Community Highlights: Meet Tiffany Maksimowicz of T.Mak Photo + Film

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Maksimowicz.

Hi Tiffany, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up with a Grandpa and Dad that made sure that every moment was documented. One would think that I would run from photography after all the pictures we had to pose for growing up, but I found after taking a class in high school that I really enjoyed it. I didn’t pursue it in college because I didn’t think you could make a living doing it. But I started shooting more and more for friends at that time. You see, I am of the original Facebook generation, the one only college students with a college email address could join. Yes, I’m dating myself but, it’s true. Posting images on socials became all the rage and I really got into it. As we got closer to graduation, real life events started happening. Some were getting married and having kids and I started helping friends and family capture their engagements, new babies, parties and more. It was always a side thing I loved doing on the weekends as I got started in my career in sales after college. After 7 years in the sales world, I had my first baby and decided I might change things up in order to stay closer to home with her.

I started my business after having my first daughter. I actually had plans to do a lot more than just photography so my business was called MAK Creations LLC. I did everything from cakes, photos, and personalized gifts, so that I could stay home and raise my daughter. I was encouraged by my newborn photographer, Twig and Fig Photography Co., to actually work on my photography skills. She was a mom too that was doing this gig of photographing families full time. She became a huge mentor for me. As time went on I realized my passion was more in the photography realm then it was with anything else. The personalized gifts and cakes slowed and the photography business took off. T.Mak Photo + Film became my priority within my LLC.

As a photographer I focus on capturing the moments and the memories. Most call this lifestyle photography. I shoot, indoors, in homes, special places, as well as outdoors at golden hour. I love it all and don’t really have a niche. I love that I get to see families year after year and grow with them. Sometimes I shoot a wedding, that turns into maternity clients, newborn, and I see them every year thereafter documenting the next milestone of that little babe. Haven’t been doing this long enough yet, but I hope I will do their high school senior pictures someday too. I get to go on adventure sessions with some clients, hiking the mountains and just exploring, capturing the family in their element. Some of my favorite sessions are in home sessions, in your own environment where you can be relaxed and just capture a normal Saturday morning or bake cookies with Grandma. It’s all about helping you remember those core memories and documenting them to be able to look back on and eventually pass on to the next generation. and I am here for all of it.

I can’t believe this is actually happening sometimes. I actually started my own business and it’s changing our family life in the best way. I am my own boss and I get to stay home with our kids and be available for their school and extracurricular activities. Not to mention all the amazing clients, I am becoming such great friends with them and others in my community. It’s truly a gift and I am so grateful. With a husband with a background in finance, he had all our financial goals laid out the day we got engaged. What’s so funny is how he used to talk about me going back to work part time when the kids got to grade school, no longer is that the plan. Together we have set ourselves up for success in ways we didn’t even think were possible and it’s the best feeling.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a wild ride getting here for sure. Lots of hills and valleys. I think that I keep fighting for this job because I am so passionate about people having their family memories documented but also, because this job gives me so much in ways I never thought possible. There were times in the beginning when I thought this wasn’t going to work. I was doing so many cheap or free sessions just to get started and I felt like it was never going to amount to anything. Leaving kids behind to go do sessions in golden hour light when dinner or bedtime happens can be tough. You want it to be worth it in the end and sometimes in the beginning it was just feeling like it wasn’t going to be. As I grew my skills, so did my pricing and it became easier to see what this could do for our family.

Take a wild guess when my business really took off. The year of Covid. 2020. By this time in my photography career, I had been officially in business for 3.5 years. I had joined an online photography school at the end of 2018, now have two kids, and feeling like I really had a little more momentum going. Nothing could prepare a business for what hit us in March of 2020. Small business couldn’t believe that our businesses were shut down. As photographers, we could not do Fresh 48 sessions at the hospitals, people didn’t want anyone in their homes, and for a while there, the local Government wasn’t even allowing you to be out at local parks and open spaces. But after the restrictions were lifted that summer/fall, people were begging for photos. I truly think that people redid their homes and wanted new pictures on the wall. Not to mention, all the fear of losing family members, which caused a HUGE spike in extended family sessions. Everyone wanted to get their photos with grandparents and just all be together so badly.

