Create as if no one is looking
During the book boudoir sessions, I get to cherry pick quotes to photograph.
Sometimes, these quotes resonate with me on a deeply personal level.
During most book boudoir sessions, I’m working with total creative freedom.
Sure, the author and I devise a strategy beforehand and there are a couple specific must-shoot requests during that process.
By that, I mean specific quotes, illustrations or other specific elements of the book. But, generally speaking, those requirements only account for about 10 percent of the total image portfolio delivered.
The rest is based on what catches my eye, photographs well, and can be leveraged in one way, shape or form by the client.
As a result, I’m pouring through the pages, on the lookout for interesting illustrations, pull quotes, chapter titles, calls-to-action and other interesting design elements that the client can use in their marketing materials to push the book out into the world.
And that’s why I love photographing books so much - there’s so much room to be curious and create.
While photographing The Promise by Jason Hewlett, I came across the page with the pull quote in the photo above, and it immediately grabbed my attention.
Not just because it’s a clean looking quote that would photograph well, and clearly be a useful visual for a piece of online content, but also the sentiment behind the words.
After all, that statement represented exactly what I was doing in the moment:
Creating as if no one else is looking.
It was a serendipitous moment, so I had to include it into the portfolio I sent over to him.
While post-editing the pile of book cover and spine shots, I then circled back around to the photos of the quotes and other illustrations, and landed back on this one.
I paused and reflected on its meaning again.
I realized that the sentiment of these words resonated with me in a way that extended beyond the act of just photographing books…
It also represented a reference to my decision to work with experts in the first place.
You see, for the first few years of my business, I created as if everyone was looking at me.
Insecure, unsure, and with zero creative direction, I merely copied other photographer’s style and approach and figured that sharing my version of their work would eventually land me paid gigs.
Guess what - it didn’t.
When I swore off chasing the tails of other photographers, and looked within myself to discover who I was, the type of work I wanted to create and with whom I wanted to collaborate, that’s when the momentum started.
And the work started coming in.
One solid gig after another, my reputation for serving expert-based business owners grew over time, and I haven’t looked back since.
I spent time developing my approach to serving these folks in a way that only produced the types of visual assets that they needed, but it was produced from a place of total creative freedom.
After all, it’s that mental shift that led me to photographing books in my unique way in the first place 🙂
And, that’s why this pull quote lives in print form on my wall at home as part of a collage of other meaningful phrases taken from other book shoots.
It’s such a beautiful reminder of the value of believing in your own abilities, and the good that can come from betting on yourself in the process…
…not just from a self-serving need to create and get paid, but also because this photo is a valuable asset for my client to be able to spread his own message of transformation found in The Promise.
It’s an awesome win-win - and that, my friends, is a magical place to be 🙂
#yeahabsolutely