Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Tyus.
Tony, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
So… I never intended on becoming a Photographer. I am from the greater Cleveland area in Ohio, all my life a played sports and was on the verge on becoming a NFL athlete until I had three Concussions which lead my career a different direction. I left playing football and started working corporate for seven years which then I still was undecided on what I wanted to do with my life knowing my football career was over.
I then decided to try out modeling for the first time and it was intimidating, to say the least, but I loved how they turned out. I began to ask questions on how did the photographer make me look so good, knowing I didn’t look as good as the picture. He began to tell me some tricks and trades to how he did it and at that point, I knew then, I wanted to do exactly what the photographer was doing. I then bought a camera and started to learn the basics and practice with friends for about one year. I had people wanting to pay me for pictures so I started to take pictures on the side and make extra money. I saw the potential in it so I wanted to go bigger with it. I took a visit to Atlanta Georgia and fell in love with the location first then the Atmosphere second. It was the new Hollywood. I then began to explore other options to see if it was like Atlanta. I visited L.A. New York, Houston, and Miami. Non compared to Atlanta.
During my last visit to Atlanta, a man by the name of Frank Taylor offered me a job to shoot out of his restaurant called Acoustic Jazz off Marietta St. Also to shoot for his clients as they so needed images. I then knew it was meant for me to do Photography so I took a leap of faith and gave my 2-week notice in at my job (Nestle USA). I moved to Atlanta the first week in March 2013. Now that I’ve moved to Atlanta, I’ve been shooting now for six years and have been blessed to work with some of the top names in the industry (LisaRay, Cynthia Bailey, Kelly Price, Toya Wright) and many more. I’m continuing to perfect my craft and continue to grow in this industry.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not a smooth ride. I look at my journey like this… When you go to the gym and work out, you have to tear down your muscles to build them back up and tearing them down hurts and it not always easy. You don’t feel like waking up and running or even lifting but once you start to see the results you then get motivated and start to love the process. My Photography career has kind of been like that. I have struggled at time to where I wanted to quit. I felt like it was taking to long to grow. There were missing pieces that I didn’t know about the business that I had to learn the hard way, which put me three steps backward. I had to learn to treat this as my passion and the money will flow right into your hands. I started to love my craft before I wanted to gain from it. Once I fell in love with Photography as a whole, then the rest became history.
Tyus Photography – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is a Photography business and I am a Photographer that specializes in Beauty, Fashion and Portraits. I think everyone loves that my images are cleaned natural. I don’t want clients leaving a photoshoot thinking they don’t look like themselves. My goal is to enhance what is already there and implement a different character to their images that they don’t use on a daily basis. I think that is what sets me apart from other photographers. I am proud of my work ethic and the efforts put into building my business in the short time that I have been doing this.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Proudest moment is when I had my father at a Photoshoot when I was shooting Lisaray and I could see the joy in his face of a proud father and to know that this was all done by me and a leap of faith.
Contact Info:
- Website: anthonytyus.com
- Phone: 2166451952
- Email: info@anthonytyus.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr_tyus/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.tyus
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