At Rae's Table - Tenille Salmon

i've already got it it's like shh woman of the dilly woman now you have to redo that because i totally didn't get it at rain's table okay let's just do we're just not recording it both intros in case yeah i'm like hi it's rain at rain's table and hi it's rain at just in case well i'm doing women in business no i'm not one of the women in business women of the dilly women of the dilly i do like that me too but i feel like i'm gonna get dilly women and you know what i started to put a guest list together initially i had like i was like oh this person this person and i was like 10 people later hmm there's nobody else i want to talk to in the dilly i think that rain's table is really like i love it i love it i love it i love it i'm going to keep it as is until i've got two or three under my belt and i'm just going to change the branding online yeah i'm down for it yeah i can't touch my face so i have to like not do this okay so you know what i can't do that i always got trained so when you're talking oh yeah she's like just like geez it's gonna be tricky okay so like just like just for one okay tell me the question okay so how did you first discover photography and it doesn't make sense how did you first discover photography i have always been interested in creative things and my first camera my dad gave it to me when i was a kid so he actually had a film camera that he used to take a lot of photos on when he was younger and it was in your house and one day he came across it and he was like oh yeah you'll like this and that's how it started so i've always taken photos i think from as early as maybe 10 or 12 on film um my husband used to joke and call me the japanese tourist because everywhere we went in those days was film and i would go through 24 frames on just polar bears at sea world and like he would be busting to move along and i would be like just just a little bit more time just a little bit more time and i would be you know going through rolls and rolls and rolls of film on every outing every event every moment so yeah it was just something i think that i just always did and i took to really well that's what i'm like should i be saying like yeah yeah i don't know doesn't it feel weird though it does i feel like it should be more conversational okay let's just be asked and then we can edit it and if it's shit we can just re-record it or i'm with you all right so let's start here this is where i actually want to start so i will do my little intro welcome to podcast so i'm interviewing my dearest friend janelle and the reason why i wanted to be the first person on my podcast is because she inspires creativity for me and she's someone who you know even though her world can be so busy and so full always calls that time for creativity i think that's really inspirational but i will record that properly but i hope she'll be okay beautiful so good that will make me cringe today janelle welcome to the podcast hi ray thanks for coming on today i am really excited to have you um and i i think it'd be great to dive into your background i know that this podcast is hey janelle i have to close my eyes because i feel like we're like very intimate yes why can we not like over coffee for like an hour and a half you just record it up i know that's cool it's cool so neil welcome to the podcast hi ray thanks for coming on today i am really excited to talk to you about your journey in photography and creativity in particular and i think for a lot of our listeners that creativity can be a real challenge when you know as a woman in particular when you're running a busy life carving out creativity and chasing your dreams can kind of be put on the back burner so we're excited i'm excited to hear more from you about your journey and i thought that maybe we could start by just talking a little bit about how you found photography yeah um most of my life i've been creative i've always been creative as a kid did a lot of creative things growing up but it really started taking off when my dad came across his camera that he had when he was a teen and in his young 20s growing up he passed it on to me gave me the camera said i think you'll like this i started taking photos with that in those days obviously with film it was all manual there was no automatic settings so you had to learn how to do it on every shot because it was film you couldn't delete it it had to be a good shot it cost a lot of money to get film and cost a lot of money to have it developed so you sort of had to learn very quickly how to get it right and it just took off from there so i always had a camera in my hand from probably the age of 10 12 ish and then yeah growing up all i was always the one taking photos at everything so all the school things all the events all the family things i always had a camera and my husband used to joke at the time we were young dating going to lots of places and he'd call me the japanese tourist because i'd be there taking endless amounts of photos of the same thing going through rolls and rolls of film and he'd be pushing me along to go to the next thing and i'd still be there taking photos so yeah that was a bit of a running joke with us it's everywhere we went he was like oh here comes the camera again you know and i would have it with me everywhere we went um so yeah it just became a passion at a really young age i guess back then i didn't think about it as a career i thought about it as just something i loved to do um and then yeah evolved from there was there anything else you ever planned to do as a career um weirdly i wanted to be a vet i loved