Today we’d like to introduce you to Alice Dinh.
Hi Alice, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As an only child, there was an undeniable curiosity when it comes to the arts with music as a pianist and a flutist, recreationally drawing, crafts, and such. My childhood mostly consists of me preoccupied with some artsy thing to pass time. I was gifted a small digital camera one holiday and it became an occasional hobby that I never really put much thought to and ended up forgetting about.
Fast forward to my senior year in high school and it was time to decide what skill I wanted to curate in college and professionally pursue afterward. Truthfully, I was utterly perplexed. Do I make my mom proud and choose a path in medical? Be a lawyer? Is being a musician even an option? What is it that I really want to do? After much pondering, I decided to learn to dive into the world of film and media. It was my pure curiosity and lack of knowledge when it comes to creating videos that I found calling out to me.
After completing my first year, I’ve come to the realization that I needed to start curating my own work rather than just sit in class and go home. One day, I decided to invest into a beginner’s camera, the Canon T6, so that I can start practicing and hopefully land myself some gigs. After a lot of small photography jobs taking portraits and real estate, COVID hit and I was once again lost. I was blessed to have come across a mentor who showed me the ropes to real estate photography and I started falling in love.
After becoming familiar with my camera, I was ready for an upgrade. My business was still in its development phase and the dream camera I wanted was out of my budget. I was ecstatic to finally start implementing video work and eventually drone to level up even more. After lots of trial and error, I started developing my own style and becoming more confident in helping my clients capture the vision they are looking for. I was able to finally afford that dream camera that I wanted when I started and my clientele started increasing so one thing led to another, the formation of my brand, Joint Pixels LLC.
Because I didn’t second guess myself when choosing my career path and stuck with it, I find a lot of thrill and fulfillment even through the ups and downs. Every day is a learning journey; to learn more of techniques, my capabilities and constantly develop all of the much-needed applicable skills. There is still so much more that I am looking to grow and l look forward every day to doing so.
When it comes to helping my clients capture their vision, I love being able to bond with them and bringing that picture out of their heads, onto a screen. It can be a tedious and meticulous process but that’s what makes the results worth it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Although it’s great when I’m consecutively booked, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. That means there are seasons when bookings are slow. I find it to be a push and pull, a give and take. Since I’ve dedicated myself to solely running my small business, there is a lot of admin work that can be very time-consuming and even draining as it takes a lot of discipline to complete the small daily tasks. As a creative, I have to remind myself to stay curious when aspects in my business start to feel stagnant.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My small business Joint Pixels LLC (www.jointpixels.com) is a multi-media production company. We specialize with cinematic video work, aerial media, and real estate photography. Our list of services includes but are not limited to video/photo work for real estate, documentaries, interviews, small events, small businesses, short narratives, and lifestyle portraits.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck, whether good or bad has played a role in my life and business. Overall, good and bad luck has only fallen into place due to the preparation that was put behind it. If I had done what I needed to do, such as my dailies in setting up my foundation, checking in between the cracks, anticipate and prepare; when a good opportunity arises with a positive outcome, then it was, so to speak, good luck. Same goes for the latter. It’s all about doing the best to work through each project and in retrospect, I find both good and bad luck to balance each other out for the person I am in life and the business I run today.
Contact Info:
- Website: jointpixels.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jointpixels/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jointpixels
