Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Gallagher.
Hi Will, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I got started about 20 years ago after the tech company I was working for was bought and they started laying off all of the employees in Austin. I was about 30 at the time and after ten years in a corporate environment, I decided to make the jump and see if I could make a living being a photographer. I had always loved photography and a family friend of ours was a commercial photographer here in Austin. I got an assistant job with him and basically went to photography school for the next two years.
I started my own business shooting weddings and families and did that for about five years. When we moved to the Four Points area, I decided to transition to more of a commercial focus – doing product photography, headshots and architectural photography. That continues to be my primary business.
I have also been shooting sports for Inside Texas for almost 20 years – mostly football, basketball and baseball. I’ve been very lucky and have shot a Final Four as well as numerous major bowl games, including two National Title games. Also get to shoot the Texas/Oklahoma game in the Cotton Bowl every year, which is the best sporting event I’ve ever attended. Even if you are not a fan of either team, I would recommend attending the game at least one time. There is nothing else like it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a mostly smooth road, thanks to having a very supportive wife and family. When I left the corporate world, I was making a very good salary and took a huge pay cut to start my photography career. It takes a long time to build your name and reputation but I have been able to slowly grow my business over the years and now make a decent amount of money.
One of the reasons I made the move is that I discovered I was not really a money-motivated person – when I was making a really good salary, I was not that happy. I liked my co-workers but did not really enjoy being in a cubicle for 8-10 hours every day. With my job now, I get to work in a variety of settings and each job is different, which I really enjoy.
The low point of my early career was when I reached out to a National Geographic photographer who lives near my hometown of Alamosa, Colorado. I asked him if I could talk to him and get some general career advice. His response was that I was not good and from the images, I had sent him, I did not have even the basic skills to make this my career. I was pretty devastated by the response and strongly considered quitting and going back to a desk job. Thankfully my family continued to be very supportive and just focused on getting better and things have worked out.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I love the fact that there is no single way to shoot anything – you can use your own creativity on every project. I really enjoy collaborating with other people, especially small business owners, and delivering images that help present their company in the best way possible. I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve built with long-term clients and that they trust me to help tell their story or sell their products.
I don’t hand off any of my work to an assistant or overseas retouching service. I really take a lot of pride in personally taking each assignment from start to finish and delivering images that will help my clients be successful.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Probably that I am from a very small town in southern Colorado and that I worked as an uncapper for my grandfather and uncle, who were both commercial beekeepers through high school. The uncapper works in the honey house and extracts the honey from comb. Then we put the combs back in the Super – the box that holds the combs – and put them back out in the field so the bees can fill them up again. On a good day, we would extract enough honey to fill up to five 55-gallon drums. Even though I grew up in Austin, I spent every summer in Colorado from the age of 5-17. It was a great experience and I got to know all my extended family very well and escape the Austin heat!
Contact Info:
- Email: will@willgphoto.com
- Website: www.gallagherstudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gallagherstudios