animals so i used to read vets textbooks and things like that from a young age too yeah i used to go to the library and borrow all the actual textbooks for the vet that courses and then i would study them and read them and learn about all the different animals and things like that but um yeah i knew i was always never going to fit the bill for normal careers because i was creative and i was always buzzing and jumping from thing to thing and i think maybe people with a creative brain will understand what i mean when you kind of get bored very quickly yeah i'm with you on that one 100 percent i guess one of the things that i find really interesting about you is so you've got three daughters who have big busy extracurricular ambitions they're already really clear on their own creativity and for all of them pretty much they've got their careers that they're starting to pursue age ranging from nine yep right through to 16 so as a busy mom how do you maintain your creativity how do you how do you create space for that still yeah that's a hard one i think it comes in waves where i'm good at that sometimes and maybe not so good at it other times depending on what's happening in our lives at the time um i guess i always wanted to lead by example i remember someone saying to me that you can't teach your children how to do something you have to show them so then i really knuckled down on being creative and pursuing a career in photography because i wanted them to see that that was my dream and that i could do it even if i was a mom or a woman or whatever so i did always make sure that i made time for that um but the thing i like the most at the moment is i'm part of a writing group so it has nothing to do with photography nothing to do with my life my children none of that it's completely separate to everything in my life it's just about me and writing because i like to write as well and i feel like even though it's not my career or it's not my industry it fuels that creative side of your brain and because it isn't attached to money or attached to my career or attached to my family or anything like that it's completely mine so it's a big self-care moment in my week where i actually do meet every single week with my writing group and yeah right do writing exercises and things like that because i feel like you when you turn your passion into a career it's a dangerous bloke to lose the creativity for that and the love for it so you have to do other things yeah yeah and that kind of leads me i guess into another question which was going to be do you have rituals that support your self-care like i know for myself that it's very hard to give the way i want to give for my clients or my community when i'm not looking after myself what are your rituals around self-care um i may not be the best at that as we know i go in waves with that too so i can be really good with that and have rituals that i do every day and then there can be you know a long stint where i've realized i haven't done a single thing for my own self-care and that's when you realize well i've really got to pull that back in because you can't serve or help or create from an empty cup as we know as women um so yeah at the moment the writing group's a big thing for me because it's two hours of my week that i've 100 have booked in i don't book clients i make sure that that time is sacred and i get to that no matter what yeah so i guess for me it's having something pre-booked because i won't do it otherwise i will get busy with other jobs and things like that so my ritual isn't always daily it's probably more having something booked that is in the calendar and that i avoid booking jobs and children's things and you know work or other stuff like that i always make sure that time is already pre-booked yeah yeah has being a mother changed the way you see life through your lens yes i'm nodding you can't see that i'm nodding but as soon as you started saying that i was nodding um being a mother blows your whole world up as you know and we know and any mums listening know you're kind of going along in life thinking one way and then you have these little lives that you need to nurture and you know you become i guess better at analyzing even things in your own life to see whether they are beneficial for you or not and i think having three daughters made me really realize all the struggles we have as women and i wanted to minimize a lot of that for them so i guess that's why i always try and support their dreams and i have an awesome husband who's very girl power so that's a good thing as well he grew up with sisters so that does help um but yeah seeing i've been becoming a mother you re-evaluate your time and what's important to spend your time on and also how you're speaking to yourself because you don't want them to hear you know saying bad things about your body or like you really do start to re-evaluate what you've been doing to yourself so then you try and adjust that to obviously become the best example that you can be yeah beautiful and i've witnessed that firsthand with you it's quite remarkable thinking back of your career so far as a photographer what are some of the highlights that you've had um definitely cambodia so we've spoken about this before um going to cambodia to document sex trafficking victims from as young particularly girls as young as 18 months old up to the age of 18 that changed my life i guess i was going along in life loving life had three daughters the littlest at that point was only two so i was still in kind of that little kid bubble of they do what you say and they're protected and you know