Becoming a Toy Photographer: Mitch Wu on Turning Play into a Creative Career
Mitch Wu thought he knew exactly what his creative career would look like. But after years in product design, a difficult job, and the loss of his brother, he realized how far he’d drifted from the kind of work he actually wanted to be doing.
Then one afternoon he and his nephew went to the park with a couple of action figures and from the first photograph he knew he'd found what he was meant to do.
In this episode, Mitch shares what it’s like to build miniature worlds, develop a creative niche that didn’t really exist, and turn play into a profession.
Hear Mitch talk about:
His journey from illustration to product design to wedding photography—and how he realized he’d gotten off his creative path
The moment in a park with his nephew that instantly shifted his career direction
What toy photography actually is, and why it’s rooted in storytelling and world-building
How he built a career in a niche that barely existed at the time
The difference between being a “commodity” creative and owning a specialized niche
Why continual learning and experimentation keep his work evolving
Mentioned in this episode:
Larger Than Life (documentary)– See Mitch at work and get a behind-the-scenes look at his toy photography process
New York Toy Fair – The largest toy industry convention in North America, where Mitch exhibited his work and connected with major brands
Disney+ Marvel documentary series – A series featuring toy creators, including Mitch and his work
Mitch Wu’s toy photography work– See examples of his work for major toy companies, including Mattel’s Ever After High, one of Mitch’s first major clients
“Then I took the photo and I looked at what I got on the camera and it’s like, my God, this is, it was like clear as day that that’s what I was going to do for my next career.”
Episode 33 Notes
Stacy Raine: This is Tell Me What It’s Like, a show about extraordinary challenges, life-changing decisions, and defining moments.
In 2015, wedding photographer Mitchel Wu noticed his nephew posting strange photos of his Ninja Turtle toys flying through the air on BMX bikes. When he went to visit his family in San Francisco, he and his nephew walked over to the park with their cameras and a couple of stormtroopers. Mitch took the very first photo, and his entire career shifted in an instant.
Mitch, welcome to the show.
Mitchel Wu: Thanks so much, Stacy. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
An Early Career That Took an Unexpected Turn
Stacy: I'm so happy to have you and I am really looking forward to talking about all things toy photography and this career shift.
You went from being a wedding photographer, which is a very specific type of photography, to that one day in the park with your nephew, where everything sort of changed for you.
Can we talk about your career and your trajectory?
Mitchel: Absolutely. Do you want me to start from the wedding photographer days or do you want me to start with my first career since photography in general was my second career?
Stacy: I love that you've had career shifts, so let's start from the beginning.
Mitchel: Okay. I went to art school in Northern California and I have a degree in illustration. While I was in art school, I thought I had my whole future mapped out.
I knew the path that I wanted to take, and it was to follow in the footsteps of my hero illustrators, illustrating movie posters, magazine covers, book covers, editorial illustration for magazines. And that's exactly what I wanted to do.
I graduated and worked part-time in a photography studio so I could finish my illustration portfolio.
While I was there, I was taking some images of my work and posting them on the wall. Somebody came in who was a friend of the boss and said, “I know of a little gift company in Petaluma, California, and they're looking for illustrators.”
They were looking for illustrators to draw carousel horses that would eventually be sculpted and turned into ceramic and sold through stores like Hallmark. This was back in the 80s.
I thought that sounded good. I’ll do some freelancing and make some money through drawing which I thought was a good good thing to do while I still working on my portfolio
Stacy: Wow.
When One Opportunity Changes the Entire Path
Mitchel: Fast forward, one thing leads to another. I ended up getting a full-time job there. They liked my work. They sent me to Taiwan. I lived in Taiwan for a few years because that’s where everything was being sculpted and manufactured.
They wanted me on the ground to work directly with their sculptors and the factory on the final samples. And then once I approved it, the next person in line was the production guy and he would take it from there.
Looking back, it’s clear to see where I started to get off my path. It was with that job.
All of a sudden, you know, I was in my early twenties, living overseas.
I have no regrets. I met my wife when I was over there so that was huge. But that set my career in motion in a completely different direction than I thought it would be.
A Creative Career That Didn’t Feel Fully Aligned
Mitchel: It was product design and product development, always on the creative side, but not really using my degree the way I dreamed.
Eventually I worked at the Walt Disney Company. They moved me and my wife to Burbank, California. That was the best nine-to-five job I ever had. It was very fun, great team.
