We were lucky to catch up with David Byrd recently and have shared our conversation below.

David, appreciate you joining us today. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

During the first few years of our first portrait studio, my wife and I struggled to navigate a world of “the wins” and the “not so much wins.” In almost every facet of our business we were very much learning on the job. Learning things like the way to capture the right image that sells, how to sell it and what to sell it on. The only part of the work (for me) that wasn’t a struggle was the Photoshop artwork. Don’t get me wrong, I struggled with it as I am mostly self-taught, but the challenge of finding the tools and techniques was a welcome one. The challenges of everything else in our business – was not.

Our pricing was one of the links in this chain that forever held us to the struggle of achieving success and bolstering optimism to face failure. Price ourselves too high and we risk pushing away what little financial success we had earned. Price too low and well, you get the problems with that. So we stayed precisely in the middle, thinking that was a safe harbor.

It was not.

One day a young couple came to interview us, in consideration of hiring us to photograph their wedding. They had another interview with an undisclosed competitor, right before our meeting. We greeted them, sat them down and I opened with the phrase I always declared to any client that walked through our door, “I want you to look at the wall of artwork behind you.” They would stand and look at approximately 30 plus prints (of varying sizes) on the wall. This was the best of our best work. This was a representation of me as an artist.

“These images represent what you’ll find as we photograph your journey. You can send me all the Pinterest images you want me to replicate, but I will find my own voice and this is what you can expect to see.”

“If you don’t like what you see, then we are not the artists you need to hire for your day and we thank you for your time. If you do like what you see, then let us begin.”

The couple liked what they saw and after a good discussion on details, price and so forth, they signed the contract and gave us their 50% deposit. As the ink was drying they said to us, “you know we just got done interviewing with your competitor.” (They named them, but out of respect, I won’t name them here.)

The couple continued, “Your competitor is amazing and does great work. Your work is better.” I thought this was false praise, because back then I would shy away from any praise of our work. The couple recognized that on my face and continued, “no really – your work is really amazing and we’re lucky to have you – especially since your prices are so cheap!”

I just stared at them. They continued,

“Yeah you are charging us $2,200 and they were going to charge us $5,000 for about half of what you are offering!”

I managed a fake smile and congratulated them on their brilliant consumer success. We bade them farewell and then closed and locked the door to the studio. I then walked into my office, sat on the same couch as the happy young couple and put my head into my hands and cried like a child with a broken heart.

I wouldn’t accept praise. I wouldn’t raise our price. I wouldn’t let people thank me or pay me what I was worth. Because I didn’t believe it myself. I had been riding on fear for so long that I couldn’t see that I was (am) an amazing photographer. I’m an equally amazing Photoshop artist. I am a great human being and care about honor, integrity and kindness. They indeed were lucky to hire me and truly were saving a bunch of money, because of my fear.

My wife and I worked through the rest of that day, well into the night to revamp every-single-price point housed in our studio. We cut down the offerings of time, the excess in our packages – we dared to believe that folks would PAY for what they wanted and that they would want a lot from us.

Our new wedding package pricing went online that next day and the package that we wanted to sell (that had the most value to the consumer) started at $4,500 and offered in that package what we offered in our previous $2,200 package. Within a month we had more inquiries to interview with us for weddings, than we received in the previous season combined.

Was it just because people see intrinsic value in the expensive? No. It was because for the first time we presented our business to the world, like we saw and BELIEVED the intrinsic value in us.

From that moment forward, we have never looked back and the art has only grown since.

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?

When I was a kid I would pin a red bath towel around my neck and jump off the fence. I was convinced that if I could just believe, hard enough, I would take flight – like Superman. I’m forty-four years old and I still am chasing that belief.

I have a background in theatre and film, pursuing a career as an actor and director for a number of years before I turned full time to photography. Photography and Photoshop have been the gateway to share the worlds created in my imagination and it has been a wonderful journey of art and discovery.

My brand is called Reality Reimagined and I focus on creating artwork that tells the story of my client and their imagination. I’ve won a few awards from some of the most venerated and recognized photography institutions across the globe.

In 2022 my specialization is in fantasy photo-manipulation artwork, storytelling boudoir photography and the various adventures found in between. I’m also a full-time educator in the photography industry, teaching at large photography conferences, small community focused workshops and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/c/realityreimagined. I provide one-on-one mentoring for photographers and Photoshop artists, as well as fulfilling freelance artwork for my clients.

Story is everything to me. Knowing your story (no matter the genre of photography) will define the session and craft the images we capture – together. If you want to share your story, your vision then I look forward to the discussion and the road ahead.

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

When I share my artwork on any social media platform, I share the story of how it was created. Not just the teaching tutorial moments, the whole journey. I share why the work was created, why it was important to make it and what my client and I have learned from the experience.

This was just because I thought it was important to do so and I started doing this years ago.

Now I hear that same practice being advised by content creators who are keeping up with the ever changing algorithms of various social media platforms. In regards to the photography industry, it’s no longer acceptable to drop an image and write the copy of “love this killer shot I got!” People want to know the why, they want to know the journey. Prospective clients happen to be people too, so share your stories with your work and foster that connection.

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.

We are all creatives. No matter how much you try to identify yourself as a left-brained individual that couldn’t color, write, paint, photograph, dance, sing and so on. That is simply not true and can never be true.

Here is how I know.

Because I’m really terrible at mathematics. I get almost physically ill (like motion sickness) when I have to do my book-keeping. Yet I can do it – it’s just not very easy for me. I just have to find the right way forward to take a world of the left brain and paint it so my right brain can see it, know it and therefore understand it.

Some of the best photographers in the world are self-proclaimed left brain thinkers. Yet they walk through the artistic (right-brain) industry of photography. They created a systemic approach to the art form; understanding lighting ratios, numbers, Inverse Square Law of lighting, Rule of Thirds for composition and they are really good at their book-keeping too.

They took the painting (of their path into the industry) and broke it down into ones and zeroes and therefore they then could understand it.

We need art in our lives. We need creativity. It’s a part of all of us – just as mathematics will always be, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://realityreimagined.com
• Instagram: @realityreimagined
• Facebook: facebook.com/realityreimagined
• Twitter: @realreimagined
• Youtube: youtube.com/c/realityreimagined
• Other: The Photoshop Composite Series – www.realityreimagined.com/photoshopcompositeseries

Image Credits
Models: Jeff Jackson, Danielle La, Gary Whatley and Astrid Kallsen