Pip Williams
For most of us, Pip Williams needs no introduction as she’s risen to cult-like status as a down right brilliant photographer. Known so well for capturing those messy, love-fuelled moments with our families. She might have grown up in the big city but her earthy nature and cool attitude makes you think Pip must be from the sticks. Which meant she fit right in when she met some bloke at the pub and found herself building a life in Texas, QLD. With a move to Toowoomba on the cards, a new regional dynamic is at play for Pip and her own family. Pip has given us a rare lens into her life, her craft and what the future holds for this shining star of regional creativity.
Let’s start at the beginning. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Miles, but wasn’t there long. Then we moved to the Gold Coast, with a few other little country towns on the way. Then to Brisbane when I was in grade three. I guess I would say that I grew up in Bardon, Brisbane. Majority of my childhood was there, in Brisbane suburbia.
How was school for you? A lot of creatives have a pretty hard time at school?
For me going to school was great fun, maybe it’s just because half the time I wasn’t even there I used to just wag so much. It was so easy to skip school back in the day. I wasn’t really a fan of the learning part but socially I loved it.
Then what did you do after that?
I got a job as an office junior for a financial advisor in the city and I was there for quite a while.It was actually a really good job to go into, even though it was all financial advisors and maths and money were two of my biggest weaknesses in life. They trained me and I worked my way up to being a client relationship manager with them, managing something like 500 clients. I didn’t love the work but I liked it because I was getting paid and I could buy a car, move out of home and pay my own rent. I could be independent.
In hindsight do you think you learnt skills that have now translated into your business?
I think about that a lot. I was 19, working in a job where most of our clients were all older, retirees. I was interacting with the older generations a lot and I felt like I knew how to build relationships with so many of them, to make them feel at ease. I got along really well with this older Australian generation and I took so much from that experience. The experience of working with people you wouldn’t necessarily interact with otherwise.
Your photographs are undeniably beautiful, but when I think about the elements of what makes up your success, I think your ability to build great relationships with people is a huge part of it. It takes a long time to learn how to cultivate those relationships and for them to be healthy ones in your business. It seems like you had exposure to that for a long time, where you were working before.
I’ve never really thought of it that way but it does make so much sense really. I don’t know what it is, I just get along with a lot of people. I feel really comfortable when I walk into someone’s house, walk into their lives and meet them for the first time. I don’t know how or where that comes from, maybe a part of that comes from my work at that firm. I get a lot of people asking how I get my clients to feel so comfortable during a shoot and I don’t know, I’m just myself. I just talk to them. I don’t think it’s something that can be taught. It’s just how I like to interact with people.
How did your exit out of Brisbane, and out of the world of financial advisory go?
It all started one night at the Caxton, is a real Brisbane landmark pub, just the place where everyone goes. Turns out I met my future husband there, of all places. Dave was a country boy from Texas and we were together for five years in Brisbane before he came back to Texas for work. In those five years I was coming out to Texas a lot and absolutely loved it. That quiet life, going out to the pub on a Friday night and meeting all the locals. It was always such a good time coming out here. Two weeks of being here, turning into two months of being here and after a while Dave asked me to move out here for good and I didn’t take much convincing! So I said goodbye and moved out here. I stepped into another great job when I moved out and slipped right in. I think in that five years of coming out here and getting to know Dave’s friends and family, and the community, it was like I moved to a town I already knew and understood. I wasn’t a stranger.
When you first moved to Texas you worked at the Real Estate Agent, what was that like for you?
It was really fantastic because you have so much exposure to so many different people in the community. It was a great way to meet all the people that I wouldn’t have otherwise met. You got to deal with a really mixed bag and I could build my own individual sense of community. It’s so important to be able to find a way to connect and to forge your own independent identity.
How did photography start to come into the mix?
I’ve always just loved to take photos, even back in high school. At parties I was always that girl who would have her camera out, taking photos of everyone and everything, trying to capture all the fun stuff. Those tangible moments have always been so precious. It wasn’t until I had Harriet, she was born in 2009, that I really got into it. Once I had her I just wanted to photograph her all the time, I had an alright camera around then, but it was nothing special. Parker was born late 2010 and in those early years with the girls I was just experimenting, taking photos for myself of the kids. Then my husband bought me a better camera, it was mothers day or a birthday or something, I have such a terrible memory. I had no idea how to use it, so I signed up to do an eight week beginners course at Tafe just to learn how to use this bloody camera. At that stage I didn’t know how to shoot in manual. It’s funny, when I finished that eight week course, I remember saying to Dave, I think I really want to do something with this photography, I know I can do something with it. He was just like, aww yeah this will be just like the next fad that you’re interested in, he totally wrote the idea off. I just knew I really loved it, that I could do something with it. After that I started practicing everyday. I started working for a friend who was an interior designer, helping her by taking photos of her work. Then I had a friend from highschool contact me and asked if I would photograph her son’s birthday. She just asked if I could photograph him the way I was photographing my girls and of course I was all in. I was just happy to catch up with an old friend and take some photos. Then she actually paid me! From that shoot another mum booked. That’s how it all started, word of mouth from one little birthday boy.