the biggest worry is getting them to preschool or making sure they eat their carrots or whatever and then going to a third world country and witnessing how these other girls live and what they have to go through and the dangers and all of that just changed me forever and i realized i became extremely grateful after that and i think that was another big lesson we're always talking about it we talk about it a lot in the western world of gratitude you know be grateful but i don't think you really understand that until you witness things like that i i recommend it to everybody to go somewhere really different to how you live and experience what somebody else similar to you another woman walk in their shoes and see what they experience and you do you then genuinely become grateful and that changed my life so that was a big point in my career i was extremely nervous to do it i'd never been overseas other than fiji with my husband and i decided on a whim to fly to cambodia by myself for 10 days and i was undercover so i was part of a program that was going out to service women with soap and food and things like that but secretly they were documenting so we actually did a book and an exhibition in ultimo and things like that to raise money for project futures which was who i was associated with at the time um and yeah that's a huge career like i look back at that and i just can't believe that i did it it feels like somebody else because i was so nervous to do it but i remember thinking to myself if this was my girls when they're older and they had this amazing opportunity what would i say and i would say go for it so i decided to just feel the fear and do it anyway which is a big thing in our house um having kids that perform and things like that so yeah i felt the fear and did it anyway and it changed me it's a remarkable remarkable thing if our listeners wanted to learn more about your journey in cambodia and the book that you contributed where could they find more information about that i do keep a part on my website for my passion projects and things like that so if you go to my website which is my name um you will be able to have a bit of a read of that great and we'll put that look at that in the show notes for people to kind of have a little look at so tell me a little bit about what you're doing now in your in your we'll do it again you're so good i feel like i sound like a dickhead it sounds so good no it doesn't make any sense it makes so much okay this is coming out of your brain i know but it's not making sense the questions that you ask me and i feel like i go off on a tangent no it's beautiful okay it's beautiful i don't want to sound like a dickhead but i don't want to sound like i don't know what i'm talking about no you don't feel like a dickhead okay okay so you don't sound like a dickhead i don't want to sound like a oh i changed my life and you know what i mean sound like to me so far i found photography i was going to do this but this kind of pulled me in then i became a mom that's really important to me and then i had this massive moment in my career which made me reflect on like being a mom and change the rest okay cool perfect perfect okay have you got time like is it am i talking too long no okay because what i want to do by the time it's edited we've we've only been going for 16 minutes feels like so long i know so i'm thinking i'm not going to make it a it's a one hour podcast they'll range from whatever 25 minutes ends up being so an hour tops you don't mean okay so to now what are the biggest challenges you face in staying creative whilst i guess we've kind of talked about that you mean with being a mom it's hard we're not going to watch it again okay because i think there's stuff there i feel like i could say a lot okay okay let's come back to that okay so tell me a little bit about what the what the biggest challenges are that you face you let me one more time what are the biggest challenges you face in staying creative whilst also getting them i think prioritizing um your children obviously is a hard thing i've had to learn that sometimes i need to prioritize myself and my career and then the mom guilt kicks in of course so i think that what i've had to learn and this is a very long learning process if you're early in your motherhood journey i'm obviously a little bit further along than some the eldest being 16 you have to learn very quickly that there is no balance we've talked about this as well there is no balance sometimes you've got it all under control sometimes you don't sometimes the house is a mess sometimes they're eating chicken nuggets for dinner but all of that's okay and speaking on gratitude and the trip that i took and things like that that was a huge takeaway for me when i realized that just them breathing having a roof over their head food in their bellies and being happy people that's it that's a win that's a tick you've done your job all the extra stuff so all the running here and everywhere and having the best shoes and the clothes and the all the extra stuff is extra stuff so if you're already at least doing the survival of you're all alive and well and functioning that's it you're winning at motherhood so sometimes you have to remember that all that extra stuff is extra stuff even the dance lessons and all the things and having kids that are serious about their extracurricular activities i think reminding yourself sometimes that it doesn't all have to work all of the time because that's impossible absolutely i um was at an event with formerly women in business this week and ali bray data was there as one of the