It's All Subjective

It's all a matter of personal taste and the client is the only taste that matters when you're marketing and selling your services.

I'll share a simple story to make my point.

I have a niche for SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY. It's my comfort zone. I, like any other self respecting professional SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER, feel I'm one of the best at it. Not because my camera is better, or because I have a special set of skills other photographers don't, but rather because I work a sidelines as good as anyone and go places other photographers won't to get the unique angle or perspective on a shot.

But because of my SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY and my own unique blend of marketing, I have started to have the opportunity to branch out and begin doing some other style jobs.

One such experience was when I received a call from a Monroe, Ohio resident by the name of Kristina Centers. She has seen nothing but sports Photographs from me on http://mainstreetmonroe.com.

Kristina is developing a line of clothing called "FIGHT HER", http://fighther.com , kind of a "WARRIOR CHICK" style t-shirt line.

She wanted to know if I could shoot some pictures of her models as a CINCINNATI PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER for the website. I said sure. To tell you the truth, I was way out of my comfort zone on this one.

So I head out with my NIKON D200, NIKON SB 800 SPEED LIGHT and my GARY FONG LIGHTSPHERE and the bottom line is, the shoot was 4+ hours and at the end of the day, it was a success.

After editing pictures and delivering them to her, and her models...everyone was thrilled and most importantly, the style, look and feel of the pictures fit with the theme and style of her clothing line.

At the end of the day...Client happy...mission accomplished. And as a result, I had some outstanding portrait photography for possibly picking up SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY in MONROE, CINCINNATI or DAYTON, OHIO.

Now to the point I was trying to make.

I have a friend who has worked hard to carve out a niche for themselves as a small time wedding and portrait photographer. And to be honest with you, I really admire that persons tenacity and how far they've come in just a couple of short years. I'm a big fan. However, I rarely see anything my friend shoots that I would allow on my web page or show as portfolio pictures. I really do not like their style.

With that being said, I never offer advice because, "unasked for advice is criticism", but I personally don't think they are very good.

But that's ok, because I am not one of their clients and the clients that they shoot for, think they are outstanding. An at the end of the day, that's all that really counts.

So just for grins, I asked photographer friend to look at my portraits and critique my work. I received comments such as, your lighting is all wrong, white balance is off, top of camera flash did not help, etc.

I was mad for about 5 minutes and then I realized that their opinion really wasn't what mattered, it was the client.

Photographers in general can be very critical of other photographers work. When I was in the Navy and going through photography school, I used to hate hanging out with other photograpraphers, because they were all Ansel Adams in their own minds, and a simple trip to the movies, would turn into a cinematography critique session.

As a PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER, EVENT PHOTOGRAPHER or SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER, at the end of the day, the only opinions that matter, are number 1, your client, number 2 you and then everyone else, to the back of the line.
Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295