We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zack Morris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zack, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

It’s funny looking back at how I got to where I am, and it’s a wide array of things that taught me what I know now. I’ve been developing my style as a photographer for the last 10 years, so it has taken lots of experimenting and learning from other photographers in creating my own unique artistic style. The biggest part to my professional development, as cliché as it sounds, has been: practice, practice, practice. The more time I spent getting out there, taking photographs, and figuring out my style, the better I got. I started with the easiest things to photograph, which were inanimate objects: buildings, food, household wares, things like that. Photographing things that didn’t move helped me start to understanding how to use a camera, and when I did certain combinations of arrangements, added lighting and specific backdrops, it resulted in specific results. Using lenses at different distances allowed me to find out how to make the subject stand out more and more from the background, or create specific perspectival results. To this day, I’m still playing with these combinations to create specific looks that I wanted in the finished products, and I can definitely see growth and improvement.

I will say the one thing that slowed my progress the most, was my own personal fear and insecurity. I was scared for a long time to start photographing people, because I thought I didn’t know how to, or that I wasn’t good at photographing people. I finally forced myself to do a shoot with a model, and that was when I realized that I could do it, and I could do it well. From that moment on, I refused to doubt myself, and saw every new thing as an opportunity to grow. I started expanding my creative process developing new and amazing ideas for shoots with a wider range of models. I have built solid friendships and work relationships with models all over Texas, which have also led to more paying jobs. Sometimes all you need to do is tackle the fear head on, and trust your abilities.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Zack Morris, and I am a design professional at an architecture firm, with a growing photography business on the side. Photography originally was not in my mind as a possible business, but was an interest of mine while I was pursuing my undergrad at Texas A&M. I would loan out one of the schools cameras and take photos around campus in my off-time. It was a fun and relaxing thing to do during the stress of projects and final exams. When I graduated in 2010, my interest became more of a career alternative when I was unable to find entry level jobs in my field, due to the recession. I went back and took professional development courses at the University of Texas at Arlington to hone my skills and expand my understanding of what photography was.

My photography is not limited to just one area, I try to provide a wealth of options and services for anyone’s needs. From weddings to pet photos, I try to expand my portfolio as much as I can in order to increase my abilities with a camera. I find that as I push my limits and try new ideas, my photos continue to get better. One good example of this actually happened recently. I had scheduled a shoot, and we had to change venues last second due to pouring rain. We relocated to a nearby parking garage, and I had to come up with a theme and story on the fly. The way I work, I create a story and theme, which helps create a state of mind for the model, similar to how directors get the emotional response and interaction in movies. The young lady was very flexible and patient with me, since we had worked with each other several times before. The shoot was originally themed to be a “Diamond in the Rough,” where she was wearing a beautiful dress in a worn down part of a downtown area. When we went to the garage, the theme I came up with became “Greatest Night Ever,” where my model expressed the story that she had gone to prom, and ended up with the boy of her dreams. I took a lot of ideas from movies like 16 Candles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and several other teen movies from the 80s and early 90s. The shots were coming out great, until we got into the elevator, where the lighting and reflective surfaces of the elevator created these incredible shots that I am incredibly proud of, and would brag they are some of the best I had ever taken in my career.

As a photographer, I refuse to limit my focus, because you never know what art you can create when you push yourself out of your comfort zone. When I work with a client, whether its a wedding or an artistic shoot, I try to bring the best out of my subject, by making them feel comfortable and letting them do what feels natural to them. Everyone’s comfort level is different, so I never force them to go too far beyond what they feel comfortable doing in their everyday life. As we build a rapport, it becomes easier and easier for the subject to be themselves, which creates some of the best photographs. Best example is the smile, posed smiles are one thing, and can be very pretty, but I have seen that the smile that follows a laugh is the most natural smile a person has. It’s relaxed, they aren’t thinking about what they look like, they are just being themselves. That is what I want to capture with my camera every single time, if I can.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social Media has been very helpful in my growth as a professional, as well as an artist. I originally started my accounts, and followed every single photographer I found, and started saving photos I liked and saving them for me to reference as I started doing more and more photo shoots. I was invited to a few engagement groups, which helped me build a network of followers from all over the world. Those were helpful, but I’ve seen that the biggest thing that helps grow your following, is just be yourself. Post what you like, and people will find it, and like it. For me, social Media helped more in building a network of people to work with, because every model I ever worked with, I reached out to them via DM, and asked if they would like to collaborate. Some said only if I could pay their rate, and others jumped at the chance. As time has gone on, some have reached out to me, asking to work with me specifically because they loved my style. That is when you know you are doing something right as a creative.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

Being a creative, nothing matters than progressing the art. Every shoot I do, I want to push myself to create something unique and beautiful, that I can say that I am proud of. So far, I have been proud of at least one photo from each and every shoot I’ve done. Not every shoot is a homerun, but that’s the nature of the business. To expand the baseball analogy further, some shoots are singles, some are doubles, and hopefully very rarely, you strike out. You just have to learn to take away something from each and every shoot, whether its good or bad. If you stop learning, then that’s when you will fail. If you are pursuing recognition and praise from the outside world, you need to reevaluate your goals. You will never be satisfied with praise from others, because the world is subjective, and you can be hot one second, then thrown out the next. The only person that you should seek praise from, is the client. If you can make your client happy, you will continue to get work. You can’t feed your family with praise from strangers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zmphoto.smugmug.com
• Instagram: @zmorrisphoto
• Facebook: ZMorrisphoto
• Twitter: @zackmorrisphoto

Image Credits
All photos were taken by me.