guest speakers and i know for me like we've had this conversation before but definitely the mum guilt around trying to juggle it all and have it look perfect has always been something that's consumed me as well and she was talking about when she became a mom she stepped away from her career to focus on being a stay-at-home mom and one of the things that she's only just in the last 18 months she circled back to having a career and she said that there's a noticeable difference with her children since she's come back to pursuing her own dreams it's already filtering through to them and she's seeing them be more resilient and she's seeing them be more passionate about what they want to do because their mother's actually role modeling that for them as well so um i think it's an interesting thing because on this side of the table when you're juggling a lot of stuff you can feel like well i'm not i'm not serving my kids but then a conversation on the other side of the table is but if you're not pursuing your dreams you know potentially you're not showing the children what it looks like to pursue theirs either and when i think about your girls they are three fiery ambitious you know girls who absolutely are passionate about what they do and they'll work hard for it and i think that they've really seen that in you i think you've role modeled that beautifully for them yeah and i think it's learning to step back as a mom you think you have to do it all for them and in some ways you're hindering them so being able to step back and let that kid make the sandwich for school even if it's not perfect and it's cut in the wrong angle and it doesn't look exactly right and you know the teacher is going to look at that and think oh my gosh what's in that lunchbox but they're so proud of the fact they've done it themselves i had to step back and learn that that's okay so my kids are very efficient obviously depending on age that comes into it but it's learning i think you learn it as you go and you realize it as the more children you have as well that you can't do everything and teaching them to do it for themselves is not a bad thing and i think having three girls i learned very quickly that i didn't want them relying on other people for things i wanted them to be really self-sufficient i wanted to earn their own money and have their own lives and their partner or whoever they decide to join life is extra and benefits them emotionally not financially or you know like i didn't want them growing up seeing a household where you know the husband doesn't do any housework or doesn't contribute and he's the breadwinner and you know like i didn't like that traditional role even though i grew up that way and i appreciate that and what it was for the time that it was and the generation that you know obviously our parents came from is a bit different but i got to realize that i didn't want that for them i wanted them to be really independent and feel confident and comfortable in their own lives and everything else is extra for them rather than them seeking something out that they feel like they're missing yeah yeah i think that's an incredible lesson to teach them especially at this age in life it's quite shaping of their future potential yeah and they're girls it's not easy we know as women it's not easy to be female sometimes and you can be looked at as not being as smart or not being as strong or not being as good as the man sitting next to you and i didn't want them to go out into the world feeling that way i wanted them to go out in the world knowing that they are capable it's beautiful so are there unexpected ways your children or family have even influenced your art yeah when i'm a little i think you get wrapped up in that oh you know family photography and babies and you know you're all in that stage so like obviously then that reflected on what i liked to shoot at that point so i guess as our lives have evolved my career's evolved i used to do a lot of weekend work and weddings and families and things like that and as they've gotten older i've realized i didn't want to sacrifice my weekends to those sorts of things and so that's when i stepped over to being a bit more of a commercial photographer which then i realized i was super passionate about so obviously women in business and helping other women document their business or creating content that they can then build their businesses from i actually got a big kick out of supporting and showing other women how i see them because a lot of the times they come in they're not feeling the greatest they don't want to have their photo taken as most of us don't and then they walk out feeling empowered and you know i love seeing the images pop up and i know they're feeling confident to put that out into the world so i love giving that and i realized quick smart that that was my superpower yeah that i could show people how i see them and give them that extra confidence and being able to yeah i guess put their ideas out and put their face out there where they may have not wanted to do that before yeah i can vouch for that firsthand definitely that's in my experience i've been in a room not always wanting to have your photo taken and i know as women we can be so critical of ourselves so the idea that someone's going to see us and the truth of us can be quite scary but i know working with you that you have this incredible you do it's a superpower you just make people feel really at ease and then you really do it's remarkable you see them the photos that are phenomenal thanks tell me a little bit about um how you continue to evolve as an artist