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

Dru, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning my craft was mainly trial and error. I would sit in the studio I worked in in collage and just play with all the gear to see what it did. Now a days everyone has Youtube, Linda.com, and adobe tutorials so they don’t have to play around. Lighting was the most essential skill I feel I learned because it benefits photo and video. Only obstacle I feel that stands in the way of learning more is the need for sleep lol.

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?

I got into the photography industry by just shooting a lot and making proper connections. Pre covid, networking was everything. I provide photo and video services for corporate companies, content creators, and small businesses. So getting out to talk to people was essential. A lot of my clients have trouble being free and themselves on camera and I help them with coming out of their shell. My shoots are usually light and fun with little stress as possible. I think personality sets me apart from others because I just like to have fun. The thing I am most proud of is a good bit of my clients end up becoming friends. We keep in contact outside of work discussions. I think it’s because with my work, I want each image to tell a story or tell something about the individual. Images are the most important thing before someone gets to know you. I want to make sure its a great first impression.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I think NFTs are an interesting idea that really doesn’t make sense but it does lol. I think its just a hype at the moment and probably a way for some folks to launder money but I am definitely trying to get my foot in the game. I have a few pieces up on Opensea and Mineable but don’t really know what I am doing. I am curious to see how NFTs blow up once the Metaverse actually gets going strong.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence isn’t as big as it should/could be and that’s my fault. I have myself spread among too many platforms and its spreading my follows out too much. If I could do it all over again I would put most of my eggs in 2 baskets and then only link to each basket. For example, I would grow my IG and always share to my Twitter/FB. That way I am consistent in my posting so the algorithms will favor me and I. am posting in multiple spaces at one time. I have too many different things going to to many different places and I don’t have a solid foothold on any one. So consistently post and stay engaged with your followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: info@theampimage.com
• Instagram: theampimage
• Facebook: theampimage
• Linkedin: theampimage
• Twitter: theampimage

Image Credits
Colin George