We were lucky to catch up with Jerry Varghese recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jerry, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.
One of my most memorable failures was when I was a young photographer just starting out. I had agreed to shoot my uncle & aunt’s 25th wedding anniversary in Long Island. I spent the evening capturing happy moments and forever memories of family, friends, and acquaintances. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that these memories weren’t so forever. As soon as I was done shooting, I uploaded all my photos onto my MacBook and deleted them off my SD card to make room for more pictures. Once I got back to Atlanta, I tried booting up my computer, and it would not boot up as usual. My heart dropped. Had I lost all of the photos from that day? As a photographer/videographer, you often hear about these horror stories and think, “That could never be me.” Until it is you. I tried everything I could to recover the photos but to no avail; hours of hard work was gone. It had finally happened; my worst nightmare had come to fruition. Along with this failure, I learned one of my first lessons in customer service: transparency and honesty. At first, I considered changing my identity and moving to a country without an extradition treaty so I wouldn’t have to face my uncle and aunt. But in the end, after much self-reflection, I came clean to them. Surprisingly, they were very understanding and still paid me for my time.
Working in the IT Risk field, you often realize that you can do everything by the book, but you can never relinquish all risk. The overarching goal is to mitigate risk by preparing for the worst situations but hoping for the best.
I now keep redundancies on each of my SD cards, often backing them up while at weddings & events. I keep a version saved on a local server and an online server in the event of corruption or failure.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a photographer based out of the metro Atlanta area. As far as my story goes, I’ve always been a creative mind from a young age and spent a lot of my early day’s drawing, painting, and being involved in pretty much anything that kept me creating. I started taking photos at different events during my time at UGA. People started noticing my work, and I began to get much more interest from people wanting me to shoot them. My first clients were friends or peers who wanted to give an amateur a shot, but I’m grateful for them believing in me and giving me a chance because I wouldn’t be where I am without their support. Since then, I’ve explored various modalities of photography to develop my signature style. I specialize in portrait work but also love to shoot weddings, proposals, private events, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
During my shoots, I aim to create a comfortable and welcoming environment for all my clients. Offering my clients suggestions to improve each shot while allowing them the creative freedom to be themselves lets me capture the individual as they envisioned. I strive to create an experience that should be fun and professional while still maintaining a conversation. I often get clients who come to me with little to no experience in front of a camera. It is essential to me that I create a rapport and give them my best energy to get them as comfortable as possible!
Creative minds are their own worst enemies. Photographers and artists are often critically hard on themselves and their work. I am no different; Staying motivated while pursuing the unattainable goal of perfection in my work is challenging, but nothing worth doing is easy. My greatest accomplishment is seeing how far I’ve come. I’m still learning every day, but I love seeing the growth in my work. If only my younger self could see me now.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
This is going to sound really cliche, but it really is the people. I value the real-life connections I’ve made during this journey whether it’s been a client or fellow creatives I worked with. I am fortunate to have worked with some of the kindest clients and some of the most hard-working individuals in the industry.
As a photographer, it’s the most gut-wrenching feeling sending a client their completed wedding album that you spent tireless months editing. Many thoughts go through my head when I release my finished work. “What if they aren’t happy?”, “what if they hate it?”, “what if I ruined their special day?”. The uncertainty still makes me uneasy, but it is truly worthwhile when clients are blown away at how I captured their memories. It gives me great joy to see clients happy with the final products. It’s a great feeling to see clients changing their profile pictures on their social media, framing my work, and even sending holiday cards to their loved ones.
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?
I have definitely spent more sleepless nights editing pictures than partying the nights away. Perspective on what goes into creative work would help clients to understand why artists charge the prices they demand. It is disheartening when people say, “Why do you charge so much?” or “it’s just clicking a button” and “my iPhone can take better pictures.” Ultimately, there is a reason why people seek out professionals to capture them.
People don’t realize the blood, sweat, and tears that creatives put into their craft. When you book a photographer, their pricing structure has to account for the team of people that help capture the event, software subscriptions, storage, and any rental equipment needed. Not to mention the time and experience behind creating quality photos. It’s important to remember that you aren’t just paying for a picture but its value and the value the photographer brings as the artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jvphotographyatl.com/
- Instagram: jvphotographyatl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JVPHOTOGRAPHYATL/