while managing a full life so you know i know your work like you said it's kind of moved away from weekend work and sort of family portrait work more to these commercial gigs there's some really cool stuff that you're working on yeah tell us a little bit about this evolution yeah so as a business woman it was also a business decision so as much as it's my art it's also my business and that's been a big learning curve over the last 20 years as well so when you turn something that is your art and your passion into a business obviously then all the business side of things comes into play where you may not have really been thinking of that before like i've said to people before how do you charge to do something that you love and would do for free you know it's something i love and i would do every day to the day i died but i now have to put a money value on my time and what i'm doing and it's been a long lesson in that i guess becoming confident in my own ability but realizing that the commercial work is where i sit when it comes to providing for my family so i have had to separate in my mind my art versus maybe the work i do or the bread and butter work like we talk about being able to do the jobs that i need to do that i love to do but that provide that then gives me the freedom to pursue maybe a little bit more creative or charge a bit less for something that i really want to do that's maybe a bit less left left of center or you know or carving out time to do some portraits that have nothing to do with a job so yeah i guess along the lines you kind of have to make business decisions as well based around your art which was tricky to start with which you have helped me with quite a lot as well so having a value on my time and sitting down and thinking about what is this job going to entail how long is it going to take me not just the one hour that i'm on site taking commercial photos it's then culling and editing and creating a color profile for that brand and you know as you know i'm not a one-size-fits-all photographer which i know some people have their own style i tend to work backwards so that is a different thing about how i shoot commercially is i will build a look and a branch look based on the actual brand so for instance raise photos your photos are not going to be the same as you know a commercial job where i'm dealing with a clinic or something that needs to be really white and crisp and show a clean message whereas yours is a bit more warm and vibrant and has like a little bit more of a homey welcoming feel to them so like i feel like people miss the mark on that when they shoot commercially sometimes is they don't really take into account what the brand is trying to say because then i am trying to say that with an image so yeah i guess learning the business side and learning that my art is a business has now changed everything because i feel like the clients and the money are flowing in better now that i've realized that it doesn't always all have to be art that it is actually a business yeah yeah so good it's always this balancing act just like motherhood it's always this balancing act right in these businesses especially when we've taken something that we're passionate about yeah i think it's a trap i think people fall into what they're passionate about turn it into a business and then the passion fizzles out because you're grinding and you're trying to get clients and you're trying to earn money because it is it's a job you know you you're not clocking on at nine and finishing at four you're you know for me going to a shoot randomly the other day working for commercial people i'm actually shooting all of the return of their machines at the moment for tomrah so working for a big client like that you're going to newcastle you're doing all these things so um i lost my train of thought that's okay it was really good what i was going to say well edit this bit out so you went to newcastle looking for big clients like that you're talking how am i wrapping it back to what you said um because you said how's your work evolved uh business passion the passion burns out that was really good when you said the passion fizzles out and there's the grind yeah so how do i get back to so you went and did this job traveling to newcastle i know what i'll say okay say the question again just so i know what i'm saying uh how do you continue to evolve as an artist while managing a full life i don't know how to take off from what i said before so the evolution has been knowing that it's not just art it's both maybe yes okay so you went to newcastle okay so the evolution of learning that my art is also my business things like driving to newcastle and shooting for a big client tomrah who own own all of the return of their machines i'm currently um doing jobs for them at the moment um opening when they have a machine and it's having an opening on there shooting it so that involves a lot of traveling around it's realizing that those jobs are the ones that fuel then the passion projects and all of those things so i guess it's sort of taking it all in and realizing that it's all part of it it's not just always going to be this fun airy fairy creative project it's sometimes going to be hard work and the grind i have noticed though a thread with me that i didn't pick up that i didn't pick up until i started working for tomrah and i was having discussions with them they have a lot to do with little wings who are also a person that i shoot for a non-for-profit that i shoot for that fly sick children from rural areas into um seeking for treatment so i realized that all of these