do that, it would mean the world. Thank you so much. And we’ll see it next time on The ReWork.
Recorded:
You can find more great resources from Allison at dotherework.com, and on Instagram do.the.rework.
