Today we’d like to introduce you to Pha Trinh.
Hi Pha, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Long story short, for the longest time, I’ve struggled to find my career path, one that I would feel passionate about and while with the pressure of being the oldest in the family and being the first generation in America to make something of myself, the responsibility on my shoulder was quite heavy. Though I did have it easy in a sense where my parents didn’t force me to be a doctor, dentist, lawyer as many other Asian parents would, though it is a double edge sword, I had no sense of directions or a path to follow. Throughout my 20s I was trying different jobs and taking classes for different major to see what I wanted to do with my career, but nothing seems to stick.
As time passed, I felt like I was running out of time, my financial situation was up and down, I felt so lost and behind compared to my friends who have everything figured out, married, and living an independent life. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I had a shift in my career decision. A lot of people are working from home and/or starting their own business and so I wanted to do the same. I started valuing my time more; not working for someone else, and wasting time in traffic every day was my biggest motivator to do something for myself.
For the last few years, I was learning everything I can to become an entrepreneur. So, I did a lot of self-taught, YouTube was my best friend; it was the closest thing to having a mentor. I was learning e-commerce, drop shipping, affiliate marketing, social media marketing, ad-agency, YouTube videos while using fiverr to get some freelance work in the meantime. When I thought things were looking up, boom, I was hospitalized for an auto immune system failure, unable to drive or do any kind of physical work. To the point where I couldn’t feed myself, I felt even more useless. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Not knowing what’s to become of me, I thought this was it… but luckily, my body started to recover on its own after a month, took 3 months to get back to normal.
I was blessed and was back doing everything I loved to do again. Back onto the saddle, I went! I had a mantra that kept me moving forward. Any time I face a challenge, I would say to myself, “things are hard at first only because you don’t know the how-to.”, “If he/she can do it, then I can too, it just requires me to put in the work.” Time and time again, I reminded myself, and it kept me going.
I started posting more of my photos for fun, little did I know that spiraled into a career, a business, something I’ve been longing since forever. Photography was a hobby for me, and I’ve always tinkered with it, but I hadn’t discovered what to do with them. It wasn’t until I saw videos of photographer retouching their photos for beauty portraits and the way they use only one light source to make so many different looks that creativity inspired me to pursue photography again. One small shoot led to the next, had an opportunity to second shoot a wedding, and that had open so many more opportunities for me. I was able to make connections with old friends, one conversation to the next, through word of mouth that I’m a photographer, I started to get more and more gig.
Now I’m at a point where I’m very happy about my career; I’m doing what I love, and no more stress. Making my own hours, socializing with people while I work, make connections which lead to more opportunities. The hill is very high up still, but it’s a damn good mountain to be climbing on.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s really been a bumpy ride. Things were going right for a good while, but there’s always challenges throughout our life. How you take that challenge and do with it will determine your outcome.
My biggest turning point in my life would be my very first break-up of almost 7 years. I took that time to better myself, be more in tune of myself, become more aware of my surroundings, reset my mindset to better make decisions.
The second turning point was the pandemic. I feel like it enables me to hit the reset button on my career. Start new and fresh, with a different mindset on how to make money. I stopped looking at jobs, and I held out until I was able to create a business for myself. I had only $7 in my bank account at one point, but I refuse to get a job because I don’t want to go back onto the hamster wheel.
Thirdly was my career path. I’ve worked as an accountant, a waiter, an electrician, a personal trainer, I’ve tried coding and even sold ice cream for a summer. I’ve tried so many different workspace and I couldn’t find a passion doing them. But I know I’m an artist, I just couldn’t find the right vehicle to express that until I found photography.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve always seen myself as a creative person. I applied creativity to everything I’ve done thus far. Whether it being mcguyver at home trying to fix things on a budget, taking another’s idea with mine and make something of it. I learned how to draw pretty early on, and that passion stuck with me throughout my career. Thinking back, the most compliments I had was on the things I come up with. Whether it be for a creative project or solving a problem.
Most of my career had been a graphic designer. I’m really efficient in photoshop, it’s an awesome tool express my creativity, but I fell out of that path, I didn’t know how to grow as an artist. I had plans to put those creativity into game designing, but things didn’t work out.
Now photography is my new outlet. A new journey I’ve been so passionate about taking and learning all there is to the art of photography. There’s just so many different paths to become a photographer. You can shoot landscape, portraits, stills object and within those category you can shoot for weddings, private events, family portraits, commercial campaign for beauty, fashion, makeup, food, bands, and the list goes on.
I’ve slowly narrowed down my attention to studio work. In this space, my creativity comes out. I am at 100% in control of the outcome of the image. Unlike shooting out in natural lights, I create where the light cast on my subject any time of day. In natural light, you’re at the mercy of the unpredictable weather. Adding onto shooting an image, I can further manipulate the image to my imagination with tools such as photoshop.
I’m just at the beginning of my journey and still discovering my “thing” as a photographer.
What makes you happy?
To me, happiness is an accumulative of things in my life that meets my standard wants and needs. Those things are measured by Health > Wealth > Love = Happiness.
We all know health has to come first; without it, you can’t make anything of yourself or care for the people you love, take care of yourself first. Workout and eat right, the basics, keep your body running healthy and strong.
Wealth isn’t about just being rich with an abundance of money. You can win a lottery overnight and be rich, but without the knowledge to spend your money, you’ll be broke again. Know how the world works, learn and re-learn new things, continue to adapt to the world. Create your own wealth.
Who isn’t crazy for love!?! The connection we’re able to make with another person is something unique and very special. I do believe there is someone for everyone in this world, be patience with it, don’t rush the process, learn when to let go, have the courage to go for whom you want, and keep building the relationship, no matter where you are in that relationship. All of these decision you make can ruin the connection or create something you’ll cherish forever. A bloody wild game we hate but love to play.
Can you find happiness without one of these pillars missing in your life?
Contact Info:
- Website: pha-tography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phatograffy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phatrinh87
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/phatograffy
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pha-trinh-photography-san-diego
