Tribe Feature | Michelle VanTine Photography
Miami photographer, Michelle VanTine, has defied the odds and proved to herself, as well as many others, what it takes to be a successful female photographer. In 2004, Michelle started doing photography part-time on the weekends while she worked full-time as an art teacher. For four years, Michelle saved her money until she could become a full-time photographer in 2008. The journey has not always been prosperous or encouraging, but Michelle was always devoted to her work and had faith in her talent. This dedication has truly paid off and now Michelle reaps the benefits of her hard work and is now devoted to helping others promote their brands by providing them with scroll-stopping photos.
In today’s image-obsessed world, a simple iPhone photo just won’t cut it. Michelle knows that visuals are everything when it comes to marketing your brand. You could have a flawless product or service, but if your marketing and visuals don’t attract your customer’s attention, you’re not going to get anywhere. Michelle told us that studies have shown that potential clients form an opinion of a brand within 0.2 seconds of landing on their page. Let’s be real, there’s no time for off-putting photos and graphics in today’s digital world.
Despite being 16 years deep into her career, Michelle continues to strengthen her brand by constantly learning more about photography. Recently, she finished a five-hour-long class just on hair retouching, as well as a 12 hour long class on food photography (one of the most challenging things to photograph).
Michelle’s career is now fruitful and abundant, providing her opportunities to fly out to shoot at places such as Hawaii, Jamaica, and lavish DC rooftop weddings. This prosperous lifestyle was not always something that Michelle could attain. For the first few years after quitting her job as an art teacher and becoming a full-time photographer, Michelle felt the struggle daily. She found herself having to constantly find excuses to skip out on girl’s nights because she just couldn’t afford it. In fact, she recalls a time when simply going to the mall to get her mom a birthday present brought her to tears since she could barely afford it. Through her constant dedication to her passion for photography, Michelle continued to learn and evolve, making her work better and eventually being voted Miami’s 2019 best sports photographer.
While Michelle has tremendous photography of all kinds, her sports photography has set her above the rest in her field.
When most people think of female photographers, they imagine women shooting engagement shoots, weddings, baby showers, or anything consisting of loving emotions. When Michelle took an interest in sports photography, very few people took her seriously. After a year of having her emails ignored, Michelle was finally presented with the opportunity to shoot for the mega obstacle race platform: Spartan. Spartan attracts the highest level athletes from across the world. When Michelle checked in with security at the event, they looked her up and down and asked “Are you shooting the kids race?”, assuming there was no way a woman had what it took to photograph professional athletes. There were five photographers shooting that race and Michelle was the only female photographer. Serena Williams raced that day, as well as Shaun T from Insanity/ Beach Body. The team of photographers were all asked to turn in their photos to a dropbox that Serena and the rest of the athletes could post. Of all the photos submitted by the photographers, 3 were posted. Serena Williams posted one, and Shaun T posted two. All three photos were taken by Michelle.
After that event, Michelle VanTine was written up in Peerspace as one of the Top Sports Photographers in Miami. This put Michelle in the same pool as the photographers for the Heat, The Dolphins, The Panthers, etc. Not only has Michelle gained the respect of sports photographers everywhere, she has also had her work posted by Ginuwine, Ulta, Whole Foods, Fairmont Hotels, Body Glove, Spartan, Tough Mudder, Getty Images, and much more.
If you know the importance of amazing visuals, and are interested in improving your brand by working with Michelle, follow her on Instagram @Michellevantinephotography, or send her an email at contact@michellevantinephotography.com.