Do you think it’s part of how you developed such a beautiful craft, that there wasn’t a lot of commercial pressure in the beginning? You were just interested in learning, experimenting and figuring out how to take photographs that you liked?
Absolutely, in the beginning it was still just a lot of fun for me. That’s all it was, I was stoked if someone messaged me and wanted me to take photographs for them and I hadn’t yet realised that it could actually grow into the business that I have now. In those early years there was no pressure, it was a thing that was fun and I could make a bit of coin along the way.
On the flip side of that, because you didn’t really need to have any financial focus initially, did you struggle to figure out your pricing or how you would actually build a business around your photography as interest in your work grew?
At the beginning I was charging hardly anything, maybe $150 a session. In my head I thought ‘you’ve got to start somewhere’. I just decided I would do a whole heap of cheap shoots and get a portfolio built up and go from there. So pricing for me, I was winging it, I wasn’t really in the know. I certainly didn’t have a business plan or anything. I was just happy to be earning a little bit of pocket money taking people’s photos, and helping to contribute to our family’s income in some way. It was nice to finally start chipping in again after having the girls. It really did take me a while to set my prices at a mark where I was happy, and where I knew it was what I should be charging. I winged it a whole lot.
Ummm, I’m pretty sure we all do. Do you feel like you’re in a good spot now? Not necessarily just with your pricing but also how your business is running? Are you happy with where you’re at? Are you still trying to learn? Is that too many questions in one go?
I am happy, but I know that I need to be doing more and I’m still learning. It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve really realised that to have a successful business I need to be more business minded, to learn all this stuff that I didn’t really know that I had to know. Apparently you can’t just get a camera, take some photos, send an invoice and call it a day. I’m starting to invest more in that side of my business. I feel like I’m really only at the beginning stages of this next phase. Where I’m really testing out these businessy things I’m learning. Implementing new things, and I’m starting to learn more about the power of your mindset, and how having a different mindset around your business can be really impactful. It’s exciting because I feel like I am capable of a lot more and worth a lot more. It’s a new kind of chapter for me.
In a lot of ways you could say that until now you’ve been focused on developing your craft as a photographer and now you’re shifting into developing your skills as a business owner. To run a healthy and successful business you have to do things in the business and be things in the business, and I think that being has a lot to do with that mindset work and figuring out how you want to show up in your business everyday. It’s hard when there are these two competing pathways you have to switch between, being a photographer and being a business owner.
It’s totally like that, you’ve got to have these two hats on and I’ve only really come to realise that in the last little while. I need to put that second hat on, or wear that second hat more often. For me it’s exciting and it’s nice to work on my business, to do something for myself and to realise I can still keep growing. Even though I’ve got to this point, I might be booked out every weekend and that might be a lot of photographer’s dream and it’s a goal of mine still but now these other goals have shown themselves and I want to work beyond that. It’s cool.
Is there anything in particular that you’re working on?
Right now the thing I’m tackling is my pricing. I do need to change it around a bit, to be a bit smarter. What’s that saying? I want to work smarter, not harder. I’m looking at ways that I can bring in some extra income and that’s led me to develop my presets and my e-book. I want to start having a little bit of this residual income everyone keeps telling me about. So I’m not working like a dog every weekend, driving my arse from one side of the country to the other forever. I think our move to Toowoomba at the end of the year will be good for this too. Six months ago I wasn’t really sure what was next, it’s all falling into place I guess.
You have no idea how excited I am for your presets. I remember asking you quite some time ago if you would ever do presets and it was a hard no then. What was the shift for you around that? Have you been battling the worry that the uniqueness of your work will be lost if other people start using your presets?
