Encouragement

Encouragement feels good. But, more than just feeling good, it’s valuable. It lets you know when you’re doing something right. Criticism can be just as valuable, because it tells you when you’re doing something wrong, or at least just not appreciated by the audience providing it. Communication on your performance is invaluable, whether positive or negative…but encouragement just feels so much better.

As a commercial photographer, you NEED feedback in whatever form you can get it. And, it behooves a photographer to grow thick skin, in order to be able to receive, and make good use of feedback no matter how it’s delivered. Even if a prospective client or active clients respond with “uh, yeah, this is OK,” or worse yet “uh, this isn’t very good,” I try to mine that communication for all the information I can get on how to hit that particular target’s bullseye. It’s a gift, even if it hurts at first. 

And you have to really be listening to your clients in order to understand not only what they’re saying, but the subtext of what they’re saying. That’s the way to find out how to meet their needs, even if they’re not communicated very clearly..

In the case of this instagram post of a product shot I made for a popular PNW manufacturer, although there was no direct communication, their use of my imagery was all the encouragement I needed. When a client uses your imagery to represent their product and company on social media, print, or whatever, it means you understood what their branding plan was, and achieved it. And, what feels better than knowing that you made a client happy?

This manufacturer is well outside my normal haunts of the Kitsap Peninsula, but I was still able to figure out what they needed. If you are in Port Orchard, Belfast, Gorst, Bremerton, Silverdale,  Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, Kingston or Hansville, gettin to know your company will be even easier. Give me a chance to understand your vision, and how STONEFIELD PHOTO can turn it into real, live imagery that will reach your intended customers.