clients that i've been taking on that are commercial clients all actually align with my values and they have something about them they're not just a big corporation that i have taken on because i want the money to do the job i've realized unintentionally that i've actually been filtering those with you know being in line with my values anyway so shooting for tomrah obviously i know the impact that's having their donation partners at the moment are food banks so you know all the people using the return and earn machines can actually donate their um returns to food bank and it's things like that that i've realized along the way that i'm actually choosing clients that align with my values or have some kind of good impact and that has helped when it comes to taking on things that maybe aren't as creative i think that's a really good point like i know in my industry i speak to people all the time it's really easy to look at social media and see a business person in particular or a creative and make assumptions about the lifestyle they have and the freedom they have for their creativity and that's when it's a business i mean like sure if we were millionaires and this was just a hobby it's a different conversation but the reality is the creative work that we do actually sustains our families financially as well and so finding that balance i think it's a really good point you've made it isn't just about picking the most creative jobs it's about making sure that all your clients align with your values so that when you are doing the jobs that don't always feel as glamorous you feel like it's still in line with your purpose and i think that i know for myself has continued to spark fire creativity creatively definitely yeah such a good point what inspires you when you're feeling creatively blocked too many tips i have to get out of my own way like i have to get out of where i'm at what i'm doing sometimes i have to dump everything for the day and completely go unplanned i'm not a good routine person which is funny with three children and who actually do a lot i do have everything planned out i don't like it i have to say i do rebel against routine so i find if i am feeling stifled or feeling uncreative it's usually because i've had to stick to some kind of regimented routine for too long so for me to spark that creativity i have to do something out of the box i have to go and do something different go to a different place um what kind of a place would you go to i'll sometimes just go somewhere i've never been before it doesn't even have to be far and would you take photographs you're just going and immersing yourself no i didn't go and do something yeah that's how the writing group came about so i've always liked to write and i did advanced english at school i was a good writer but being a photographer and all of that taking over in your career and your kids and things i hadn't actually written anything for years and i happened to see tanya's free creative writing workshops pop up there was three of them i signed up for those she's amazing by the way and this is tanya nelson yeah if you haven't followed the network as well yeah so i joined that out on a whim literally saw it on facebook and thought i'm just gonna do that and that's my sort of i guess fuel for tapping into something different um went to those three workshops loved them and then we the people that did turn up the most and like that kind of we all connected we ended up forming a writing group and we do meet every week so yeah doing something outside of what you think you should be doing is a great way to boost a bit of creativity break the rules do something else love that so then i guess my my final question is what advice would you give to other women who feel like they don't have time to be creative it doesn't have to be big do a mood board do something small bake something like we as women i think are way more creative than we realize and we're creative in a lot of ways doesn't necessarily mean paint a picture or you know what you typically would think as a creative activity or take a photo you know like i think being women we're creative problem solvers we're always solving everybody's problems in very unusual ways like i feel like i have not ever met a woman who isn't creative it's just that she hasn't realized she is i love that so yeah to be on a t-shirt yeah i feel like yeah do something find a recipe and bake something like what could be more creative than that yeah and then you get lunch snacks at the same time yeah like i don't know i just think that yeah i think we all are i just think we don't see it in ourselves and we need someone else to point it out yeah i'm just gonna wait till that passes um and i'll be on a t-shirt yeah it could be in a t-shirt i still feel like i sound like a knob though you know those things no it's actually because i don't see myself as actually being someone who has a career is that really funny i do i see you like that for sure i just think i've fumbled my way through shit yeah but that that's part of this like i think that's it i feel like i need to say that i feel like i need to say that not by saying that how do i say that we can say it just like that can i why not is there anything else let me start again thinking about your journey as a photographer our conversation today you know are there any other words of wisdom you'd offer to those who are listening yeah as i was joking before this all started i don't see myself as someone with this amazing career i mean i get it on paper that it can come across that way but i feel like i've just fumbled my way through