Then I left.
I’m a restless creative. My wife knows this all too well. Once I’m at a place too long, I get tired of it. And it was no different with Disney. I was working with the same characters, the same properties, doing very similar things.
And after six years, it was time to move on. One thing led to another, I ended up at another company, also doing product design, product development.
This was the first time I took a job for the wrong reason. I took it for the money. It was the most I'd ever made working for a company.
And it was the worst job I ever had in my life. My daughter was just born. The commute was brutal. So I'd leave before she woke up and I'd get home after she was asleep.
And I really did not like the company. It was not a good fit for me.
A Breaking Point That Led to Reinvention
Mitchel: Right around the same time, my oldest brother passed away. So I was dealing with two things, a really bad job and my brother passing away.
And that's when I really stepped back and took a look at how far I'd gotten off my path and how I wasn't being creative every day like I would hoped I'd be.
My degree was a waste at that point. And that's when I decided that I needed to get back to creativity. That's when I picked up a camera.
I don't know why I picked up a camera. I knew that I could tell stories with it and I was really interested in telling stories through images, but I had never really picked up a real camera before.
It was always like a point and shoot. So there was a huge learning process.
I started like many photographers: portraits, headshots, product photography, corporate photography. Then eventually I got into wedding photography, where I stayed for seven or eight years.
Falling Into Wedding Photography
Stacy: How did you get into wedding photography?
Mitchel: I don't think many photographers said, well, maybe it's different now because it's become kind of a trendy career. But I don't think many photographers back when I started ever thought they would shoot weddings and maybe some of them started like I did.
My friend's mom was a widow and she was remarrying. She asked me if I would photograph her wedding.
That's how it started and then I started seeing what was being done in the wedding photography industry.
The whole style of wedding photography had changed so much from what was being done in the seventies and beyond. It was really creative. There was a lot of storytelling and it was beautiful work.
And so I thought, I'll give it a try and that's where I stayed for a while.
Stacy: It makes me think of how weddings have changed in terms of, they're not really all as similar as they used to be. They're in different venues and there's so many different sorts of ways you can get married, I guess.
Mitchel: That's right.
You're absolutely right. I mean, each one was different and, you know, they're all very similar, right? There's a flow, but they're all so different based on what people want to do.
A Personal Decision That Changed Everything
Mitchel: So 2015 rolls around and my daughter is entering high school. She's a competitive swimmer. And I knew at that point, like I was already missing a lot of her stuff because weddings were on the weekends.
I was missing meets and it really was upsetting to me. I thought, okay, 2015, four years is going to fly by in high school. I was right, it really flew by and I didn't want to miss anything.
So I knew that in 2015 I was going to shoot my last wedding.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Mitchel: I had no idea what I was going to do. And that's when the story that you told about how I started, that's when that occurred.
I didn't know what I was going to do photography wise. I saw what my nephew was doing, you know, and then he invited me to go shoot with them.
As soon as I took that first photo of that stormtrooper, I placed it in the crook of an oak tree. I knew what I was going to do next. Like it hit me like a sledgehammer. There was no question.
Taking a Risk Without a Clear Plan
Mitchel: Nobody as far as I know had been doing that. But that wasn't even something that I had considered; it just felt right for me. And maybe it's a little irresponsible. Like you said, I'm a huge risk taker and my wife has gotten used to that and she's very understanding.
But I think timing was a huge part of what I was able to accomplish because it seemed like in 2015… I talk to a lot of people and I read about a lot of different toy photographers and a lot of them got started around the same time.
And I think a big part of it had to do with Star Wars was coming out with a new movie and they hadn't come out with one in forever and it was called The Force Awakens.
And I think that was kind of what got a lot of people into it and then they saw people like my nephew, Johnny, on Instagram. And that also inspired a lot of people to give it a try.
Because at that point, not many people were familiar with toy photography. So 2015, that's when I got started. And I never looked back.
Stacy: It just looks so fun. So you sent me that very first picture. I am very interested in that one moment.
Like what was going through your head? I mean, you just said it was instant.
Timing, Opportunity, and a Growing Industry
Mitchel: Yes. I'm not sure what it was to be honest, because I wasn't expecting it.
