Who are you and what do you do?
We are Tri and Uyen from TUgether Photography, a couple-team of Fine-art wedding photographers in the Orange County area, as well as worldwide. The beauty, the romance, and the heartfelt emotion of a wedding are the reasons why we absolutely love what we do. For two hopeless romantics with the passion for the art, wedding photography give us that chance to borrow your beautiful and unique love story to capture those timeless moments.
Describe your product/service in 1-3 sentences.
We photographs with one simple approach in mind, let the couple express their love naturally, just be there to capture the moment. With the love for natural light and film photography, we found the combination that compliments the soft and romantic feel to our fine art approach with a hint of photojournalism. Our packages vary by hours and prints.
How did you get started in that industry?
On our Europe trip in the Summer of 2011, we had the chance to visit Paris. Equipped with only our iPhones, we wished we had at least a decent camera to capture such beautiful sites. We talked about how Paris would be a great place for a wedding photo-shoot, how every corner of this beautiful city could be a photo op. That started a huge fire for our passion of wedding photography. We began to ask our engaged or even married friends to be our models and build our portfolio that way.
What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time / money?
Not knowing how much our time is worth. Our biggest mistake in the beginning was allowing people to take advantage of us.
Key manufacturing and marketing lessons learned?
Social media is a great tool to marketing nowadays. Facebook and Instagram are great for us because our business is photography. Consistency is also important. We find that consistently posting photos on Facebook on Instagram yield more results.
Any PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc? How did they happen?
We are networking with vendors in the industry to build trusting relationships. This is the best way to receive referrals. We’ve met some of these vendors from the convention called Wedding & Portrait Photography International (WPPI) in Las Vegas.
What software/tools and resources, mentors or groups did you find useful for growing, if any?
We are currently being mentored by Richard Photo Lab. This is the photo lab where we send our film to be processed. They have over 25 years experience in the fine-art wedding photography industry so that is a great thing for us this year. We also met them at WPPI.
If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
The challenges and obstacles helped shaped us to the team we are today. We view our mistakes and struggles as valuable lessons, so no we would not do anything differently.
Any other advice to people starting their first business?
Make sure you are doing what you absolutely love to do! Love the process of starting a business, love the content of the business, and most importantly, embrace the challenges and plateau of the business. Ask yourself this question: Am I willing to work for 2-3 years without pay? So I can learn and grow?
If you are expecting for immediate success, you might in for a rude awakening 🙂
Here a quote that we would love to share to all of you: “Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. And you’re bound to be successful. Bound to be successful” –Satya Narayan Goenka
What’s next?
Continue to LEARN and GROW. Hopefully find more opportunities to travel abroad to beautiful cities to capture LOVE.
Want to Connect with Tri?
Facebook
Instagram: @TUgetherphoto
Yelp: TUgether Photography
Phone: 714-867-4601
Email: mymoment@tugetherphotography.com
TESTIMONIALS:
TUgether Photography is the complete package. Not only are Vicky and Tri the nicest people, but they are also incredibly professional and willing to work with you.
When I needed help with make up and styling my hair, they helped me. When we didn’t know what to wear, they helped us pick out a wardrobe that would look great in the photos.
They went above and beyond for our engagement and wedding shoots.
They spent hours making sure our days would be perfect and that we would get shots we loved. They scoped out interesting locations for the shoots and made sure that everything fit our taste and personalities.
I seriously can’t wait to work with them again and plan to make up some sort of big event just so we can!!!
Cori Lefkowith
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Let me tell you how amazing TUgether photography is!! The absolute best! TUgether shot our engagement photos in Santa Monica and downtown LA plus our wedding photos at the beautiful San Francisco city hall. Everything was so easy. They took our suggestions for places/poses we wanted, and added their special touch to bring out the best photos possible. We posted our photos on Facebook and received so many compliments! The wedding photobook they made was phenomenal, best I’ve ever seen! I highly recommend.
Amanda Brown
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When my Fiance Amanda told me she wanted to take engagement photos I was a little skeptical at first. How long is it going to take. I’d rather go watch football. How hard is it to take a few good pictures. This was before I met Tri and Uyen!!! I felt like I was shooting for GQ magazine half the time, and the other half I completely forgot they were there. They were seriously ninjas with cameras capturing every beautiful moment spent cruising around 3rd Street Promenade Santa Monica and Downtown LA. When our photo shoot was all wrapped up I remember sitting in the car driving home thinking “I want to do this again, that was so much fun!” I could not wait to see our photos. After receiving the photos I was blown away, TUgether Photography was able to capture the sweet emotion I feel every moment I look into my Fiance eyes.
Thank you,
TUgether Photography for turning my memories into a Beautiful Masterpiece
Anthony Frank
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TUgether photography has a way of making you feel like you’ve known them forever. This dynamic duo really has a keen eye for a great shot and an equally genuine personalities. We were fortunate enough for them to shoot our second engagement photo session and we were so enthused with the results. They made us feel really comfortable with posing and being in front of the camera. They also suggested picture perfect venues for our photo session. Overall, we were very pleased with their professionalism as well as their natural sense of connecting with the client. Book them for your next photo shoot!
Sarun V.