pistol of fire….
The below image is still a continuation of the art show I had. I sold this print and I didnt get a chance to scan it, but this image said “… so that’s what it feels like”
sully sullivan photography
Its Sunday!!! Hope everyone has had a great weekend. We actually had some amazing surf here in charleston, the report said 12-17 feet! It was awesome and now I have a terrible rash on my stomach from surfing 3 days in a row! Totally worth it!
Saw Inglorius Basterds the other night, one of the best movies I have ever seen. Loved it!!
Seth, RJ, Bergen and Myself had our first official meeting about our special project we are working on. Things are starting to come together, Im super excited and cannot wait to share it with all of you!
The last post I said I would finish after kickball, but we lost and I was in a terrible mood. Who knew kickball could get you so worked up.
I woke up at 5 AM in a bit of a panic… with all kinds of thoughts running through my head. Mainly work related. This usually happens when I have a ton of editing to do and I get super backed up. The main thing that came to my mind, which was strange, was about clients and how us photographers are “supposed” to interact and handle them.
The thought I was having was of a specific client I had. I got a call to shoot a story for a European magazine, a great magazine I might add, and the deadline is in…. oh tomorrow. I really wanted to do it so I of course agreed. I wish I could show you the emails back and forth with these people. First off I want to say I am by no means complaining or bitching, I am simply sharing to all of you what as photographer’s we also deal with. I would say our time shooting is about 15% and the rest is everything else. I love it no matter what. Back to the story. They send me emails with examples of the story and what they are looking for. Perfect, I can do this, great subjects should be great. OH BOY! I do the shoot, they hate it “not really what they are looking for”. Im a pleaser, so I shoot it again. Get some amazing stuff. I love it!
Lets back track to before the second shoot. I get more “specific” emails. We want light but dark, cool but warm, black but white, daylight but strobes, daytime but at night! What? It was like trying to listen to a dining room table looking for chairs but instead I was searching for a lawnmower that worked underwater?????
So I turned in the images and of course they picked the most obviously boring one. I asked if they were sure thats what they wanted. They said they guess it will work. I was fed up by this point because of all of our hard work to make some great photos.
Never really got any thank you’s or even a copy of the magazine after several attempts to contact them.
About a month or so after the shoot I get a preliminary version of my new website and decide to send it to them for some feedback, hoping they might actually read the email. I get a reply almost instantly. “oh my gosh, sully! Can we please have the photo of blah, blah blah. We love it! when did you do this” Are you effing kidding me!!! Its the shoot I did for you guys.
It turns out the editor did not even go through all of the film I sent them! They just picked the first one they came across. I understand Im not Steven Klein or Ryan Mcginley, but at least look through my work that I do for you. Worst of all, I was not even paid to do the job.
I love my job with all of my heart and just want people to understand how much we as photographers go through to bend over ass backwards for clients to keep them happy so they don’t go on to the next 1 million joe schmoe photographers that does not know what they are doing.
Do you have any crazy client stories? How do you deal with your clients on a daily basis?
Thanks for reading!
Sully