When my nephew told me:
“Hey, uncle Mitch, next time you come to San Francisco, bring your camera and I'll take you to a park and we'll, we'll shoot some toys”
And I thought, yeah, that sounds cool. But I was in no hurry. It took me three months before I got back up there and, thankfully, I did bring my camera. And that's how it all started.
I found the oak tree, and said it will look cool here. I put it in there.
And then I took the photo and I looked at what I got on the camera and it's like, my God, it was like clear as day that that's what I was going to do for my next career.
And that was 10 years ago. That was over 10 years ago now.
Stacy: So do you go back home and you tell your wife your grand idea?
How did that happen?
Mitchel: That's really interesting. I forgot what happened. Like right away if I told her “This is what I'm going to do”, but it wasn't long after for sure.
It's funny because I was in this documentary on Disney plus. They did a documentary on Marvel and it was a six or eights episode series. And I was one of them.
It was about the toys that Marvel influenced. And we were in New York for the New York toy fair and they were interviewing her:
“Rachel, what did you think when your husband decided to become a professional toy photographer?”
And she goes:
“I didn't know what was going on. I just thought he was in the backyard playing with toys”
Stacy: You kind of are, from what I've seen!
Mitchel: Yes.
It's funny because it's like, if I go to a park, like I've been shooting, I've shot throughout Japan and stuff and really crowded areas. Even here, I've done that out in public and it's okay to bring your toys out as long as you're shooting them.
But I think if I were out there, just playing with toys on a sidewalk in the city, somebody would call 911 and have me picked up to be checked out, I think, you know?
Stacy: Yeah. But should they really?
We could all use a little bit of play! It's such a good thing. I am like you – I get the creative ideas and the things I want to do.
I think it can be maybe overwhelming sometimes to our spouses. So that's what I thought when you come home and say:
“By the way, I'm changing careers to toy photography”.
Mitchel: They shouldn't, but I think it could happen. Absolutely.
Wanting to Work for Toy Companies
Stacy: So you don't even really know how it's going to be a career?
Mitchel: I didn't know how it was going to be. I mean, I had an idea. Like I was going to do work for toy companies. That was the idea. And that's exactly what happened. And then throw in a bunch of entertainment studios because they happened to be a big client base as well.
But toy companies were the initial idea. I was not familiar with anybody that was doing it on a freelance basis.
Stacy: Okay. Right.
Mitchel: They may have had in-house people in certain companies, but for sure, I don't think anybody was picking up a camera and say, “I'm going to shoot toys now and do it as an independent freelancer”.
No, I don't think so.
And I think again, that timing was critical actually, because all of a sudden my work was getting featured in magazines and newspapers, and I was putting myself out there.
I was on social media but I think the timing was just lightning in a bottle.
It really was.
Stacy: Yeah, you are among the first, or at least possibly the first. Were people finding you from your Instagram? Were you reaching out to the toy companies? How did it go?
Mitchel: Yeah, good question. I remember, okay, so I started in 2015. 2016 primarily was spent working on the craft of toy photography for me.
So I actually just spent a lot of time shooting, developing a style, figuring out the different techniques, like how to blow dirt and around the air or fireworks and doing all these really cool practical effects.
And then towards the end of that first year, I noticed that a division of Mattel started following me and they did these dolls called Ever After High. And as soon as I saw that, I reached out to him and said, “Hey, I'd love to do some work for you”.
And within a day, I had a contract for a year with them to work on their photography. So that was cool.
That was one of the only times that I actually got a job off of Instagram. I mean, directly off of Instagram.
Knocking on Many Doors, The Big Break & Being on Stage With Shaquille O’Neal
Mitchel: In fact, I did knock on a lot of doors, through LinkedIn and stuff like, “Hey, I'd love to do some work for you”.
But for the most part, I had zero luck with that. The big break came for me in 2020 when I was invited to the New York Toy Fair, which is the biggest North American toy industry convention.
All the toy companies are there and somebody from the Toy Association who runs that show asked me if I would exhibit at that fair. They've never had an exhibit before and they were over a hundred years old at that point.
And they also had me cut the ribbon to open the show with Shaquille O'Neal.
So it was me and Shaquille O'Neal on stage and I'm not lying, that guy, he's two feet taller than me. I'm short and he is massive. He is massive. But that was really cool. And then I had it.
So I had an exhibition at the toy fair and then I had to give a talk. And at the same time was when they were shooting a Disney Plus documentary. So those two things kind of coincided and that was right before COVID hit.
