Today we’d like to introduce you to Tadd Myers.
Tadd, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Houston, Texas where my father owned a printing company for more than 30 years. At 15, I started working for him, running small 1-2 color jobs on one of his smaller printing presses. Around this same time, I chose a photography class in high school as one of my electives. I immediately fell in love with photography, and over the next three years, spent much of my free time outside of school shooting photographs, processing film, and making prints in the darkroom.
During my senior year, I decided to pursue a career in commercial photography. I chose East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University, Commerce) because they had the best Applied Photography program in the state, and were nationally recognized as well. After several internships, and graduating with a Bachelors degree in Photography with a minor in computer science, I took a full-time studio management position at Dick Patrick Studios. Dick has been a mentor and good friend of mine since 1995.
In 2000, I broke out on my own to pursue my own commercial photography career, and have been self-employed ever since.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My career path has not been without struggle, but when I think back I don’t remember very many major obstacles. The early years were challenging, like any new business, but I did get a lot of support from my wife Rebecca and many friends I had made along the way. I think I was also just very determined to make it work.
I kept working to improve my skills and continued to market myself both locally and nationally. I have been very fortunate to work with so many talented people over the years, and garner awards from Graphis, Communication Arts, The Dallas Ad League, Dallas Society of Visual Communications, Photo District News, and many others.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a commercial and advertising photographer specializing in on-location imagery for industrial, agricultural, food/beverage, and medical/pharmaceutical clients around the world. Over the years, I’ve pursued many different personal photographic projects and utilized them to create self-promotion pieces to distribute as marketing material.
My career path changed the most in 2013 with the publication of my first hardback, 275-page book, Portraits of the American Craftsman–a collection of photographs showcasing 30 companies that still handcraft products here in the USA. It began as a personal project that just kept growing. This project was different than my previous personal photographic endeavors due to its size and scope. I started it in 2008, with just a handful of Texas companies, and continued until we had over 30 companies represented from 17 states.
The book transformed my career, attracting many clients that I had always admired. It also created an opportunity to work with like-minded clients which was a career goal of mine from very early on. I’ve now had the honor of photographing so many prestigious companies–names like New Balance Shoes, Wild Turkey Bourbon, Sears Craftsman Tools, Standard Meat Co., Titleist Golf, Trinity Industries, USAA, Pecan Lodge BBQ, Oxxford Clothing Co., Danner Footwear, Amerisource Bergen, 44 Farms, Atmos Energy, Lucchese Boots, and many more.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
I’m really excited about a current project–a 36-page, hand-stitched promo piece that we have just finished printing here in Dallas. It features text and images from an assignment to photograph five family-owned sheep farms producing Merino wool on New Zealand’s South Island. In the piece, I describe my trip and my connection with the country, and more importantly, the farmers we met. New Zealand is beautiful in both terrain and personality.
The families we met on each of the farms we visited were so accommodating; they showed a warmth and hardworking spirit that is to be admired. I was also fascinated with the sheepdogs that are an invaluable part of daily life there. Without these loyal hardworking members of their family, every farmer told me that they could not do their job.
In New Zealand, these dogs truly are a man’s best friend. We will distribute more than 2500 copies of the promotional piece to our clients in mid-April. You can view it, as well as more images from the farms, at TaddMyers.com.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1527 W. State Hwy. 114; STE 500
Grapevine, TX 76051 - Website: TaddMyers.com
- Phone: 214-752-2372
- Email: tmyers@taddmyers.com
- Instagram: @Tadd_Myers
- Facebook: @TaddMyersPhoto
- Twitter: @Tadd_Myers
Image Credit:
Tadd Myers – TaddMyers.com; O & H Brand Design – OHBD.com; Ussery Printing – UsseryPrinting.com; Mohawk Paper – MohawkConnections.com; Clampitt Paper – Clampitt.com; Jeff Whitlock – JeffWhitlockDigitalArtist.com; Global Merino – GlobalMerino.com; SH8 Merino
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