I was never even remotely interested in developing my own presets to sell, but you know what, really I was more worried that people would buy my presets and then everyone’s work was going to start to look just like mine, that was my fear. I like that I have a really unique style and there is something so fulfilling when someone can tell straight away that an image was shot by me. I tossed and turned over it, seriously for a couple of years, it’s honestly taken me that long to come around. Recently I had a real shift around it because at the end of the day it’s not really about the preset. It’s about the photo, no one can take photos the way that I do. In the same way that I can’t take photos the way someone else does. We all look through our camera differently, we all take a photo differently, even though you and I could be standing next to each other, at the same angle and to both take a photo of that tree. The way you take a photo of a tree is going to be different to the way I take a photo of a tree, that’s the thing that got me over the line. I’ll release these presets and people can use them on their portraits or whatever it is they want to and my work is still going to be my work and no one can take that uniqueness from me. We all have a different artistic eye.
And if we’re talking about what it means to level up in our businesses, with our business hats on and that’s just one of a million things we have to let go of to grow. It’s hard, so hard, to move past those blocks.
It’s almost like relinquishing control. Same as the e-book, I explain how I run my sessions, all the stuff that I’ve had to work out myself over years and years. I never had a mentor or someone in the industry that I could regularly ask questions about photography, for me it’s all been a hell of a lot of trial and error. My e-book is sharing all of those things I’ve learnt, it took me a long time to get over giving that away to people. Do I really want to share all my hard work?! And I do want to share it, everyone can take from it what they want and if it helps a couple of people then it’s a job well done for me.
I’m trying not to harp on about pricing but I am, because it’s then so hard to price these products you’re developing when they’re the product of a decade of you slogging your guts out. How do we price these things?!
I know, that’s how I feel. I honestly don’t know how we price these things, it’s something I’m really struggling with at the moment. Actually being happy with the price, it is almost a decade of my learnings and how do you put a price on that. The last thing I want is to put some crazy price on it and not make it accessible for people but it’s still so much of me, it’s hard. The presets are the same, I’m struggling with that for sure.
This is a bit of an off kilter question for you, do you think about the influence your work has on your girls? I mean that in a positive way. Do you feel that having built your business and having built all of these great relationships is really showing your girls what’s possible and that they can do anything?
I would hope so. They’ve always been there along for the ride, ever since they were teeny tiny. They’ve seen it grow. I know it’s hard for them at times because I am away a hell of a lot, especially on weekends. I know they do get upset sometimes when I’m working every week. I do feel guilty about that, but generally when they complain that I work too much I explain to them that it’s my business and it’s what I love to do and I don’t want to stop doing it. I do take time off to be with them over the holidays and every couple of weeks I like to block out a weekend for my family. Geez Alice, I would hope that they would look at me and see what I’ve built by myself and be proud. They are a bit young but I think when they are older they can have a bit of reflection and realise.
I think about my mum and the impressive career that she had when we were little, in a lot of circumstances when we were younger I think that I would get upset that she wasn’t at particular things or that she worked a lot but in hindsight, as I’ve got older and have worked the way that I have worked, I do think in a lot of ways she has subconsciously had a huge impact on a lot of the decisions I’ve made. To work hard and really pursue things that I’ve cared about. Reflecting on it now I have immense, immense respect for what she was able to achieve in her work life while she raised four kids. If it’s any consolation to you, I think the older your girls get the more they will understand the power of this thing that you’ve achieved.
I hope so! It’s so funny though because they are interested in my work and I’ll be coming home from a shoot, and especially my youngest will always have so many questions about how it all went and what it was like. I hope to continue to show them what’s possible for themselves.
For now you’re packing up and moving to Toowoomba. Why the move?
For the girls’ schooling, and to give them the opportunities they can’t get out here, it’s quite limiting. Initially I didn’t want to leave because I love the small town and this is where our family has really grown up together. Going back to a bigger city isn’t what I pictured us doing for our family. I just love it out here and I always pictured us here, but it’s growing on me too. I know it’s the right move for us and will be so good for the business. Good for the girls and much better for my husband’s work so it’s a no brainer.
It’s a big shift for so many reasons. Something that my dad once said to me and it feels relevant here, and it rings true for communities that you’ve invested in, he said to me that you can always go home. I have lived in lots of different places where I feel I’ve built a community of people who know me and are my friends and have supported me and I still feel like I could go home to those places. Texas will always have you back! In the grand scheme of things if you’re gone for five or ten years, it will be a blip on the radar of Texas, they’ll just think you were gone for five minutes. Time moves slowly in these towns.
Absolutely! And no matter what the future holds for us this little country town is where our family came to be, it will always be our home in a way.
I have one final question for you, I ask everyone this, what do you think the next five years looks like for you?
I don’t even know what’s for dinner! That’s a lie we’re having meatballs!! But really I just hope that my kids are happy. I hope I’m still getting to photograph families and getting to see all parts of this country and to keep doing this work I love.
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All images used here are by the incredible Indiana Chataway.