Then all of a sudden my career exploded. So that was kind of the thing that pushed it into overdrive. Yeah, the COVID didn't stop anything. It just kept going.
What Toy Photography Actually Is
Stacy: Even through COVID. And so to be clear, it's not necessarily toy photography that you see in the toy magazines. This is detailed world building that you're doing. A lot of it happens in your backyard, as your wife noticed.
Mitchel: Correct.
Stacy: And you mentioned a minute ago that you're using fireworks and things to make the scene, which I found, it's just incredible to watch you work, really. You have a documentary video that shows your process.
Mitchel: It is super interesting. There's a lot of ways that you can create images and one of them is using digital effects.
First of all, I'm not that good at digital effects. Second of all, where's the fun in that?
I'd rather be out blowing off fireworks or splashing around in a mud puddle or cool stuff for me. That's really the playing part of it for me. It's making those crazy effects.
Stacy: And that's sort of how you tell the story of what's happening.
Mitchel: Yes. And again, to your point, I think toy photography is much more known now than it was to the general public 10 years ago.
10 years ago, you could walk down the street or I would walk down the street and talk to somebody and they would say:
“Oh, what do you do?”
And I'd say “I'm a toy photographer.”
And so the immediate reaction, and it probably still is to a bit, is that I'm shooting against a white background for catalogs or maybe for Amazon. When you go onto Amazon and look at a toy, a lot of them are white background.
And then I would pull out my phone and show them what I do on Instagram or something. But really it's like you said, world building, but the foundation is storytelling.
Permissions and Intellectual Property
Stacy: Yes, if the characters are mid-dive and there's an explosion going on behind them from your fireworks, this isn't just the character. This is about what the characters are doing, what they've been doing, what they're about to do, what's happening in their world.
It's really cool.
Besides Instagram, where do these photos go?
Mitchel: Correct. Well, for me, it's on my website or, you know, I'll do some videos on YouTube, but for clients, it's still largely Instagram.
I mean, social media for them is like, I'm sure they have a huge budget now as that's part of their advertising. And magazines toy photography is interesting because probably 20 years ago, if somebody was doing it, they'd get a cease and desist letter from say Disney.
Stacy: That makes sense.
Mitchel: Here's a good example. So I remember when in the 90s, I read about a childcare place, private childcare, and they had painted pictures of Mickey and Donald Duck and Goofy on their walls and they got a cease and desist letter from Disney.
Flash forward to, when did I start? 2015 and onward.
I did a picture of Buzz Lightyear's. I created a picture of Buzz Lightyear where he's soaring over a desktop and in his wake are like paper clips flying around and pens and push pins, and so they get caught up in his turbulence.
And then I remember I got a private message from Pixar and they said, “Oh, is this your image?"
You know, the first reaction is “Uh-oh”.
And they said, “Because if it is, can we get your permission to post it on our Instagram?”
And that's how much it's changed. I think they realized that, at least with toy photography, they're really getting free promotion from the toy photographers.
I mean, it's definitely not hurting their business. It's probably helping. It helps promote the toys. So it helps the company, the studio, and the toy makers.
Goal Setting and Creative Mindset
Stacy: Right. And I was reading that you're still learning.
You were discussing underwater photography on your website , and that's something that you're really focused on right now. And you're just constantly goal setting for yourself.
What does the goal setting look like for you?
How do you approach this sort of constant learning mentality?
Mitchel: That's true.
I don't know if it's specific goals. For the underwater stuff, for 10 years, literally, I would create a mud puddle in the dead part of my lawn in the backyard, and fill it with water. And I would create some really cool images in there.
It was a little mud puddle. But most of my water shots, and I have a lot of water shots throughout the 10 years. Whether it's like a river or an ocean or a lake. It's all created on my stone patio.
I found out that if I pour like, and it's only literally not even eighth of an inch deep, when you pour it on, but when you shoot it at a certain angle, like level with the ground, you don't see the ground at all.
You see reflections in the water, like you would on a lake or something. And then I could create waves by splashing water or anything. It was amazing what you could do, what I could do on that patio.
But after 10 years, I decided I really wanted to try some underwater stuff and I couldn't do that in the mud puddle or my patio. So I had the pond built, which I called a toy pond, which is T-O-I-P-O-N-D.
