We recently connected with Michael Gillman and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

I would say that one of my heroes in my field would be my friend and fellow photographer, Marc Hunter. I had worked with alongside him for many years on various photoshoots before him and his wife moved to Texas.

He’s had a heavy influence on my outlook towards customer service, and still does to this day. Time after time, I’ve witnessed his generosity and willingness to work with client’s needs. He’s really taught me that, more than anything else, good communication with people and really listening is key to getting them exactly what they want goes a long way in retaining them as clients for, hopefully, years to come.

His influence has really driven the way I handle my clients through the years. As opposed to offering very specific packages with hard and fast rules about delivery, what they get, what they don’t, and when they get it, I talk to them. I do my best to learn exactly what they need, give them a reasonable time on when they will get the deliverables, and go over any extra details that may arise. I do my best to personalize someone’s experience. This is not to say the other method doesn’t have it’s merits and at times, and with some avenues of photography that require strict rules and guidelines, but this has been the way I’ve handled it for years and it’s really worked for me.

Any time I get a return client who wants more images, I often think of Marc and the lessons he’s taught me about great customer service and good communication.

Michael, 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?

As a child, I was always outdoors. Having grown up nestled in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia, I loved being outside. My father was extremely fond of being outdoors as well. He would take photos of my brother and I with his old film camera. Despite photography being part of our childhood, it wasn’t until later in life that I discovered photography, what it would mean to me going forward, and how it changed my life in the future.

After leaving the mountains of West Virginia and moving to North Carolina, I decided to purchase a small point and shoot camera on a whim and join a friend who had invited me to a photography meetup at the Duke University Gardens. I was instantly hooked.

I started taking a lot of landscape photos. I loved how taking photos allowed me to connect with nature. After about a year of this, I realized that photography was going to be a permanent part of my life. I decided to upgrade my camera and purchased my first DSLR. A Nikon D90. That was a game changer for me.

My interests in photographing other subjects and events grew quickly. I then started taking portraits of friends. It allowed me to connect with them in ways I hadn’t before. Shortly after, I was a second shooter at a wedding for a great friend of mine, Marc Hunter. I learned a lot from Marc and eventually started photographing weddings myself, from traditional American, to Hindu wedding ceremonies. I loved the diversity of it all. It was a great opportunity to learn and experience other culture’s traditions and customs.

It’s been an interesting, and amazing 12 years. These days, I find myself photographing Broadway, concerts, weddings, portraiture, landscape, street, and events, to which I’ve always enjoyed sharing with my dad while he was still with us.

I’ll be forever grateful to my supportive family, for friends who have cheered me on all of these years, for my mom who loves breaking out the old albums and showing us photos that my dad took of my brother and I, and most of all, for all of the photos I took of my parents while together that I get to share with the family.

I love photography, and I hope that each wedding I book, each portrait I take, each landscape I capture, and anything else I point my camera towards, that the love I have for the art shows through in my images.

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

I’m going to say the biggest thing would be just giving good customer service and word of mouth. Nice images are a dime a dozen, and there are a lot of great photographers out there. What will give you the edge is just going above and beyond with your customers! Interact with them during the shoot. Make it not only about the images, but the experience. Those good experiences get passed along on social media, to friends and family, and can really play a great part in building your market/audience.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Just creating. Creating is such a great outlet for me and a huger part of my life. In addition to photography, I also play guitar. I’ve played ever since I was a teenager. It wasn’t until a little later in life that I picked up photography.

As for the rewards, I love seeing the end products of any project I’m working on. Speaking mainly of photography, I love developing an idea of theme, planning to make it happen, executing the idea, editing the images, and finally, printing out the image/images that I’ve taken. The big reward for me is holding that tangible print in my hand! I do like posting my images to social media and the like, or updating my website with something new, but there’s just something about holding a tangible thing, like the print, that feels the most rewarding!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.michaelgillman.photogrpahy
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/michaelgillman.photogrpahy
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theexiffiles
• Other: https://vero.co/michaelgillmanphotography