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Just A Little Story

Here is a little story about a recent photo shoot I did. A friend connected me with another friend who is a world renowned pianist.

He tells me that their “photographer friend” can’t shoot their show tomorrow night. Mind you this is 11:30 the night before. So they turned to me and asked if I would like to shoot.

I said sure, I would love to shoot. Give me a few ideas on what you had in mind. They told me what they were looking for and I said “let me do my thing, go where I want to go, do what I want to do and you will get a great photo story”.

Next question, “How much do you cost”. My answer, put some money in an envelope and hand it to me tomorrow, whatever is in there is in there.

I just love going to shoot personal work and being able to do my thing. I have a very good feel for what someone is looking for based off of a short conversation. As long as they do their thing and I do mine they tend to be happy.

I delivered all the images as 1500 pixel jpegs and let them know they can use them online without an issue. I also said if you need some higher res ones for any other usage please let me know and I will send them over.

Did they hand me that white envelope, yes. Does it matter what was in there, no. I didn’t do the shoot for the money, I did the shoot to create and be around other creative people who I may work with in the future.

I want you all to know that I will do the best job I can no matter if I am getting paid $10,000 or $10. My goal every time I go out is to get the shots that tell that story I am looking to capture.

Here is what makes it more worth while. “Jared- I am overwhelmed… all of the photos are incredible. I would like to use some of these for our website, how should I credit you? Again, many many thanks for sharing your talents. -Brian”

That’s it, end of story.

PS. I will share what I created that night with you sometime soon.