That's been really cool. And that's been a huge learning experience. So I don't necessarily set goals. It's just like creatively, if I feel I want to try something that I have never done before, then I want to learn it. Yeah.
Stacy: It also makes me think about what you said earlier, which is that after a while, you need that sort of change, right? So I feel like there's always change.
Mitchel: Yeah. And so I found out my wife has probably got PTSD from all my career changing, you know?
So she goes, “So are you still liking toy photography?
And I go, “Yes, don't worry. I'm going to stick with it.”
And because it's like, I finally met my match as far as creativity goes, it's endless. There's always something to learn. There's always different stories to tell.
Stacy: She's been planning this question out for days.
Mitchel: And when you're tired of shooting like on top of water, then that's when I go underwater. So it's always something like that that's gonna keep me motivated.
The Environment As A Source of Inspiration
Stacy: Are you just mowing the lawn or out for a walk and these toys pop in your head and you're like, that's what I'm going to do next. I got to put them underwater and go to X, Y, and Z.
How do the creative ideas come to you?
Mitchel: Yeah, that absolutely can happen. That actually happens a lot.
Just walking along and seeing something like in the sky, could be a cloud or something in tree bark or it could be anything that just sparks an idea for sure.
I mean, anytime that I'm feeling a little stuck, like I can't come up with an idea. Well, one sure way of getting past that is to buy a new toy. Like if there's a toy, that'll immediately start some new stories coming in your head.
Stacy: Good point.
Mitchel: But otherwise it's going to the museum in LA or going to see some movies or watching a new show. There's so many ways to be inspired.
Stacy: Do you put notes in your phone? Do you keep a notebook? How do you capture your ideas?
Mitchel: Yeah, on the phone for sure. I have a long list of potential ideas. And then I'll come back like two years later, go, what was I thinking? That's no good. But some are still there, some are still in there that I definitely want to get to.
Stacy: Yeah, that sounds very familiar.
Do you have a favorite toy that you come back to over and over again?
Mitchel: I don't know if I have a favorite, but traditionally, if you look at my work, like on Instagram, probably the thing that you'd see the most is Toy Story. And then also a lot of just Pixar in general.
And that's all not because I used to watch those as a kid, because they were not around when I was a kid, I’m way older than that. But it's what was popular when my daughter was growing up.
And so there's strong nostalgia for that. Like we watched Toy Story together, probably a dozen times. Monsters Inc, same thing.
Incredibles was one that I really loved. That's like one of my favorite Pixar movies. So all those will, you know, inspire me usually from nostalgia,
“Where the wild things are”, I used to read that story to my daughter at least once a week when she was growing up. And so I didn't know any toys existed until I was on eBay and I accidentally saw some, so I bought some. They haven't been made in a long time.
Stacy: Yes.
Mitchel: But yeah, things like that really get me in my heart. So that's a good place to start actually, you know, to create anything is to have that feeling for sure.
Stacy: Yeah. Right.
I'm also thinking it's really cool that not only did you make this switch in part because you wanted to make sure that you were around on the weekends for your daughter, but it also in a way connects you to sort of her growing up too.
Mitchel: Yeah, absolutely it does. Yeah, a lot of memories.
Stacy: Does she ever come out in the backyard and help you on set?
Mitchel: She's helped me a couple of times, but nah, not really. And now she's 25 and she's like 300 miles away. So for sure not now. Yeah.
“TOI POND” for Cool Underwater Visual Effects
Stacy: Not her thing. Okay. Bummer.
So let's talk about the backyard playground that you have. You said you built an entire pond. You've got your patio in on the game.
Is that your main location for photographing or do you go out into parks anymore like you did? Like are people walking by as you're trying to create these explosions?
Mitchel: Right. Yeah. Interesting question. So last year I had two jobs for NBC universal and it was for Jurassic world, some new toys that were coming out.
And I knew I wanted to do something with water, but these dinosaurs are big.
They're really big and they're too big for the scale of a mud puddle or anything like that. This was before I had the pond, so my wife and I drove up to this place called Ohai, which is about
90 minutes to two hours away from where I live.
We just went there on one day to scout to see if it would even work. I brought my dinosaur up to see if it would float or sink. Thankfully it didn't float, it just stayed in place.
So we actually found a location where I would shoot and then we went back the next day with all the gear and all the toys. And for NBC Universal, their project was not just the finished image, but they wanted to see an entire YouTube video that showed the behind the scenes.