and i think that's the point i think that people look from the outside and think i'm a photographer and i have my own studio and three daughters and like tick tick all these things but i'm just living like everybody else it's just that i chose to do something a little bit outside of the box and i think that i'm proud of myself for that i guess but i don't think that i don't think that any woman couldn't so i feel like if you're sitting at home and you do feel like you've got a passion or you've got an idea or a dream just do it because what else are you going to do with your time yeah and what i've learned is creativity is messy it isn't it isn't neat and tidy and it doesn't tick all the boxes you know and i will say us typically creative women can be all over the shop like but i also think that that's not talked about enough either is that most of the very creative people that i know that have created a career out of being creative i've usually got a lot of other mental health problems or things they're dealing with but i also think that that is what makes you maybe that extra bit creative because you're extra sensitive for you and that's one thing i guess i have had to learn and embrace because going along in life thinking that you know this anxiety or this depression or any other thing that you're suffering from is a hindrance but i've had to learn that if i wasn't that way that maybe i wouldn't be able to get a woman to relax in two minutes and have an amazing photo experience because i wouldn't empathize with her as well so it's also a superpower i've tried to had into my daughter's heads as well to realize that you may be super sensitive but that's not a bad thing and that that can be what you draw on and that can be what makes you different and that can be what makes you extra creative or you know that being that way is not a bad thing fantastic i i couldn't agree more tell me is there anything exciting that you're working on at the moment that you want to share with us i'm writing a book oh yeah i'm actually writing two and of course you are because i can't do one thing and not get bored and do another so when i have been in this writing group i did ask is it weird to be writing two separate books at the same time that are very different but i like that when i'm bored with one i can pick the other one up and vice versa so i am actually writing two books can you give us a teaser oh look one's a teen weird vampire story that happened in a writing exercise that we did and i just fell in love with the person i wrote about it actually related back to my teen daughter so that's a funny one hopefully it does eventually come about and the other one is my husband's cancer story so it's actually titled the c word and it's sort of an aussie larrikins point of view early 20s going through a cancer journey so it's quite funny it's very different it's great it's great i'm looking forward to hearing more about those books i have to get you back on so you can talk about those as well sounds good thank you so much for being with us today to nail i will um drop in the show notes all the details and i'll record that bit separately i don't know if i want to talk about the books or say that i'm writing books because now i feel like everyone will want me to write the books sure do you want me to re-ask that question yeah maybe i want to think of a photography thing i'm working on maybe phrase it i might say is there anything in the last like any currently working on or have recently worked on that that you'd like to tell us a bit more about and maybe you can highlight something like little wings or something is there something like that that you want to talk about or is there something coming up i'm doing the gal the valentine's day thing in victon but that's boring and i'm not doing that that's fine what have you got planned this year um too much about your dance stuff dance photography i don't know what i want to do you could have to talk about in the conversation okay we're going to talk about dance at all talked about them dancing do you want me to talk about that what about if i said have you got anything exciting that you want to share with us any projects that you're currently working on and then maybe you could segue well we've talked about you know my girls have got big ambitions and dances a thread through that okay yeah let's do that okay i don't want to talk about the books because nobody knows about them yet okay cool we'll keep that under wraps i'll cut that they're really funny yeah come on i have to read you part that's amazing you're gonna love it okay um so tell me is there anything that you're currently working on or that's kind of on the horizon that you'd like to tell us a little bit more about yeah last year i did introduce dance sessions at the studio so i call them soul movement sessions i noticed a trend with my daughters the two youngest that danced that a lot of the dance portraits and the dance photos that were coming out were extremely perfect they all kind of looked the same and the artist in me wanted to break that a little bit i guess for my daughters so that they weren't looking at all these images of the most perfect dancers with the perfect bodies and so yeah i am actually gearing up to have a lot more of those dance sessions happening in the studio and they're very artistic they're very fun so we're talking beautiful girls who are on point but they're in their ripped jeans at the same time you know like i just wanted to break that a little bit and i talked to them a lot about not being perfect in the shoot and to really get back to