What at first thought was going to be a year in the red, no income for 3 months, ended up being a huge year of growth by the time the world opened up again. A year that was very tough for a lot of people ended up being a blessing for us. My husband’s job had them working from home for just shy of one year that year. Our girls were not yet in school so we were all together non stop. This was a huge advantage because I could take a session almost every single day if I wanted to. That is a reality that we never saw coming and probably will never see again, but it helped me meet so many new clients who I still shot today.

As I reflect on the last 3.5 years since that spring of lockdowns and that surge of clients I can say I am definitely needing to find a better rhythm to maintain a balanced life. From going all in and taking everything I can, to bringing myself to a place of almost burning out, I am realizing that balance is needed. I have a tendency to want to people please and saying no is not easy for me. Again, I have a passion for freezing memories in time for my clients and want that to be attainable for everyone, but, I can’t do that at the expense of my own health and/or family time. I started this business so I could be more present with my kids, and I lost that for a little bit. It’s easy to get lost when you build something all on your own. It becomes something you want to nurture and grow and you forget why you started it in the first place. Over the last few years I am getting better at scheduling my work and making sure I am a present wife and mother which I think in turn makes me a better artist and photographer for my clients.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I don’t have a niche when it comes to my photography. I don’t know if I ever will, but we will see. I love shooting everything. I love the variety of working with newborns to Seniors. I love working with just couples and working with families is so relatable. I just think I would get bored or burnt out if I was doing the same thing every single shoot. Although I don’t have a niche I do have a style. Authentic, true to color, lifestyle photography. I just love capturing reality. I love seeing you as you are. I love capturing your story. I truly enjoy getting to know my clients via my questionnaires and incorporating aspects of who they are in a photo and seeing their joy when they see it and say “wow, you captured us perfectly”. A great example of this is in my high school senior or couples photography. I love to ask them about their activities they do outside of school or as a couple and we do it! We go, in their athletic gear to the basketball court and I shoot while they shoot! I am all about not just getting the poses, but getting the entire story of what makes you you.

I also deliver full galleries for my clients. Because I want to capture your story, I don’t want you just to have one image. I want you to have them all. What you might like now, might change. One photo you might have thought didn’t mean much to you and then all of a sudden, it means everything and if it wasn’t one you originally picked, you might be sad. I don’t want that to happen to my clients. You get all my favorite images, edited and ready for print.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Credits go to so many! I couldn’t do this without a whole lot of people.

I was given this gift by God and I intend to use it for good and His glory. He has opened these doors for me and I am beyond grateful.

My mentor, and personal family photographer since my first daughter’s newborns, Brittny deserves a whole lot. She has always been there. From the newborn session she did with my own family, and encouraging me that day to pick up the camera on maternity leave and start practicing, to helping me get the business officially off the ground. Now we talk almost daily, we call ourselves coworkers, even though we run our own separate business. We shoot together at weddings every year, and she is just the biggest blessing.

My husband gets a lot of credit too. We had plans for me to stay home until I could get a part time job when the girls were in school. But, even though I make his life a little crazy sometimes with workload struggles and scheduling he is always cheerleading me on.

Couldn’t do this without my last minute babysitters too, we are lucky to have family and friends all up and down the front range and when I get in a bind on shoot days the girls are always taken care of.

My client families deserve so much too. Without them this business would not grow. Because they print their galleries and hang them on their wall, their friends and family members call me the next time they need a photographer. Their love for me travels far and wide when they sing my praises. Word of mouth marketing is truly the best when it comes from my amazing clients.

Pricing:

• Full Sessions, full gallery, currently starting at $495
• Event Photography, 4 hour minimum, currently $450 hour
• High School Senior Packages currently range from $375-625
• Bundle multiple sessions in a 12 month period for extra discount
• Branding Session, full gallery, currently starting at $495

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tmakphotoandfilm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmakphotoandfilm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmakphotoandfilm/

Image Credits
All mine.