We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edward McGrath. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edward below.

Edward, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

This is something that I think about regularly as a creative and a business owner. I do believe that being successful is a variety of things, but yet pretty simple. Since I started on my journey, I have worked to stay true to who I am and what I do. As I grow I have had to learn to say no more. Even to things I once said yes too. This is difficult, because that is not always easy to do.

A couple of quotes that I keep in the back of my mind are these. The first one is “80% of success is just showing up.”

This is a big one for me in my industry. I cannot tell you how many photography jobs I have gotten because the other guy cancelled last minute on a client. In the world of photography this seems to be common unfortunately.

My wife, who is also my partner in life and business have developed a minute man mindset for the next job. When we come home after a job we immediately put all batteries on charge so that we’re ready to go. We always have extra batteries charged and ready to go in a moments notice. We have on many occasions gotten calls in desperation because someone didn’t show up to a gig. It takes us as little as ten minutes to get dressed and put gear together and be on the road. Staying ready is key to this.

The second quote is by Richard Branson. “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”

I have taken this approach in my work countless times. I can get away with it often, because photography job can and do vary often. We often have to capture a person’s vision with being at ground level in knowledge of how to do it. I am confident in this because I know how to look for the answer, and where to look to learn how to do it. Over the years this has never been an unsuccessful approach.

Other things I count towards being successful is quality, adaptability, flexibility, being easy to work with, support, and accountability. I will keep these as short as I can because these are subjects that I can talk for hours on end about.

Quality of work will absolutely help with success. Clients want to know what they’re going to get when they hire us. We continually seek to improve our quality regularly. One mistake I see a lot of people make is they only work on things that they do when they get hired for that specific thing. Making time to learn and improve is key. It will definitely help get there quicker.

Adaptability and Flexibility- every client is different, and their situations are different, and sometimes we have to really adapt to what they present us. We have a couple of different studio set ups and we have an ideal size for our set up that we need, and even though we express what we need it can easily get lost in planning. Being able to work with what is put in front of us is a key to successful flexibility. You still have to be able to be flexible without compromising quality.

Being Easy To Work With- This is one thing that has set us a part from others in our industry. Sure our clients need us, and they trust us, but they also don’t want to have to continually fight us along the way. In a very saturated industry such as photography, there is always someone else waiting to get your spot. Providing outstanding customer service and care is essential for repeat business with many clients. We try to make our interactions with clients fun and simple. We deal with a lot of event planners and to them we’re a relief when they know we’re going to be insanely easy to work with. Once trust is established and maintained the rest is simple. This can’t happen easily if we make every interaction with them an ordeal or a process.

Support and Accountability- I could not do what I do without the support of my wife and those we work with. Being able to know I have the support of my wife gives me strength to to push forward, because we do it together, and it helps us grow our company grow at a healthy pace.

Being accountable is a big one. I have learned through the years that accepting responsibility for mistakes helps me to learn from them. Ignoring and running from them only creates more issues. Owning a problem will in many cases help to strengthen relationships. Sometimes mistakes destroy relationships, but more times than not it shows we’re human, and can slip up. Being easy to work with can help with this. If a company is hard to work with and makes a mistake it’s a lot harder to maintain the relationship.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I can remember when I came across the magazine Birds and Blooms. The pictures were always very stunning and colorful. I knew that was what I wanted to do, so at the age of five I started asking for a camera. I think I was about eight when my mother actually gave in and got me a little Kodak camera. I have taken pics off and on my entire life, but didn’t really get into photography seriously until around the age of thirty-six.

Somewhere around 2011 I got a really nice fourteen megapixel Olympus point and shoot camera with a fifty times zoom, and took it to Seaworld. I took a picture of a bird. I was really proud of that photo, and still am. At that time I was speaking regularly with a friend of mine who was actually a professional photographer at the time. I showed her the photos from that trip, and she started asking me questions about the camera and what I used etc. I explained to her what camera I used and she asked, “How is that not a dslr camera?” I asked what that was. See, I liked photography, buy didnt have a real clue about gear.

