Interview Series: Chatting to Ria Mishaal (Part 1)
Ria Mishaal is an artist and photographer based in Hampshire, UK. Our paths met through mere coincidence, and we connected quite instantly over our love for flowers and photography. Not only does Ria run courses and coach creative entrepreneurs, but she is also a seasoned wedding photographer, scientist, a fellow at the Royal Photographic Society, a mother of two wonderful girls and ultimately a genuine, kind hearted person who uplifts and supports others.
I had the chance to sit down with Ria (via Zoom) last year in the midst of the pandemic, to chat about her beginnings, what inspires her and how we can move forward in these uncertain times.
Beginnings
SD: Lets start off with beginnings, how did your love of photography come about and how did you end up in the wedding photography industry?
RM: I think origin questions are always really interesting Photography was in my family. My grandfather and my father are both very passionate about cameras; we had a lot of cameras around growing up. My parents took me travelling a lot when I was a kid, so my mum, who was a research scientist would go to international conferences, and we would tack on a holiday to the back of that, which meant a lot of trips to the US. We visited a lot of national parks when I was young, and I loved wildlife. I think the first thing I remember myself wanting to be after an animator was a National Geographic photographer. I had a love of the natural world, and when we travelled, my parents would always be taking photos.
I had my dad's old film camera initially, and it was always about that hunt for capturing something that I wasn't going to see again, or it was the feeling of something that I was trying to capture. I later went on to do Biological Natural Sciences at university, and I kept up with photography whenever I travelled. I was part of a few photography exhibitions when I was at Cambridge University and I was the photo editor for Varsity, the University Student Newspaper. I had a friend who was getting married, and he asked me and another of our friends (who was into wildlife photography), to photograph his wedding in our own styles. I wasn't aware of the wedding industry, it was not something that ever crossed my mind, and I had no idea how people took pictures of weddings either. So we decided to do our own thing. It was very instinctive the way I shot and over the years I learned to become a wedding photographer.
“Do not get discouraged by the journey of learning, you can’t hold everything together all the time. ”
With time, I unlearned it again and then came back to my roots, and I think that's a natural progression. When I look back to that wedding, there's a feeling in the images, that's much more similar to the style I became known for later. There was a whole period in the middle where it wasn't there but I think it's difficult for everything to progress at the same rate. Often when you take strides forward in one direction, other things will standstill or they'll go slightly backwards, and it takes a while to realise that that is the natural process of growing, so do not get discouraged by the journey of learning, you can't hold everything together all the time.
While doing my PhD, I was slowly growing the photography business, and getting more photography jobs, mainly at Cambridge colleges. At the time, I was very much into being able to juggle two things at once, and that's how it all started.
In terms of my professional journey when I finished my PhD, and I went to do my first postdoc, I thought, well, now I'm in the working world, I need to set this up properly. By then I had 10 weddings lined up for the year, so I registered as a sole trader in 2007, then set up my taxes and did everything properly, and by 2011, I registered Ria Mishaal as a limited company.
SD: Often we put pressure on ourselves to perform, but with that 1st wedding that you shot, did it feel like you were more carefree because you just had no expectations of yourself?
RM: Because I went into it just doing my own thing, there were no expectations. That's not to say I wasn't petrified, because I wanted to do a good job. It was a different type of feeling. Later, people hired me off the back of that and I always had in my mind that they were asking me to do what I do, and not something that somebody else has done.
Turning Points
SD: What would you say were the turning points in your business?
RM: I met a couple of people who were starting out in wedding planning, and we decided to go together to one of the high end wedding fairs in London. They were both very gregarious and chatty, and I was very shy and did not speak with anyone, I just followed them around. After spending a few hours there, just before leaving I realised that I hadn’t said a single word, and the whole point of this was networking. I realised how ridiculous that was. I thought, okay, who have I seen who I'd like to speak to? There was a venue that had a picture up of a really old chapel in the woodlands, and that was the thing that popped into my mind.
That image was the most similar to me in style out of anything I saw that day. So I went over and introduced myself, and I remember my voice shaking. I don't know if I looked as scared as I was! I told them I would love to have the opportunity to come and see them and show them my portfolio, and they were very welcoming and we set up a meeting. It turned out that venue was Babington House! Had I known that it was part of the Soho group, I would not have gotten near them, thinking they were way above me. It's a beautifully inspiring place in the middle of Somerset with gorgeous woodlands. They popped me on the recommended list and I've been shooting ever since and that was a huge turning point in my wedding photography career!
There was one particular couple who were from America, who were just on that same creative wavelength, and trusted me completely. At that stage, I didn't understand why anybody would trust me creatively like that. It was just a huge turning point for me too. I realised I had to take myself more seriously and step up. I learnt to grow and advocate for myself and ultimately became proud of my work. That also showed in the way I treated clients and the strong bonds of trust I formed over the years, which was very important to me.
SD: Often photographers say that the wedding industry is a transition into whatever industry they want to specialise in. Did you know that weddings was going to be your strength or did you feel like it was going to be like a passing stage, and you may focus on other styles of photography in the future?
RM: Weddings are really hard work, as you can imagine. To an extent, it is a young person's game because of the physical demands. When you’re in your 20s, and early 30s, it's easy to do 14 hour days driving home on the motorway (freeway) at 2am, to do two weddings a week. There’s of course all the other mountain of work that needs to be done afterwards, like editing, high turnaround of emails with clients, it’s a lot of work. Which is why, I think, a lot of successful wedding photographers burnout, after either five or ten years. If they're clued up enough to know that's the likelihood, then they plan themselves a progression or they plan creative work into their year to keep them fresh, but it's not the case for everybody. With any creative job, you develop and grow, and you get to a point with certain things where you need to challenge yourself creatively.
A couple of years ago, I took a step back from weddings, partially for family reasons, but also because I needed an injection of creativity. I was very happy with what I was doing, I was very good at consistently producing results for my clients, and as a result, I was beginning to stagnate creatively. I thought, Okay, I need a little bit of a break because I can't do the best for my clients if I'm beginning to feel bored, that's not enough. That’s when I started a portrait studio and did my Animalia Project, and returned back to soul driven work.
Often seasoned photographers talk about the importance of having those personal projects and keeping them going and building them into your year. You don't want to get to that place where you're just doing client work, and lose your creativity. After having my first child, I had three very busy years, the busiest I’ve ever been in my business, which left me with little time for anything else other than client work. I think it’s healthy to take time off to focus on personal projects.
Animalia Project by Ria Mishaal
SD: You are really passionate about teaching and coaching, can you tell us more about where that was born from and why you love it so much?
RM: I have been teaching for many years, specifically when I was at university, I did lecturing and supervising and I found that to be very enjoyable. I have also been teaching at the Royal Photographic Society for a long time. I think whenever you teach something you learn so much yourself. The thing about teaching is that when you teach someone something, you enable them to do something else, and by doing that you are actually making a difference.
When I decided to take a step back from weddings, I needed to do something more creative and that’s why I turned to teaching. I developed a photography course for florists because I've worked with so many florists who are so frustrated with not having consistent imagery. I didn’t only teach them how to use manual settings on a camera, but also taught them how to understand light and how to edit images to create something consistent, so that they can capture their own work.
“I think whenever you teach something, you learn so much yourself”
In part 2, we talk about the effect the pandemic had on the creative industry and ways of moving forward.
Plus we chat about what plans Ria has for the future.
All images by Ria Mishaal.