So it was like a story within a story. And they also had me talk about the product. So we went up there and shot it. It was basically two full days. And the day that we shot was so memorable and so fun, with my wife video taping it.
I didn't have any special water clothes. So I was knee deep in water in my jeans and my tennis shoes. But it was fun.
Stacy: Wow.
Mitchel: But that's when I decided I need a pond because that was like two, four hours of driving basically for two days of shooting I thought, and then the next time I had the second NBC Universal gig shooting dinosaurs again, that time I did it in my pond.
So that was good.
Stacy: So your wife did the video part of it. She was filming the video. So it becomes like not only the toy, but it becomes your world building as well, which is really interesting.
Mitchel: Yes, she did the video. That's a huge part of it.
I mean, talking about locations and shooting the backyard, so I started, I would say I cut my teeth in a part called Vasquez rocks. Vasquez Rocks is about 30 minutes from here.
And it is another worldly part because it has like prehistoric stones and speaking of prehistoric, there's a movie called the Flintstones with John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and that was filmed at this park.
There's a very famous episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk was fighting this alien called the Gorn. It's in front of one of the most iconic rocks at this park. So I would go there almost every day and just bring my camera and a bag of toys and I would shoot toys.
There were little stories being told, but for me it was more about just taking cool photos in a super cool location. So that's where I started.
The Beauty of Toy Photography
Mitchel: And then somehow I realized that I could shoot very similar photos with the same kind of feeling on my porch. And so on my porch, I have a railing that's probably four inches wide around the porch.
And I would set up a piece of foam on a piece of plywood on that railing, then a piece of foam on it, and it would all be balanced. And then I would put my toys on there and I would shoot it.
Which really leads to an interesting thing with toy photography. And that is the size of the toys, so different from wedding photography, right? Where I'm shooting full-scale humans with toys that are generally like six inches long or tall.
It's so easy to create different worlds and universes for them, even on my four inch railing on the porch. Like you could go back and you would see some of my toy photos and I would do water effects on there.
I would have little things filled with water and splashing around. I could do fireworks on my porch railing. I created so many different looks and worlds on that railing.
It was unbelievable.
And that is the beauty of toy photography because if you can think about something in your head, you can probably create it, or find a background that kind of matches that. And then you can just take your photo and tell your story. It's really quite amazing with toy photography, what you can do with it.
Stacy: You said that first year that you decided you were gonna do this, it was a lot of figuring out how to build what you needed to build and create the worlds.
Mitchel: Yes. And how practical things are as well, like, okay, this character is going to be flying through the air. What's the best way to make them fly through the air?
Obviously, well, not obviously. When I saw my nephew's BMX Ninja Turtles flying over the air, I just thought he was like launching them into the air and catching them at the perfect moment with his camera. But that's not how you do it. It's all got to be as controlled as possible.
For me or anybody else doing that similar shot, you would suspend it, like support it on wire and then you remove the wire later in Photoshop. But there's so much learning to do on just those kinds of things like what's the best way to attach a wire to a figure and make it easier to remove it like when you get into Photoshop.
So all these little things..it's still a learning process. To this day, you'll find an interesting trick. Maybe I'll try that and then it works. It works great. So there's always learning stuff. Yeah, there's always learning stuff.
Behind The Scenes Magic
Stacy: Right. And it's not like back then when you started, you could just call up, you know, another toy photographer, you were sort of, you know, figuring it all out.
Mitchel: That's true. And nobody was really doing behind the scenes. Like if you go onto Instagram now, they'll show a photo. Then oftentimes if you swipe, you'll see behind the scenes.
Like on my Instagram, there's a lot of behind the scenes. So if you're starting out today, you have an immediate headstart because you can see, which is the idea, you know, we're trying to help anybody coming into it. You can see how like one person does it versus another and you can get a lot of ideas.
Stacy: Yeah. And I would say even me, I don't think I'm ever going to get into toy photography, even though I think it's one of the coolest things I've ever, I mean, never even knew about it until I found you.
But it is really cool to be like, that's how he did this. Because the pictures are so phenomenal, just magical. But you're like, how on earth did you make that happen? Well, then you swipe and there it is, which is like a self-find.
Mitchel: Yeah. So it's a double edged sword too, because it's like, do you want to share it? Because it's like a peek behind the curtain. And immediately it takes away some of the magic because it's like a magician showing how they did their trick.
