We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Curtis Smith, Jr. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Curtis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge in the business right now is so many people think they can just start out making money. But you have to work and market yourself , I have had other photographers coming and undercut my price just to get the business. You also have a market where everyone is trying to get ahead and make a name for themselves. I don’t like to be out in the for front like that I have models I use for the for front and I stay in the back ground for most of the marketing. Also like I said earlier its so many people that have a camera now and think they can just take a photo. What happens is that they charge low and mess up the photos and then someone like me have to fix them. I have had a lot of customers come to me to fix issues with photos where the person didn’t understand the functions of photography. I don’t mind helping other photographers out that may not understand the uses and functions so that’s why I have like an intern program that go to jobs with me to learn.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well I started doing photography back in 2008 while I was part of RITS Car Club. I used to take photos at the show and post them on some of the sites. So people started noticing the photos and asked me if I was professional. So with people pushing me I purchase my first DSLR professional camera in 2009. So from there I started working with models shooting them and learning the craft to help with poses and themes to shoot. So my cousin started a plus size model group so I started shooting them and another photographer I met through them we started shooting them together. So me and her started working together in 2010. So probably around 2012 I partnered with another photographer that had a studio and he worked mostly on the boudior side. I learned a lot from him and I will always be thankful to him for showing me the ropes with boudior. After that I branched out into other levels of photography from real estate to promotional. I always want to make sure my clients are happy with my service. What sets me apart from other photographers is that I am a people person and professional at the same time. One of the things I am most proud of is I have been in over 100 magazines, I have had some of my work and models in commercials. I love doing photography and I have studied and talked to older photographers that has been doing it for years. I will never say I am great photographer, or even the best but I will say I am a very good photographer. I always looks to do better and learn more and I just enjoy it. When it gets to much for me the older I get I have started showing my kids the ropes because I will passing it down to them one day.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One backstory is that in about five years after I started I had a more established photographer started noticing my work. We knew people in the same circle and when my work started coming out he had a problem with that. So I was out shooting in the area by his studio and he found out. So he came out and told me to stop and the only way he would let me continue to shoot by his studio is if I come work for him even though I my own established name and brand. His studio was in an outdoor mall area so I told him no thank you and I had the right to shoot there. So that showed me that my work was getting recognized and I was very proud of the moment. Even though I turned him down it was good to get noticed by another photographer that was in the game for over thirty years.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was sharing a studio with a another photographer and even though he showed me a lot and we hung out and everything in the end I found out that he had conned some people without me knowing so we got kicked out the studio and It has been hard for me to find another one mostly because of the cost. So this caused me to not trust other photographers for a little while that wanted to work with me. But after that I rebranded myself and kept it moving and I still have a good reputation and loyal clients but I had to do a lot of soul searching after that and now and just thankful to be able to do it and have something set up for my kids.

Contact Info:

• Website: facebook.com\csjportraits
• Instagram: instagram.com\csjportraits
• Twitter: twitter.com\csjportraits
• Youtube: coming soon
• Other: more social media will be coming soon so be on the lookout.