We recently connected with Casey Wilson and have shared our conversation below.

Casey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

Navigating the photography industry is an immense task, but one that you’ll never look back on because it’ll change your life forever. It’s a constant process of growing and learning how to handle new situations that constantly arise. And even though so many friends and mentors gave me advice, it was hard to know what they would be right about, so I didn’t always listen. But if I were able to start all over today, I would really listen and follow along because I knew I should have been taking their advice, I just didn’t have the motivation and wisdom to put it into practice.

Of course I had a portfolio of work and if you don’t already have that, I think it should be a given that you need a selection of your best work available to send to a client at any given moment. Otherwise, they won’t know what you’re capable of and won’t see any potential in you. But after getting my first opportunity and being asked what my rates were, it took days to figure out what I was going to ask for and I absolutely didn’t ask for enough. Everyone always tells you to ask for what you’re worth, but how do you know what that number is if you’ve never been hired before? For me, it was doing tons and tons of research. From asking other photographers for advice, watching videos, and reading blog posts, I finally came up with an amount that aligned with the client’s budget and ever since then, we’ve continued working together and I’ve been able to consistently increase my rates. However, if I were to pass along any advice, I’d say do the research before you even begin reaching out to clients because otherwise you’ll be filled with so much unnecessary stress and anxiety. Nowadays, it’s never been easier to essentially copy and paste a document with my rates to every new client I get in contact with.

After that, I wish I would have thought about optimizing my workflow earlier on in my career. My first photoshoot consisted of taking hundreds of photos, which I then edited and sent over, resulting in the client being incredibly overwhelmed. Only to find out, they needed 10 photos and the rest were simply being left on my hard drive to never be used or seen. Luckily, I decided to repurpose the work and use it on my social media to help boost my portfolio. Ever since then, I’ve either asked the client how many photos they’d like to use and then send maybe double that amount so they still have a selection to choose from. Or I copy and paste an edit onto each photo, sending it to the client, and then waiting to hear back about which ones they’d like me to really focus in on and spend my time editing even further. In this way, I’m not wasting my time editing hundreds of photos, but rather spending my time making the best-of-the best photos absolutely perfect.

Whether it’s your first time attempting to become a professional photographer or you’ve been in the industry for a while and want to regroup and make everything more efficient. I think we can all learn from one another and constantly be pushing to better ourselves and improve the way we work with clients to get them the best photographs available.

Casey, 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?

My name is Casey Wilson and I’m a food/beverage photographer who specializes in fine dining. I got into this industry by reaching out to a local photographer whom worked with some of the biggest clients that I only ever dreamed of working with. He was kind enough to let me assist a photoshoot and, all thanks to perfect timing, he was hoping to focus on other photography and was looking to move on from working with these restaurants. The rest is history and I’ve been lucky enough to be the main photographer for a number of fine dining restaurants that I’ve always wanted to work with. Nowadays, I’ve been able to consistently gain new clients through word of mouth as well as from restaurants seeing my work for other clients and wanting to achieve the same photographs of their own dishes/chefs. I’m so proud of everyone I work with and I’m constantly working to improve my photography/editing which only comes with time and practice. Each photoshoot I treat as if it were my first and always try to produce better work than what I’ve previously done. Communication is so important and while the job requires producing great images, I think being able to connect with the client and also everyone that works within the restaurants helps me to build connections and always have something to talk about while I’m working. While I can focus and not talk to anyone, I think the slow times in between can become awkward if you aren’t able to talk with those around you and have enjoyable conversations. Not to mention, it makes it so much easier for a client to be comfortable with you if they’ve never been in front of a camera.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Obtaining the clients that I dream of working with continues to be the biggest challenge for me; however getting new clients, in general, seems to occur naturally. I may not get to work with new clients that I really want to produce images for, but nearly every new client that aligns with my niche helps to push my career in the direction I want it to go. Through word of mouth, I’ve had a number of clients reach out to me because they’re in the restaurant industry and constantly look at what other restaurants are doing that’s helping them to grow. In terms of photography, it’s so easy for an owner to look at other social media accounts and immediately see who does all of their photography through being tagged in images. With this, I’ve always had new clients reaching out in the hopes that I can recreate my work at their restaurant. I always agree to these shoots because it helps expand, not only my portfolio, but also my reach so that other businesses see that I’m photographing everyone else and they want to be a part of it. In terms of working with the clients that I truly want to, I’ve been able to secure a few new accounts after showing them the list of other businesses that I’ve worked with. They see that I put in the work and have been hired by so many people they know, that they trust I’ll provide exactly what I set out to do.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’m always driven by the goal of creating new work that’s never been seen before. All day long, we see images through social media, advertisements, and successful marketing. I want to be a part of that inspiration. It’s one thing to try and recreate someone else’s work, but I get all of my motivation through the idea of trying to be a person of inspiration and creating new images that motivate others to being pursuing photography. The industry will never stop growing and the world will always have a need for beautiful images, so rather than dragging along and creating the same photos through copy and pasting edit presets that I’ve saved, I always start every new job fresh. From the RAW image, I want to focus on a specific look and style that I’m going for and begin editing from scratch in the hopes that I’ll discover something new about my workflow and end up creating a photograph that I’ve so proud of and never could have imaged.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.caseywilsonphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseywlsn/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywilsonphoto/

Image Credits
Casey Wilson