What Happens to Toys After A Project is Completed
Stacy: Right.
So I'm curious, I'm imagining you have lots and lots of toys. Do you cycle them in and out or do you keep all of them?
Mitchel: I have a lot of toys. I keep a lot of them. I buy the ones I want for sure. Just the ones for me. But whenever I shoot a project, you know, they send me toys and they don't ask for them back. So I have a lot of toys. They've taken over like three rooms of my house and the garage.
There's certain toys I know that I won't shoot for myself anymore and I've had them for a long time. So, you know, some of our lucky kid friends, they always get toys whenever we see them.
Stacy: Oh, good for them. I was about to say, you have like, those three rooms of toys, you're going to have to guard them when kids come over, because otherwise you're going to be in trouble.
What about set design? I know that there're so many things that you can use. It's not necessarily stuff for toy set design. You create a lot of things out of just random stuff, right?
Mitchel: Yes. Yeah, I do. I'll save packaging, when my wife goes to Costco and comes back with something. Sometimes there's some cool packaging, you know, and it's like, then it doesn't have to go to a recycle or landfill. I can just hold onto it for backdrops.
But other times, like if it's a really specific backdrop and you want it to look authentic to the property, I'll work with a diorama maker and have them build it.
Stacy: Yeah, that's amazing.
Mitchel: That's something that is really interesting to me, but it's also really time consuming. So I generally will have somebody else do that, and I don't do it often.
Like I'll usually build my own stuff and I really like the focus to be the toys, and create a set that helps me tell the story, but not get too involved with it. That's generally how I work. Or I'll be outside and I'll set up some rocks you know, I'll have branches that can double as trees.
But otherwise, yeah, I try to keep it simple.
Stacy: Does it feel like work to you? Even if you're not just doing it for Instagram, but you're doing it for a client or whatever, does it feel like work or does it feel like play?
Mitchel: The actual setup and shooting doesn't so much feel like work. It's the point of getting like if it's a client you have to have concepts approved and sometimes they have to be revised. So all of that can kind of feel like work. But when it comes down to like it's been approved, then the rest is fun. The rest is fun.
Stacy: Yeah. I didn't think about that because if you're working for a client, like they want to know what you're going to do before you do it. You can't just go in the backyard and be like, let's see what comes to mind.
Mitchel: Often, they'll want approval. Some clients will just let me loose. So it's both. Yeah, it's both. Yeah, that's the ideal.
Lessons Learned From Taking Risks & Career Evolution
Stacy: Ooh, that's exciting. This is a wild ride for the last 10, 11 years, right? You've had sort of two career shifts, first into wedding photography, then into toy photography. Both of them were, especially the toy photography one, a risk. What have you learned from this sort of evolution?
Mitchel: For sure. Right. A huge learning, which I like to share with other photographers and artists in general is that I've seen both sides of, let me say this.
When I was a wedding photographer, I worked in the most competitive price bracket for wedding photographers. So it was not the cheapest. It definitely wasn't the most expensive. And so, it ended up being the most competitive.
Just in my town, which is in Santa Clarita, there were two super well-known wedding photographers, like internationally known. And, then there were like at least a dozen or more wedding photographers that were at my level.
So that was just my town. And then beyond here is Los Angeles, greater Los Angeles or Los Angeles, that city and countless, countless wedding photographers.
So I could meet with clients and my work was, I felt my work was good. You know, it was solid. It was beautiful. The colors were always wonderful. Tell the story. And they love my work, but I knew as soon as they left, they were probably going to, you know, kick some tires with other wedding photographers, see if there was a better price to be had.
And so I always considered myself more of a commodity as a wedding photographer. I really had very little power to negotiate. I couldn't, like, if anything, I was going to be negotiating down for them to say, “You know what, we'll go with you if you give it to us for this”.
So that was the reality. When I became a wedding photographer, that was like beyond niche. It was so tight and it was brand new. Didn't even know if it would work.
But when it did, I kind of owned that niche, you know, for quite a while. And so just the opposite of what a commodity is, I was able to really kind of set my price. I could say yes or no, depending on who the client was, whether I wanted to work with them, if they were a good fit or not. There is so much more power in working in a specialized niche than working as a commodity.
