We recently connected with Ben Lucas and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

I wish education was affordable again. There are many careers where you want the person doing it to have a degree. I want to know my surgeon is licensed, and the bridge I’m driving over was designed by someone who knows it won’t fall down. When it comes to a life in the arts, literally no one cares if you have a degree. I have never been asked once if I had one (I do). But in the words of Mark Twain, I never let schooling interfere with my education. What’s important is that you learn all of the in’s and out’s of your art. Do workshops. Take classes. Live, sleep, breath your art. Learn everything you can about it until you talk about it in your sleep (which I can attest, I have, much to my wife’s detriment.) Maybe getting a degree is the right path for you, but it isn’t the only one.

The most important thing in if you’re looking at a career in photography is to learn everything you can, get to know as many people as you can, and show that not only can you make good work, but you can make good work consistently, even when everything on set seems to be going wrong and the inspiration hasn’t struck like lightning. You still have a client to take care of and a job to do. The huge difference between an okay photographer and a master is consistency. The only way to gain that consistency is practice and knowledge.

Ben, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Ben Lucas, a Tacoma based commercial portrait and wedding photographer. I studied photography at the University of Washington, and have been in business for the last 10+ years. The three main things I shoot are weddings, portraits, and product photography.

I did go to school for photography, but I learned almost everything I know outside the classroom, reading every book and attending every workshop I could get my hands on. Early in my career, I worked with modeling agencies and casting directors learning everything about how our bodies work: posing, angles, micro-expressions. My shooting approach is very direct, taking that extra second to raise a good photo up to extraordinary. I want every photo that leaves my studio to be magazine cover quality.

At age 20, on the day of my college graduation, instead of attending I was shooting my first wedding. A few years later, I worked as a photo retoucher at another company while I worked to make my fledgling business pay the bills. We mostly shot product photography at that studio, and there I got the opportunity to watch a master at work. The lead photographer had been doing the same thing, day in, day out, since the 70s. I got to learn the practical aspects of the job. Everything from the proper way to light reflective objects, to how to deal with difficult clients, to what is involved with commercial projects on a massive scale. Once such job we did for Amazon, the invoice was well into 6 figures, and it was eye opening to see how they balanced technical expertise with solving the clients problem to bring in the big bucks.

After that company shuttered its doors, I was on my own again, with much more insider knowledge than before. I continued to shoot weddings, headshots, and portraits, but I sought out bigger brands to work with, armed with only my personality and my portfolio, and continued to grow my business, and now I’ve worked with Amazon, Costco, Leatherman, Nintendo, Intel, Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, and others.

The best way to get work is to solve someone’s problem. In my off time, I volunteered with the Star Wars costuming organization, known as the 501st. I noticed that all of the costumers in the group would spend countless hours (and considerable amounts of money, often thousands of dollars) on even a single costume. And most of the people there hand multiple if not dozens of different costumes.

But did they have photos of those costumes? Maybe one with a cellphone at best. Or a blurry shot under the neon glow of a convention’s florescent lighting, complete with random strangers in the background. So I added one more prong to my business. How could I bring high quality photography to all of these costumers? And as my involvement in the cosplay community grew, I knew there was a huge demand for quality photography at an affordable price. So I started up Triple Click Photo, a photobooth that was designed specifically for cosplayers. It takes less than a minute, but they get three different looks all from the same pose, with an experienced photographer behind the camera to guide their poses. Photobooth almost feels like a misnomer, because it is a professional photoshoot on the convention floor, in 60 seconds or less.

The thing I’ve been most proud of in my business has been my ability to say “yes” to client requests when others say no. That’s not to say that I’ve been a doormat, or the customer is always right. But rather I’m proud of my ability to solve a clients problem when other photographers lack the ability to help. “Can you live stream all of the photos at our wedding?” A difficult prospect, certainly, mixed with both technical and logistical challenges, to make every photo for an hour absolutely perfect with no mis-clicks or blinks. “What would it take to photograph all of our bicycle accessories, so customers could preview their customization on their order, regardless of which model or color they choose?” Another nearly overwhelming task that required creativity, organization, and not only a knowledge of photography, editing, and colorways, but also of website coding so I knew how the elements would interact with each other once the devs got to work.

On my website, I try to show my expertise. On my YouTube channel, I try to share my knowledge with other photographers. And in person, I try to understand people, so I can see how I can solve their problem. Whether that’s capturing wedding memories on a day with no second chances, building a catalog of photos for a client to sell their products, or making a cosplayer feel amazing with great photos of themselves at a price point anyone can afford, that’s really what you need to do to be successful in any business. Find your people, and solve their problems.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I graduated school right at the height of the housing market crash. The college fund my parents set up was depleted overnight, and when I graduated school, things would only get harder from there. I was almost on the verge of being able to pay my rent from my photography when we had another recession, and my business had to practically start over. Only a couple years later, it’s now Jan 2020, I had 14 weddings booked that summer in addition to half a dozen conventions that wanted my photobooth.

All of the conventions closed. No photobooths to be done. All of the weddings were cancelled. Large gatherings weren’t allowed. I went from “best year yet” to “haven’t worked in 18 months.”

In 2019, half of my income was from weddings. The other half was from everything else combined. With all of the uncertainty of 2020, and not knowing when things would return to normal, everyone on the planet had to pivot, myself included. I leaned a lot more into product photography, and started up a podcast for other photographers. I am a firm believer that a photographer that does everything under the sun can’t be that good at any of them. When you’re getting married, you want a specialist, not someone who works for big tech and shoots one or two weddings per year on the side. But, I needed to eat, so I needed to diversify.

So to diversify but still be known as someone who does that one thing really well, I needed to find the thread that tied them all together. For me, that was making people look good. I still do a fair amount of weddings, but they take up less of my business than they used to. I do far more headshots, boudoir photography, and cosplay photography than I did 5 years ago. So I make people look good, and shoot small shiny things. I think that’s still focused enough to still consider myself a specialist.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

If you’re going into art because you think it’s easy money, think again. Sure, you might be able to trick one client into hiring you. But doing it for years? If you want to become a doctor or engineer, you need to go to years of school and get licensing and accreditation, and have large amounts of capital if you want to strike out on your own. But “anyone can buy a camera”, right?

Being a photographer comes with its own challenges. Not only do you have a significant amount of overhead in physical gear, but the increase in technology that get better every year when the camera is set to “auto” and A.I. promises to edit your photos for you actually means it gets harder to sell your services.

I shoot weddings because I love it. They are long hours on your feet, an infinite amount of time spent on your computer, and turning down work because there is only one of you and only so many days in a year. An easy paycheck, they are not. The exact same thing can be said for running photos at conventions. And to win (and keep) a commercial photography project, you need to have all of the technical expertise and customer service skills honed to perfection, or you’ll easy lose that job to someone who can do it faster and cheaper.

You do a career in the arts because you love it. And every day, when you’re on the verge of quitting in favor of a “real” job, you keep doing it because the world needs your art. Art nourishes the soul, both the people who enjoy it, and the people who make it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nomcreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/NOMcreative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NOMcreative
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NOMcreative

Image Credits

Ben Lucas of NOM Creative