Meet Tom Cocking

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Cocking.

Hi Tom, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have been taking pictures since I was a kid with those disposable Kodaks. As I got older I became interested in photography as more than just a hobby but was under the impression that there’s no way you can make it into a profession that pays the bills. I graduated college with a bachelor’s in Psychology but always took my camera anywhere I went and did side work snapping photos for friends and families to make extra money. After graduation, I got involved in special education but would always shoot stuff on the weekends. After several years in the special education field, I was feeling the burnout. I told my girlfriend how exhausted I was and she mentioned that every time I come back from work after teaching I am so stressed out but every time I come home from a photo shoot I am invigorated and excited and that maybe it was time to follow what I was passionate about.

For my birthday, she got me business cards and bought my domain name and had me convinced to quit special education to fully pursue photography. In this transition, all I wanted was a mindless job that didn’t drain me while I could focus on actually building my portfolio and making photography into an actual business. I would go door to door to local businesses and ask them if they needed any help with photos/website design. It started out slow but the more companies I was able to work with the more my portfolio grew. Flash forward six years and I am working with solid businesses and photography is paying my bills and more. It took so much to quit what was secure to follow what I was really passionate about and there was so many nights where I would feel the anxiety and think, did I make the right decision? Am I stupid? Should I go back to the 9am-5pm security? It’s safe to say I was able to quiet that anxiety and now I am in a place where I am comfortable and so happy that I decided to follow my passions. It’s cliche and I hate saying it, but if there’s something you really want to do, it can be done, you just have to take the leap.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not been smooth by any means. While it gets more smooth every day it also feels like there are constant struggles. The difference is the longer I do this, the easier the struggles are to overcome. You can have months where you are on fire and money is flowing in and other months where you are freaking out and worrying about rent and bills. I remember when I first decided to go the freelancing route, I was also driving for food delivery services just to make enough money to buy groceries for dinner that night. Looking back it made it me a much stronger person who will never take anything for granted. I may have off months but I am in a position where I can have those and still enjoy my life and not stress. Once you get a steady stream of return clients it makes a world of difference.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I grew up in Lake Tahoe and started shooting landscape imagery. The more experience I got the more I realized I love shooting with people in beautiful environments. I decided to go outside my comfort zone and join a photo retreat in Joshua Tree with a buddy of mine who was encouraging me to get more involved in portrait work. That weekend was pretty life-changing. We had a few models to work with and I didn’t even have the right lenses to shoot portraits. I borrowed my friend’s 35mm to use and fell in love. Adding the human element was so much fun and I felt I was really able to find my own style. While my true love is portraiture, I have found a lot of work in fashion and product photography, mainly lifestyle-based product photography. I love this because I get to include the human element but also shoot for companies whose products I really appreciate and feel passionate about.

I would say in general, my style is moody, darker images. I guess I have always disliked photos of myself smiling (I have chubby cheeks) so I love images where the model is emoting something other than happiness. I like for the photos to have a more emotional feeling, where it feels like the model is going through something deeper.

I live in LA which means I am surrounded by very talented artists so it’s hard to say what sets me apart from other people. I think that with my background in psychology, I have a knack for zeroing in on someone’s best personality traits and being able to capture them with my camera. I’ve noticed the more confidence you have in yourself as a photographer, the better you can create your own style and experiment more with your own ideas. When I first started, I was terrified to tell a model what to do. Now that I am confident in my work, I have become more confident taking charge to capture what it is I want to.

What matters most to you? Why?
Oh man, what a question. In all honesty, I think I want people to feel comfortable being exactly who they are. Being able to have a deep conversation with a person who rarely has those types of conversations means a lot to me. While I had a terrific upbringing, I always felt so insecure about myself and I love to see people truly feel confident and happy being who they are. If I can assist them in their journey to confidence, it means the world to me.

Contact Info:

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