Had I known then when I was a wedding photographer that I know now, I would have totally pivoted to become more specialized as a wedding photographer. I don't know if that means like doing cosplay weddings or because there are a lot of weddings now that include their dogs or pets, you know, kind of focusing on that, just something to set yourself apart from what everybody else is doing.
That's how I would apply that today if I was a wedding photographer.
Stacy: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because then, if people are looking for that, they know where to find you.
Mitchel: Yes, exactly. And then you're not so much just limited to your region either. I mean, somebody could find you like in Washington, DC, for example. And if you're the guy or the gal that's doing really amazing cosplay wedding photography, you're going to come up in their Google search and they may just want to hire you.
Advice For Newcomers
Stacy: You've also, especially with the toy photography switch, you've taken risks. And you've also been really focused on continual learning. What's your advice for people who are thinking, I want to try this new thing, but there's a lot to learn?
Mitchel: Yeah, I get that question a lot actually. Like I want to become a professional toy photographer. How do I do it?
Stacy: Yeah, or anything really like career shifts, especially after you've been in one career for 10 years, you'd been doing wedding photography for 10 years. Like I think you said 10 years. It's a long time. And then you're like, well, I'm gonna now try this other thing.
Mitchel: Yes. I didn't follow the advice I'm about to give you.
Stacy: Maybe the best advice. Let's go.
Mitchel: The advice that I would tell somebody, like, let's just use toy photographers as an example. I want to become a toy photographer. It's like, I love shooting and I love shooting toys and they're already doing it and they're decent. I would just say, yeah, go for it as a side hustle.
You know what? Do your side hustle. Keep working at your job. Don't leave your day job. That's for sure.
I always tell people, you know, as your side hustle becomes more and more and more profitable at the point where your day job is costing you money. That's when you leave and that's when you do it full-time Yeah, yeah, I didn't do that. But that's what I would definitely tell people
Stacy: Right, when you're starting , you have to say no to things because you still have to do your day job. That makes a lot of sense. It's quite the journey from going to art school. It is cool how your art school training is clearly present in your work though. I mean, you can see it in every single photograph that you take. ‚
Mitchel: Yes. And it's interesting because art school, you know, obviously I met a lot of people in art school and it's weird that, okay, maybe it's not weird, but I had, I knew somebody also in my graduating class, who was an illustration major.
And he created his own comic book and a company made toys out of them. And I ended up shooting those toys. Yeah. For the for the client, for the toy company.
Creativity, Reinvention & Life’s Unpredictability
Stacy: Wow. That's amazing. That's really fun.
Well, to wrap this up, what is your favorite part about what you are doing now? You've taken risks, you've sort of made a leap, you're having a successful career in this sort of magical world of toy photography. What would you say is your favorite part?
Mitchel: Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's kind of a selfish thing, but my favorite part is like back to my original journey of what I thought I was going to do when I got out of art school, which was doing magazine covers, book covers, et cetera.
I've done all those things as a toy photographer. I feel like illustration today has become so, for the most part, has become very digital. So I feel there's a fine line. But I feel like I'm using toys and my camera to create images that tell stories.
And I feel like I've never been closer to what I originally imagined myself doing out of art school. It's pretty interesting being creative, like on a daily basis, that was always my goal.
And yeah, so now I finally get to do that. It's yeah, it's like, I didn't even discover this until my 50s. It's like, whenever somebody, whenever I hear somebody saying, oh man, I hate my job.
It's like, I'm in my thirties. I'm done. This is it. And I'm just thinking you're crazy if you think that because you have so much time to figure something else out and change, change your career and start doing something that you love. I can't imagine going through life, doing something that you're not really into. So yeah.
Stacy: For sure, I agree. There's always what's next, sort of no matter how old you are, especially if you're willing.
I mean, especially if you're willing to learn. It's the learning new things, really. It's the being willing to say, I don't know this, but I'm willing to figure it out. Like you said, make it a side hustle. And yeah, just keep learning and being willing to take those risks.
Mitchel: Yeah, yeah, 50s, go for it. For sure, yes.
Stacy: Mitch, this was tons of fun. Your photography is really incredible. Certainly I'll post links to it in the notes. Thank you so much for joining me to talk about toy photography and career changes and all of these really incredible things that you're doing.
I appreciate it.
Mitchel: Yeah, that was fun. That time flew by. Thank you so much. I appreciate you listening to my stories.
Thank you so much.
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