the why of why they're dancing and the fact that we're just documenting how you are at the moment it doesn't have to be that you've got the most perfect legs or the perfect point because that is a trap in that industry obviously young girls they're wanting to have everything exactly right and it's i guess a little bit of a learning experience for them so that they can see that dancing is fun and maybe get back to the why of why they're doing it so i've had quite a few um you know teen pre-teens come through and do some dance sessions with me and do them really well and very different so if you check my instagram there is a few of them on there um we're doing silhouettes we're doing fun stuff like i said jeans and pointe shoes and i just wanted to offer something a little bit different and they've actually been really good creatively for me as well just to do something a little bit different and having daughters that are dancing obviously it's been quite good to get them in front of the camera and document them as well which we don't always do with our own children i have to admit it's like the cobbler has the children with no shoes it's sort of a similar thing that happens i guess in the household if they get sick of mum putting them in front of the camera so they tend to miss out a little bit but yes it's been a fun bonding experience for us as well because they've really enjoyed me then dipping my toe back into that dance industry and doing some photos other than the norm so not the standard that's great okay and they are spectacular photos if you have not been on to neil's instagram make sure you go and have a look at them they're really spectacular um outside of so obviously you do take content for businesses um and you do quite a bit of branding work if someone wanted to to work with you what are some of the other things that you do yeah so we do well i say we when it's just me that always makes me laugh because i think a lot of us business owners do that we the team of we to neil the administrator to neil the photographer the team of we it's all my personalities i actually will chat to you quite a bit if i'm going to shoot for you um i'm not selective i have to say i do try to shoot for people that need me to shoot for them but i do like to know that we align and that you're more than just a business about the dollars so i want to know what you're doing why you're doing it why you're passionate about it and i want to be able to tell your story from your point of view so things like shooting for you one day and then i'll go down and see tren at moses and shoot food for him so i do do quite a lot of different business type photos and i can usually do whatever you need me to do i guess that's the bonus of having 20 plus years experience in the industry is that if you have an idea and you want me to take a photo of something i can make it happen yeah and you do quite a bit of work for wallandula council as well yeah so big clients at the moment at wallandula council so i do quite a lot of their events and things like that working for tomra who do return and earn i do tend to try and choose a couple of non-profits that align with me so little wings is one that i do shoot a lot for being a mom little wing so little wings are a great um organization to look up so what happens is they fly children from rural areas into sydney for treatment that may take their families eight hours to drive which then takes obviously they're usually farmers or people like that and they're taking two three days out of their schedule to take a sick child that may need treatment you know once a month so then they cut that time down by being able to pop them on one of their planes fly them in and it can mean they're done and back within the day and that family life is not interrupted and mom can stay home with the other children and things like that so they're just a really really great organization someone that i do support a lot being a mom i guess and tomra is a big client so they're not a non-for-profit but they actually do all of the return and earn machines so that's been a great one and then i have actually been working quite closely with the wildlife park as well so i've just gone and shot some stuff for brad this is the wildlife park in long dilly yes yeah so they're a great client at the moment as well we're working on some commercial stuff for them so yeah i do tend to like to stay local so if you're a local business i believe in local business because i am a local and i have kids in local schools obviously my eldest two have just moved out of the area for school but that's to pursue performing arts um and yeah so if you're a woman in particular in business in our area then i'm the person yeah awesome so i'll drop all of tenille's details in the show notes so you can get in touch and find her on social media as well so you can get some inspiration from the incredible work she does tenille thank you so much for being on the podcast today i really appreciate thanks for having me yeah all the insight into your wonderful world i feel like we could unpick this and sit i feel very professional now being able to say i've been on the podcast uh watch this space i'm sure tenille will be here again i know that there's some cool projects under wraps at the moment that she's working on as well that are top secret but as these come to fruition over the next year or two i would really like to have you back so that you can share some more information about what you're working on thanks i'm excited to see where this goes i feel like you are the perfect person thank you thank you very much