AN EYE AND A HEART FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

LIL: I have been in the business for eighteen years. Lil’s Photography Studio was born in Canada. It’s a business that has struggled because I was at University when I started photography as a hobby. In the second year of photography, actually I didn’t even know I was in business. I was taking pictures for a lot of people and was not charging. They were asking me “why are you not charging?” They started giving me money and I was feeling guilty for taking the money because they were friends. So then every occasion like parties, functions, christenings, all of my friends’ weddings, everybody was calling me to take pictures. I knew I was doing this course, and I said to myself whatever they gave me was fine. I didn’t know how to charge so I asked my teacher about the cost of doing wedding photography in Canada. It was thousands of dollars and I was shocked because when I got $300 I thought they were overpaying me. I would reason that a roll of film was $3.95 and people were giving me $300 for photographing a roll of film. I then decided to find out the real way to go about charging and do the right thing. It was my friends who encouraged me to register the business and there I went.

CAFRA: Did you actually go to study photography or you went to do something else?

LIL: No, I was doing Computer Science at York University

CAFRA: Did you finish that?

LIL: No, in my second year I had to leave because I opened my photography business. I was also freelancing and photographing for a lot of small publishing companies, modeling agencies and making portfolios. I was also doing Advertising Photography and didn’t even know that I was in big business.

CAFRA: How long and what kind of training did you do in Canada in photography?

LIL: I went to photography school, night school actually.

CAFRA: While you were doing Computer Science?

LIL: Yes, I was doing Computer Science for three days a week and photography twice a week but photography had a lot of assignments. I photographed different kinds of projects, buildings, construction sites and industrial type of work. It depended on what area of work the teacher was focusing on. Photography was not just taking pictures of roses or your pet dog; it was a lot of business photography. There are various types of photography; people, animals, portraits, industrial, advertising and I touched on all the different areas.

CAFRA: What would you say is the real reason you got into photography?

LIL: I think it’s my love, my hobby. I didn’t know I was going to be a photographer but when I was ten years old my father bought me a 1-10 camera and I was always holding that camera and always wanting film and always trying to get a roll of film from relatives or crying behind my father to get the film processed. My excitement was, knowing that I took those pictures and it was always a fun thing for me.

CAFRA: Did you have any mentors? Who was your inspiration?

LIL: It all started when I used to stand in front of a photography studio waiting for my father to take me home from school. I would go and watch the pictures and observe how the business was managed. When I was eleven years old the owner told me he felt that one day I would work in that studio. I was fourteen years old the first time he asked if I wanted to train in the studio. I thought I was just going to learn something so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be paid, but after the first week he gave me $50. I was so shocked that I vowed to open a bank account because it was like a big salary for me.

CAFRA: Did any body try to discourage you from being a photographer?

LIL: Yes, my father. He asked me to compare the amount of money I would make doing Photography to the amount I would make doing Computer Science. I told him that photography something I like and want to do. My father complained that every time we spoke I was always talking about cameras and photography. When I told my father I was opening a Photography Studio, he didn’t think I was making the right decision. CAFRA: What about other people in the business? Did you have any bad experiences or challenges?

LIL: Yes, when I started and was calling other photographers, they hesitated to give me the right prices for pictures. They always gave me low prices, so I didn’t know if those were the real prices. Professionals charge a very high price and someone who is now starting cannot charge their price.

CAFRA: Did they do anything to squeeze you out of the business?

LIL: Photography is a man’s world. I was a freelance journalist with the newspaper and when I first started going out with the other photographers they would tell me to take a shot but wouldn’t tell me how to take the shot, knowing that it was an important one. I didn’t know what kind of shots to look for because I never had that kind of experience. There was one time when I had to photograph the Prime Minister and I thought I would have been getting training from the other photographers who are mostly male, but people just want to walk all over you. It is a competition for the better photograph, selling them to the newspapers and the ability to have a front page photograph. Over time as a woman you eventually become tough and rough, so that feminine side changes.

CAFRA: What advice would you give to anybody who wants to enter this business?

LIL: Photography is a man’s world but we women could make it anywhere, because women are tougher than men. When you look at the kind of lifestyle that women have to live and bear children, the jobs that they have to do and take care of the home, the energy just bursts into a woman and flows.

CAFRA: Is there anything else you would like to say about being a business woman.

LIL: As a business woman in Trinidad, it’s very scary. As small as my business might be, every time I go in and come out of the studio or driving I am always looking in the mirror, checking my surroundings. I was robbed twice in this business and that changed my life all together. I considered closing the business and getting a secure job. I had made up my mind but the other business people encouraged me to stay in business. They advised me that something like that doesn’t happen everyday, but it’s a scary thing because when it happens to you, it’s a feeling that you alone will know and you will be affected for a long time. It has been two years and it’s still a scary feeling.

CAFRA: Would you encourage young people to get involved?

LIL: I will encourage every young person who wants to be in the field of photography. It’s a hobby, a joy. You must have an eye and the heart for photography.