After explaining what a DSLR camera is I started looking at them. Overwhelming is an understatement when it comes to deciding what to get. I finally settled on a Canon Rebel T3i I found in the Fingerhut catalog, and ordered the bundle they offered, and in July of 2013 I became the owner of my first DSLR. When I received the camera I think I photographed every bird, flower, and bug around my house and at parks in the area.

Slowly but surely I began to start working with people doing model shoots, and I also started photographing bands and live music. I feel like I got pretty good with it, and that it definitely helped me along the way. It all was a lot to learn, but I stuck with it.

One day at work a friend asked me to photograph their wedding. I think in life I may have been to two weddings ever, so the fear was there. She was confident I would be ok, and assured me I’d do fine. I agreed to do it and then as time went on more weddings would come.

Then something happened that would change my life for the better although I had no idea how much impact that night would have on my life. A local band I frequently shot asked me to shoot a show for them at a place in Destin Florida called Club L.A. As I was shooting as planned I was almost kicked out and there was a girl named Nikki there that was the house photographer and was trying to help get it sorted out that I was supposed to be there. So she went from being bossy to helpful. I still joke that she tried to get me kicked out, so in returned I pursued her. She wouldn’t let me call our first date a date so I said, “well how about a kidnapping.” She said yes, and the rest is history.

I started dragging her to weddings with me and together we have worked to build the business we have today. We are now the photographers for a few different organizations. Emerald Coast Theatre, Northwest Florida Symphony, and Ballet Pensacola just to name a few.

Through the years I have attended several wedding workshops, and done countless tutorials. to get better. Now our primary jobs that we do are weddings, events, headshots, and whatever else comes up. I tell people the only photography we do not do is outer space as well as underwater and that is only because we don’t have the equipment to do so, but given a chance I would.

The one thing that I feel set’s us a part from others is that our skill set is very broad. There is not a lot that we can’t do. We can shoot natural light, or studio lighting. We offer our clients a fully mobile portrait studio that we can setup at just about any location. We can take the set up just about anywhere. We also offer a print on site option as well. These are great for Kids, family and party events. I feel like with the level of competition in our industry its important to offer as much in one place as we can. Our company also works with a couple of different wedding companies and we provide photography and video services for approximately two-hundred and fifty weddings a year.

One of the biggest problems many of our clients have dealt with in the past in inconsistent work. With our methods and processes we are able to deliver a consistent product to our clients. Honestly, if you want to be successful- just be consistent, and always work to improve.

When choosing us, our clients know that we’re going to give them a shoot to remember, and product that they can be proud of. Making our clients look good is not just done by a nice photo. It’s also done by giving their clients an out of this world experience. Making our clients look good to their clients is always on often overlooked goal.

I am most proud that we have an established business now made up of several photographers and videographers that are ready to tackle any job that we’re needed for. We pride ourselves in knowing that when you hire our company and crew that you are in good hands! We love to help!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It is consistent quality, and drive that has helped us build our reputation. People know they can count on us to do our job and to show up. We have a reputation for showing up, being easy to work with, and delivering a quality product. Do these consistently and your business will grow.

We have also had to be honest with ourselves that we may need to do something better. When that comes up we face it and do what we need to do to get better.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

We sometimes come across people who are unfamiliar with our style and how we do things. People see a picture and do not really know what goes into it and assume a specific style can be done by anyone. It is important when looking at a creative to do work that you understand what they currently do.

A good example of this would be the following.

Many photographers shoot with just a camera and maybe a lens or two and use no off camera flash. If your company is looking for studio style headshots for your organization this photographer is not going to be ideal.

Another example is that if a photographer only does studio style work that it doesn’t mean that they will be good at shooting natural light and may struggle to do natural light photography.

Then there is who we are. We do natural light and, as well as studio lighting. We learned these things specifically so that no matter what the lighting situation or need is we can do any of them We can go into most lighting situations and still be able to produce a quality product.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eamphoto.com
• Instagram: @Yaherd_Meigh
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edwardamcgrathphotography

Image Credits
Chelsea Strickland Photography Edward A. McGrath Photography